George Soros, the world-famous investor and currency speculator, said Sunday he believes China will be the first country to recover from the global financial crisis.

"I believe China has been recovering and its pace of recovery will be faster than the rest of the world," said Soros in a speech at Fudan University in Shanghai. "China should play a constructive role in the reconstruction of the global economic system and have a bigger voice in it."

He noted China's economy was badly hurt by the contraction of international trade but that the country fought back with the implementation of its aggressive stimulus package and plans to extend domestic spending and overseas investment.

"China is a positive force when the world economic and political orders are in disarray and it will grow faster than most people expect," he said.

Soros said the world's economic system will be profoundly changed by the financial turmoil.

He expected "a new world" would be built once the global financial downturn is over but said so far he could not see signs of revival in the world economy.

"It is a super-bubble, caused by blind expansion of credit to entice consumers to spend more than they own. Nothing like this has happened since the Great Depression and the problem is deeply rooted in the financial system," said Soros, who supports reflexivity, a theory refuting the idea that the market is fundamentally self-correcting.

Soros made his fortune by several extremely successful currency-speculation bids.

In 1992, Soros sold short on pounds and benefited from the Bank of England's reluctance to either raise interest rates or to float its currency. In 1997, Soros also cashed in on the Asian financial crisis through his hedge fund.

Soros is the founder of Soros Fund Management and co-founder of the Quantum Fund. He is famous for his boldness and the accuracy of his investment decisions.

(Shanghai Daily June 8, 2009)