Interview: China hugely contributes to world economy, says Cambodian scholars

China has greatly contributed to the development of the world economy, even though it is still a developing country, scholars in Cambodia said Sunday.

"Chinese contributions to the world economy is enormous and unprecedented, despite the fact that China still considers itself as a developing country," Joseph Matthews, director of International Cooperation Department at the Asia Euro University in Phnom Penh, told Xinhua.

He said China's unconditional assistance in Africa, Latin America, as well as Southeast and South Asia in infrastructure, communication development and their socio-economic development is conspicuous and laudable.

China's assistance and contributions are "very high and globally appreciated," he said.

"Therefore, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was absolutely right in saying that you cannot take China for a free ride, it means that China is doing beyond its capacity and resources to help the third world and poor countries whereas 200 million Chinese are still living in poverty," he added.

Joseph expressed his views after Li said at a press conference in Beijing on Sunday after the conclusion of China's annual parliamentary session, that China is not a free rider and its development at a reasonable speed is huge contribution to the world.

The expert said China emerging as the second largest economy in the world and the No.1 economy in Asia is ample to prove that Chinese economy's fundamentals are very strong and capable of averting any financial crisis.

"That's why Premier Li has cut down GDP growth target from 7.5 percent to just 7 percent this year," he said. "It is a very realistic figure as the domestic market is cooling down after seeing a huge surge in the last few years."

Chheang Vannarith, a senior researcher at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said China has significantly contributed to the improvement of world economy.

"China helped other Asian economies to recover from the Asian financial crisis in 1997, assisted the Eurozone to recover from the Eurozone crisis in 2009," he said. "Recently, China initiated the New Silk Road and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to support regional infrastructure connectivity and regional economic integration."

Vannarith said the rise of the Chinese economy is the rise of the region and the world at large since China's prosperity has been shared with the world. Endi