China's 'supply-side structural reform' to solidify bedrock for sustainable development

More efficient, better growth

Further shifting China's focus on the quality instead of quantity of the economy, a supply-side structural reform attaches more importance to structural adjustment and innovation in technology and the system in a bid to make the economic structure more efficient.

The Indian newspaper Economic Times paid attention to China's reformative move.

"As the effectiveness of boosting growth on the demand side, the government has started to reform the supply-side to make effective use of production factors, including funds, resources, skilled workers, equipment and technologies," it quoted China Daily as saying in a recent report.

El Pais, a Spanish newspaper, noted that China is attempting to shift its growth model from one dependent on exporting low value-added products and government investment to one driven by domestic demand, innovation and the service industry.

In addition, overseas experts have observed that China's implementation of the supply-side structural reform also serves its long-term need of sustainable development as well as avoiding the "middle-income trap."

According to the World Bank standard, China has already become a middle-income country, but a higher ranking requires the Asian nation to register a per capita GDP higher than $12,000 and escape the so-called "middle-income trap."

Data revealed that since 1960, out of 101 countries and regions which had managed to be categorized as middle-income economies, only 13 became high-income ones later.

Those that did not reach the high-income category had failed to achieve a technological breakthrough, make economic structural adjustments or innovate their systems. However, a supply-side structural reform may be the answer.

Peter Drysdale, economist and editor at the East Asia Forum at the Australian National University, was confident about China's progress, describing its transition as "so far so remarkably good."

Despite the massive size of the country, "China has enjoyed a faster transition to middle income than any country before it," he said.