As the G20 Financial Summit in Washington ended with a joint communiqué, prominent Chinese economist and government advisor, Cheng Siwei, told the second International CEO Roundtable of Chinese and Overseas Multinationals that China should sort out its own problems before helping others.
He reminded his audience that China is still a developing country and, despite the high expectations of the international community, is not strong enough to play the leading role in solving the crisis.
Tasked with feeding the largest population in the world, China has to keep its economy growing to create jobs domestically, the economist said.
"China should and will shoulder partial responsibility for the current situation," said Cheng. "But the priority at present is to solve domestic problems such as unemployment and slowing economic growth, instead of jumping in hastily to help others."
He said that although China has made much ground over the past three decades since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, the country still only accounts for six percent of the world's aggregate economy.
The economist also said that the crisis also offers opportunities. Under economic pressure, China has shown signs of moving away from its previous growth pattern and industrial structure, placing more emphasis on conserving energy, environmental protection, building up social security, and rural infrastructure.
"Globally, the economic downturn will make for deeper regional economic integration because a single country is more vulnerable to the financial crisis," he added. "On the other hand, we will inevitably see reform of the international financial system and tougher financial regulation as a power shift begins."
(China.org.cn by He Shan, November 17, 2008)
