Blog

China: 40 years of reform and opening-up (I)

A gist of the blog:

It has been 40 years since China implemented the reform and opening-up policies. Our country has achieved enormous and remarkable economic and social developments during this period and became the second largest economy in the world in 2010. The GDP of the Mainland of China has seen an explosive growth since 1978 and exceeded 80 trillion yuan (US$ 12 trillion, accounting for 15% of the global GDP). China’s total value of import and export has expanded 178 times since its opening-up, while the urbanisation rate gradually increased from 18 per cent to 57 per cent, substantially improving people’s living standard.

Over the past 40 years, Hong Kong has been contributing to China’s reform through serving the country with our strengths. Hong Kong has also been benefiting from the process and seized the opportunities to restructure our economy. During this period, Hong Kong’s GDP per capita increased over 10 times from US$3,900 to US$44,000. The admission of China to the World Trade Organisation in 2001 was another milestone in the integration of Mainland’s economy into the global economy. The process of globalisation and the subsequent “disintermediation” not only did not undermine Hong Kong’s important role but facilitated another round of structural transformation of Hong Kong’s economy.

January 14, 2018