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China's economic slowdown normal process towards sustainability: German business group

Xinhua, January 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

The slowdown of China's economic growth was a normal process towards sustainability where great business opportunities would be created, said a leading German business group on Thursday.

"The development in China has confirmed that a long-lasting growth over 10 percent could not be sustainable," said Hubert Lienhard, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business (APA) in a press conference in Berlin.

"We are currently witnessing a normalization," he said.

Affected by a sluggish global growth and an internal economic transition, China's gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 6.9 percent in 2015, the slowest annual expansion in 25 years, but in line with the government's target.

The country launched a "supply-side" reform late last year, aiming at reducing noneffective and low-end supply, improving products and service quality and boosting productivity by innovation. It was one of the measures taken by the government to shift the economic driving force from exports and investment to consumption.

"The reorientation of the economy to sustainability also poses great opportunities for German companies," Lienhard added, "especially for high-quality products and cutting-edge technology for environmental and resource-friendly production."

Over 5,000 German companies run business in China, Germany's biggest trading partner outside Europe.

APA expected Asia to remain as the most important growth region in the world for German companies in 2016. In the region, "China will remain at the center," Lienhard said. Endit