"Every country, every region in the world is planning their economy for the long term as China does. This is the most important lesson that we need to learn from China," Paulo Feldmann, Professor of Economics at the University of São Paulo and Author of Management in Latin America: Threats and Opportunities in the Globalized World, told GDToday in an exclusive interview.
China's AI, electric cars, and pharmaceuticals to attract more foreign investment
China sets the 2024 GDP growth target at around 5 percent at the "two sessions". Feldmann believes that China has an important weight of growth in 2024 because "even the IMF changed its forecast and concluded that China will really grow more than what was expected last year. China is one of the best places to invest for every country."
According to the government work report submitted Tuesday to the national legislature for deliberation, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), private enterprises, and foreign-funded enterprises are all important forces in China's modernization.
Vowing to remain firm in deepening reform, the report said China will work to spur dynamism of all kinds of market entities. The country will build more world-class enterprises and fully implement the guidelines on facilitating the growth of the private sector and their supporting measures, the report said.
Feldmann said, "ten years ago, it was the moment of investment in infrastructure. But now we have another kind of investment that the world likes to do in China, especially in areas of very high technology, where China is very strong, such as artificial intelligence, electric cars, and pharmaceuticals." Meanwhile, he said the fact that China has a huge market will continue to attract foreign companies related to retail.
Feldmann is optimistic that China-US trade relations are going to improve. "The fact that the United States was very protectionist was an issue for China, but the situation is different now. So the discussions between the American government and the Chinese government show that they are improving the situation."
Latin America expected to cooperate with China in fields including infrastructure, education etc.
Poverty has long been an issue haunting Latin America. Given China's poverty reduction achievement, Feldmann suggested that South America needs more cooperation with China in terms of the market, generation of employment, as well as the reduction of poverty and hunger.
Infrastructure is one of Latin America's most important issues. Feldmann said the countries in Latin America need to have more railways, roads, and electrical energy generation to improve productivity and create employment.
"China is the most important expert in the world in terms of building infrastructure. That's the biggest collaboration that China should have with us to support Latin America in the area of infrastructure."
Moreover, education collaboration is another important area that Feldmann focuses on. "It will be very important for us to have better relations with Chinese universities." Taking the University of São Paulo as an example, which has relations with Chinese universities, especially Fudan University in Shanghai, Feldman looks forward to exploring greater opportunities between China and Latin America.
Reporter | Hannah
Video | Wingheng
Script | Hannah
Poster | Lulu
Editor | Olivia, Steven, Will, James
