by Misbah Saba Malik

ISLAMABAD, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Commenting on China recording an 18.3 percent GDP growth year on year in the first quarter (Q1), Pakistani experts said persistent efforts, long-term policies and hard work have been the driving forces behind the achievement.

The result marked a V-shaped growth for China's gross domestic product as compared to a 6.8 percent contraction year on year in Q1 2020.

"The GDP rise is not a one-year or one-day event, but there is a history of hard work and persistent efforts for the past many decades," Muhammad Asif Noor, director of the Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies, Islamabad said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"The era of 40 years of reform and opening up has immensely contributed towards the overall economic growth of China, and also helped its economy to bounce back after COVID-19-triggered decline," he noted.

Speaking of China coming out stronger out of difficulties, he said that based on past experiences China has made its mechanism, policy directions and economic structures to be shock resistant to traditional or non-traditional security threats, enabling itself to recover faster than the rest of the world.

Noor said China was the first country to bring COVID-19 under control through collective efforts, and after containing the pandemic in a short time, it gradually started to reopen its market which contributed in the bouncing back of its economy.

"During pandemic times, China further enhanced its production and quality of the medical goods, services and equipment through the use of efficient, new technological advancements and as a result, it defeated the pandemic at home through advancement in medical technologies that has been creating global attention and demands for the supplies," he said.

Through advancements in the medical supplies and tech industry, China is leading in and creating opportunities for the business hence increasing its GDP, he added.

Concerning the 21.4 percent surge year on year in China's trade with countries along the Belt and Road in Q1, Noor described it as an encouraging news for the countries involved as it indicated that despite the pandemic, trade within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) participants continued and increased.

The public health collaboration among the BRI countries also supported economic stability and budget savings in many including Pakistan which initiated its vaccination drive thanks to China-donated vaccines, he said, adding that this showed the China has not only kept its growth momentum despite the impact from the pandemic but also helped other economies to recover.

Calling the Chinese government's measures a major contributor to the economic rebound in China, Ghulam Samad, senior research specialist at the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Institute, said that because of its long-term policies, the Chinese government was capable of releasing ample cash in the market at the time when it already spent a lot to control the viral disease spread.

"At the time when other countries of the world were cash-strapped in the wake of pandemic, the Chinese government had enough bucks in the coffers to drip in the market, which played a great role in GDP recovery," he said.

Samad added that despite the COVID-19 outbreak, China has persistently followed its policy of opening up and market reforms, and opened up new free trade zones to attract investment and enhance exports in 2020, which contributed to the GDP growth.

He said that 2021 marks the beginning of the 14th five-year-plan of the Chinese government and an impressive start of the year will help it further implement structural reforms to achieve the targets set in the plan.

"Almost all of the industrial sector is open in China due to the timely measures taken by the government to control the disease, and after the completion of the vaccination process in the country, the services sector is expected to bounce back with more power and give a momentum to the increasing GDP," Samad remarked. Enditem

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