Optimism mixed with caution

As the government reiterated its intention to pump prime growth, China Daily reporters spoke to a cross-section of people from various industry segments to understand their views and impressions of the economy.

Yu Weidong 45, vendor on taobao.com, from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province

The time when you could open an online store and expect people to come rushing in with money to spend has gone. At Taobao, where people can buy almost everything, the competition has become tougher as more and more retailers are setting up online stores.

Luckily, my online business is doing fairly well because I am selling something quite new on Taobao: Omamental plants and seeds. Compared with popular items sold online, such as cloth and food, what I sell is part of the emerging agriculture sector on Taobao, which means it is a new territory with lots of growth potential.

Sales in my online store doubled during the first six months of this year to 8 million yuan ($1.29 million). I believe that the business can become bigger in the future as a lot of farmers still buy seeds from traditional offline stores. I am sure that once they get to know the benefits of purchasing farm products online, they will switch to online shopping.

Farm products sold online are cheaper than those sold in traditional stores. In addition, shopping online gives the customer much wider choices and products to choose from. The major stumbling block for growth of online sales is fake products. Unlike consumers products, which customers can return if found to be fake, farmers who buy fake fertilizer or fake seeds can hardly spot the problem until it is too late.

Wang Jinsong A 35-year-old driver with Uber Technologies Inc

I have been driving cars for Uber since December. At first, I earned a lot, almost 20,000 yuan ($3,225) a month. But with more drivers in the fray now, our bonuses have dwindled. Though I work eight hours a day, I only earn 9,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan a month. What troubles me the most is that many people place fake orders to earn subsidies from the company. This has disrupted my business. Last week, the car-hailing platform sent me 31 booking orders but I only picked up 11 passengers. About 70 percent of the bookings were canceled even before I picked up the phone. They are fake bookings. This really irritates me. I hope Uber can quickly fix the problem. As an increasing number of people turn to Uber for rides, I believe it is only a matter of time before I start earning 20,000 yuan a month again. Besides, I hope the government can officially allow private drivers, like me, to offer for-profit trips for consumers.

Wang Hong president, Risen Energy Co Ltd, a solar panel producer

The overall economic conditions normally bring some pressure to our business. However, the recent policies and subsidies have been supportive to the industry and as such we are not feeling the pinch. We quadrupled our profits during the first six months of the year, even as the industry rebounded from a prolonged downturn.

Our company, based in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, raked in more than 100 million yuan ($16 million) in profit from January to June, and is expected to surpass that amount of profit in the second half of this year. I think it will be even better in the second half, because we did lots of preparation work for the first half, and it's time to harvest at the end of this year. But challenges such as how to connect electricity generated by the solar-powered station to the national grid and find financing channels are still hurdles, despite the government's efforts to promote clean energies.

Zhang Cheng 33, CEO of Xiaoma Finance

China's real economy saw lots of turbulence during the first six months of the year. Our company, an online peer-to-peer lending and wealth management service provider, saw a significant fall in the financing demands from micro and small-sized enterprises during the period. Some of our clients are doing small businesses, such as selling leather jackets at wholesale markets. Though loan demands have fallen, the sensitivity toward lending rates has increased.

Two years ago, a large number of micro and small-sized companies accepted a one-year lending rate of around 18 percent, but now the rate is between 12 to 15 percent. The bright side of the picture is that the central government has given a lot of support to the new economy, including Internet finance. People are attaching greater importance to economic efficiency and for better allocation of social resources. Both of these moves will bring fundamental changes to our society.

Most of the entrepreneurs, no matter which sector they come from, are planning to adopt new business models that are reliant on Internet technologies. Although the economy may stabilize in the next six months, it will take some time for the new economy to have an effect. The domestic capital market is expected to increase long-term investment in new economy.

Frank Liao general manager of Changzhou Haike New Energy Tech Co Ltd

As a high-tech startup and a supplier of power train systems for clean energy vehicles, our company is not very sensitive to raw material or commodity price movements, unlike conventional auto-part suppliers. The government's policies on clean-energy vehicles have more to do with our business. Sales of renewable-energy vehicles more than doubled in the first half from a year earlier, and that is good news for us. Also, tougher emissions standards for vehicles will take effect next year, and this will push automakers to attach greater attention to renewable technologies and give a fillip to companies like ours with cutting-edge technologies.

My largest concern is whether China's equity market will remain stable in the next two or three years. Fund raising remains a thorny issue for startups as most projects are unable to gain long-term support from venture capital investors. There are lots of ongoing negotiations for mergers and acquisitions in the industry, stimulated by the stock market boom and soaring market value of companies. We are already in such kind of negotiations with some listed companies. We hope the stock market recovers during the second half. A bull market would provide more financing instruments.

Ji Xingzhuo chairman of Sparkle Roll Airlines

Though the business jet industry witnessed growth during the first six months of the year, it was marginal and not enough for such a huge market like China. There were more leisure travelers than business passengers and they preferred tailor-made tours by business jets. The consumption level is going up in China as more passengers want to take business jets to tourism destinations, especially to places that are not connected by civil aviation. I hope that the government would take steps to boost aviation infrastructure, especially the number of general airports in the country. This is something that has been hampering the industry development.

Shen Zhangxiang 33, manager of Hidden House, a high-end guesthouse in Daijia mountain of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province

China's economy brimmed with optimism during the first six months of the year, especially in the services sector. Higher dispensable incomes have triggered a growth in investments on leisure activities and more people are now spending their weekends or vacations at high-end getaways in suburban areas.

Our guesthouse has been generating steady revenue since it was set up a year ago. I left a promising white-collar job to start the business with some friends. There have also been many others who left their jobs and started their own businesses in the accommodation sector. Such efforts will help boost the development of the industry.

I expect the government to issue more supportive policies for individual business startups in the tertiary industry. Based on the guesthouse's performance for the second quarter and reservations in July and August, I expect the economy to remain positive in the second half, especially in the tertiary industry.

Zhang Qing founder of the Beijing-based Key-Sports consulting agency

China's economic performance during the first six months is one of steady growth with slight fluctuations. Fitness, body building and other physical activities, one of the best ways for coping with stress, rose during the slight fluctuations. On the other hand, jogging and regular visits to the gym are becoming a necessary part of middle-class life in China. In addition, the sports sector has shown signs of steady growth in the past six months.

I believe the Chinese economy will further regain its strength in the second half and exhibit more potential, especially in the sports industry, due to the growing emphasis on good health and physical well-being.

Wang Cheng 27, a capital market investor for more than five years

China has been undergoing an economic transition. Traditional sectors such as steel, coal and real estate have not been faring well, gauging by their relatively weak performance in the A-share market. Emerging sectors, such as information technology, environmental protection and high-end manufacturing, still have good prospects, judging by their popularity among investors.

With the A-share market exhibiting a bullish trend during the first six months, there was considerable growth in consumption and income of investors.

I think the biggest challenge for China would be to ensure that the economic transition brings success in its wake. I am quite hopeful that this would result in a steady GDP growth and greater national wealth. The government should come out with the right laws and regulations for various sectors and boost the healthy development of the stock market.

Li Qi vice-president of Beijing-based data analytics firm AdTime

I think it was a big achievement for the government to keep the growth rate above 7 percent considering that exports, investment and domestic consumption remained weak during the period. China is looking for new growth engines and the use of new technologies and measures like the Internet Plus strategy will help maintain the momentum.

Going forward, we will see a wider integration of information technology with more traditional industries. Our data analysis tools will boost the efficiency of local customers and enable them to better tackle competition from global players.