Balanced view of China's rise urged

China has been achieving good results from its recent financial reforms while becoming the world's second-largest economy, and the world should have a balanced attitude toward China's growth, experts said.

The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as well as China's One Belt One Road Initiative will help China engage in more multilateral economic collaborations, they added.

The points were made during a panel discussion on international economic governance and China's rise at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Wednesday.

The discussion started with the widely voiced concerns about the recent slow down in China's economic growth, as well as the turmoil on China's stock market.

David Dollar, a senior research fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings, said that even though some of the comments from the West have been negative, people should stay balanced in their view of China's economic development.

"China has made real progress in its re-balancing," Dollar said. "The service sector is growing fast and making it easier for enterprises to register. And there has been a big surge in private enterprise registration. China's economy is transforming from investment-driven to more by consumption-driven. I think they will be close to their 7 percent growth target."

Eswar Prasad, senior fellow and new century chair in international trade and economics at the Brookings, said even though China's financial reform is moving slowly, it is moving in the right direction. He also said that the China-led AIIB will help the country better engage in the world economy, as well as create a better investment environment.

"China is a large economically powerful country. And from what I have seen in the last couple of years, China is using a very disciplined way of engaging the world. I think setting up institutions like AIIB is a better approach for China," Prasad said. "By designing the rules of international economic governance, China is not only aspiring to follow the rules and exert more influence, but many existing institutions can get more competitive to create a better investment environment."

Experts attending Tuesday's panel discussion also included Kenneth Lieberthal, senior fellow at the Brookings. He agreed that the world should keep a positive attitude towards China's efforts to pursue multi-lateral channels.

"After all, China is one of the biggest financial supporters of the World Bank, the IMF and the other existing institutions," Dollar said.

"The IMF and World Bank are founded on a shareholder basis and there is an argument that these institutions should be run by leading world economies so they are dominated by developed countries. But things have changed, half of the world's GDP is dominated by developing countries," Dollar said.

Pan Jialiang in Washington contributed to this story.

zhangyue@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 10/02/2015 page2)