By Zhang Jiegen 

 

 

BEIJING, Mar 6 (China Economic Net) - The "Two Sessions" of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) are held as scheduled in Beijing. Amid growing economic uncertainty, a continued fight against COVID-19, and a complex international landscape, this year's "Two Sessions" have attracted a lot of attention not only in China but around the globe. 

 

On March 5, Premier Li Keqiang delivered the annual government work report before the NPC deputies, which reviews the Chinese economy in 2021 and provides a roadmap for China’s economic and social development in 2022. According to the report, in spite of pressure and challenges arising from the changing economic environment at home and abroad, China’s economy maintained sound development momentum and achieved outstanding performance with many highlights in 2021. 

 

In 2021, China’s GDP expanded 8.1 percent year-on-year to RMB 114 trillion, equivalent to US$17.7 trillion at the yearly?average exchange rate, accounting for more than 18% of the world economy and contributing about 25% to global growth. It is particularly worth mentioning that though global economic and trade cooperation has experienced setbacks, China has bucked the trend and firmly expanded opening-up with the?commitment to safeguarding stable global industrial and supply chains. In 2021, the total value of China’s trade in goods was RMB 39.1 trillion (US$ 6.19 trillion),up 21.4% year-on-year, hitting a new record high. China’s actual use of foreign capital last year exceeded the RMB 1 trillion mark (US$158.3 billion) for the first time, reaching RMB 1.15 trillion (US$182 billion) with an increase of 14.9%, the first double-digit growth rate in nearly a decade. This indicates that foreign investors are fully confident in the opportunities offered by China’s broad market and its sound business environment.

 

In 2022, Premier Li announced that China’s GDP growth target will be about 5.5 %. Though this growth goal is the lowest in more than three decades, it’s above consensus forecasts closer to 5% and far higher than the International Monetary Fund’s projection of a 4.8% expansion. For the year 2022, the nation will strive to create at least 11 million jobs in the urban areas and maintain surveyed urban unemployment rate at below 5.5 percent. The government has set its inflation target at around 3 percent for 2022, and the ratio of its deficit to GDP at around 2.8 percent for 2022, slightly lower than last year. To achieve these targets, China will actively increase imports of quality products and services, and explore new ways to develop trade in services and digital trade.

 

As Pakistani Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque said, the “Two Sessions” are “very important because China is an important country, the second-largest economy in the world. So whatever decisions are taken in these sessions can have not only an impact on the Chinese economy but also on the global economy”. When it comes to the China-Pakistan cooperation, we can get a lot of useful information from the annual government work report 2022, in which the key word “high-level opening up” is very important. In the report, Premier Li said that China will continue to pursue high-level opening up and promote stable growth of foreign trade and investment, adopt a package of steps to stabilize foreign trade and make greater use of foreign investment, and that efforts will be made to ensure observance of the negative list for foreign investment and national treatment for all foreign-invested enterprises in the country. "The vast, open Chinese market is sure to provide even greater business opportunities for foreign enterprises in China," the premier said.

 

The high-level opening up is keeping pace with the times because the world economy has entered a new period of higher-level cooperation and competition. China-Pakistan bilateral cooperation should also follow this trend. In the long run, China’s high-level opening up will facilitate China-Pakistan cooperation at least in the following three major aspects.

 

Firstly, it will contribute to a shift of Pakistani geo-economics and the economic security agenda. Pakistan now is striving to transfer its focus on geopolitics and traditional security. However, it still faces the security threat from a major power in its east and a destabilized Afghanistan in its west. Then the best choice for Pakistan is to “looking to China”, fully exploring the dividends of China-Pakistan “all-weather friendship”. As an important neighbor of China, Pakistan will definitely benefit from China’s burgeoning market. What’s more, high-standard opening-up means that China will be deeply engaged in international cooperation in the new areas including green and low-carbon development and digital economy, which are also high on the agenda of Pakistan.

 

Secondly, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will usher in a new development opportunity. 

 

As Premier Li pointed out, “China will also promote high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and deepen multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation”. CPEC is also entering the high-quality development phase with a focus on industrial and agricultural cooperation, signaling a more important role CPEC will play in regional connection. In 2021, a growing number of Chinese enterprises entered Pakistan with the efficient expansion of projects in the Gwadar port and local industrial parks built by Chinese companies. Under the vision of high-level opening up,

 

China has been encouraging more enterprises, especially private enterprises, to venture abroad. So we believe that more and more Chinese enterprises will participate in CPEC and invest in Pakistan.

 

Thirdly, China-Pakistan bilateral trade will have a promising prospect. 

 

With the development of CPEC and the implementation of the Second Phase Protocol of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement, China’s high-level opening up will bring a larger market and lay a more solid foundation for upgrading China-Pakistan bilateral trade. In 2021, bilateral trade between China and Pakistan, and Pakistan's exports to China, have both increased at record levels. According to the annual government work report 2022, China will make full use of international and domestic markets and resources, and continue to expand international economic and trade cooperation. In the Joint Statement between China and Pakistan issued last month, the two sides agreed to further consolidate and expand bilateral trade relations by fully utilizing the 2nd Phase of Pakistan-China Free Trade Agreement. Under the consensus between China and Pakistan, the bilateral trade will develop faster under the background of China’s high-level opening up.