Interview: China remains powerhouse of world economy: officials

Despite some economic headwinds externally and domestically, China is still the powerhouse of the world economy, said Zhang Jiming, minister counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Britain.

"We are confident about that, while risks and challenges exist, there will be no economic hard-landing in China," Zhang said in a China investor roadshow hosted by Bloomberg on Tuesday.

China's economy will continue to grow at a medium-to-high rate for a considerable period of time, and the "Belt and Road" initiative will continue to be part of China's story of bountiful opportunities for the world, he added.

The "Belt and Road" initiative and "Made in China 2025" strategy are among the highlights of the draft outline of China's 13th Five-Year Plan on national economic and social development unveiled Saturday during the annual session of the National People's Congress.

Zhang said China's economy is resilient and has enormous potential and ample room for growth due to its market size, human resources, scale and pace of urbanization, and the economic favorables remain unchanged and will not change.

Efforts in structural reform and changing development model are also making headway, he said.

"Consumption now accounts for 66 percent of China's growth. The service sector makes up more than half of China's GDP. Emerging innovation and entrepreneurship nationwide is creating new momentum, and the hi-tech industry grows much faster than the overall industrial sector," Zhang said.

Meanwhile, Zhang noted that the country's income increase has exceeded its GDP growth rate.

"More than 10 million new jobs are created every year," and environment deterioration is being kept under control, he added.

According to the 13th Five-year Plan and the 2016 government work report, China's GDP will maintain a medium-high rate of growth, with an average annual rate above 6.5 percent for 2016-2020 and a growth rate of 6.5 percent to 7 percent for 2016.

"The Plan features a new concept of development, namely pursuing innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development. It maps out China's way to go across the 'middle income trap' and to integrate deeper into the world economy," he said.

Echoing Zhang's remarks, Chief Representative of The People's Bank of China Representative Office Jin Mei said that reform and opening up has been injecting new impetus in China's economic growth, and a wealth of experience has been gained in exploring new ways of macroeconomic management.

"The momentum sustaining China at medium-high growth has not changed," she added.

While talking about internationalization of the Chinese currency RMB, she said China will continue to realize RMB convertibility under capital account in an orderly manner.

"We will allow more overseas institutions to issue RMB bonds onshore, encourage domestic financial institutions and enterprises to issue RMB bonds offshore, invite first-rate overseas enterprises to issue stocks onshore," she added.

The global roadshow themed "China: Navigate the New Silk Road" aims to update investors and financial professionals on China's currency outlook and investment landscape.

In its fifth year, Bloomberg's China investor roadshow will expand to over 12 cities worldwide in 2016 including New York, Frankfurt, Paris, Dubai, Tokyo, Singapore and Mumbai. Endi