Speech by Liu Wei, president of RUC, in the Chinese Macroeconomy Forum (CMF) (2021-2022)

      Liu Wei, president of Renmin University of China (RUC) delivered a speech in the Chinese Macroeconomy Forum (CMF) (2021-2022). The following are some main points.

2021 is a year of sustained recovery and normalization of China's economy. In the face of shocks such as the spread of the pandemic and extreme weather, the Chinese economy has shown strong resilience to growth. Employment has improved, personal income has risen rapidly, structural adjustment has made steady progress, and development quality and efficiency have continued to improve. At the same time, China's GDP surpassed 100 trillion yuan, which means that China's economic strength, scientific and technological strength and overall national strength have jumped to a new level.

In terms of domestic production, China has maintained a dynamic balance between growth rate and development quality, thus stimulating high-quality development of production. From the demand side, the expanding domestic demand promotes the steady growth of consumption scale. From an international perspective, China continues to make contributions to the world economic recovery.

In the new stage of development, we can see that China's future economic development and structural upgrading are facing three prominent strategic opportunities. First, the scientific and technological revolution and industrial revolution represented by new technologies. Second, green transformation led by "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality". Third, the demand structure of China's super-large market has been upgraded. Of course, while recognizing major strategic opportunities, we should also have a deep understanding of the challenges facing economic restructuring and upgrading. On the one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world, the global economic downturn continues, trade frictions continue, China-U.S. relations are tense, and the political game between major powers is intensifying. The external environment for China's economic operation is not optimistic. On the other hand, the recovery of domestic demand is still not sufficient, the structure of supply and demand is still unbalanced, regional differentiation is still obvious, and it is urgent to cultivate the domestic great cycle.

Days before, the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee was successfully held. CPC plenum passed a landmark resolution of the Communist Party of China. The resolution calls on the whole Party and the Chinese people to take history as a mirror, open up to the future and achieve greater victory and glory on our new journey in the new era. In order to further promote transformation and upgrading of China's economic structure, we need to base ourselves on the new stage of development, carry out the new development concept and build a new development pattern, promote the development of high quality, firmly grasp the long-term positive trend of the Chinese economy, coordinate all the macroeconomic policy and industrial policy, promote the efficient allocation of resources, get ready for cross-period adjustment and strengthen the growth potential to provide solid support for the steady recovery of the Chinese economy.