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Interview: "I have confidence in China's future": Australian economist

Xinhua, June 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

"I have confidence in China's future because I've seen convincing signs that China's economic transition is going well," an Australian economist said on Sunday.

The pace of economic reform has clearly picked up over the past year, James Laurenceson, deputy director of the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI), University of Technology, Sydney, said in a written interview with Xinhua.

"The barriers to entry for private sector firms have fallen, and the emphasis now is on innovation and entrepreneurship rather than state-owned enterprises and mass production," he said.

"That is exactly the right priority if China is to break through into high-income status," he added.

Laurenceson reminded people of the fact that while China's growth rate has slowed in percentage terms, it continues to add roughly the same number of dollars each year. So even in the "new normal," the Chinese economy is still in a healthy state and creating new jobs.

"The second thing to remember is that the slowdown is planned and the purpose is to allow the economy to grow sustainably over the longer term," he noted.

"I think we are seeing convincing signs that this transition is going well. For example, China's growth is now much more dependent upon domestic rather than foreign demand compared with five years ago," he said.

As for the anti-corruption campaign, Laurenceson said the empirical evidence is very clear that corruption hampers long-run growth. "So again, I see progress made on this front as being a positive for China's economic future."

About the reports that some corrupt officials may have tried to hide in Australia, he said: "Australia has no interest in hosting corrupt money. So on this point Australia and China's interests align."

A red notice of 100 Chinese fugitives of corrupted officials and economic crime convicts was issued through Interpol. Documents and records show some of them are in Australia.

Laurenceson is also confident in better China-Australia relations, especially after the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement was signed earlier this month and Australia decided to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Australia has officially announced that it has become a founding member of the China-proposed bank, contributing 930 million Australian dollars (718 million U.S. dollars) as paid-in capital to the bank over five years to become its sixth largest shareholder. Endi