Before we can properly understand China's new role - and indeed, make the most of it - the challenges facing the country must be addressed.

The ongoing FORTUNE Global Forum in Beijing offers world business leaders a close-up personal opportunity to observe the underlying changes that are shaping the fast growth of the Chinese economy.

It is the third time FORTUNE Magazine has held this kind of business summit in China. The first two were respectively held in Shanghai in 1999 and Hong Kong in 2001.

The extraordinary frequency of China-based brainstorming gatherings in itself speaks volumes about the growing eagerness of the outside world to learn more about this emerging economic powerhouse.

Robust growth and huge market potential have made China a buzzword in economic forums around the globe.

Last year, China's gross domestic product rose by 9.5 per cent year-on-year to 13.65 trillion yuan (US$1.65 trillion), showing that the country has been sailing swiftly along its long-term growth trajectory. The Chinese economy has grown around 9 per cent a year for more than 25 years, a growth rate unsurpassed by any other major economy.

When the FORTUNE Global Forum was held in Shanghai in 1999, the country was still struggling with the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis and was still not a member of the World Trade Organization.

At the time, even pessimism did not stop global business leaders from flying to Shanghai to look at the Chinese market.

Now, six years later, the country has developed itself into a widely recognized key growth engine for Asia and the world.

China has been a member of the world trade club for more than three years and successfully integrated itself with the world economy by opening to foreign investment and trade.

Last year's record trade volume - US$1.15 trillion - and foreign direct investment of US$60.6 billion bear full testimony to the rising status of the Chinese economy.

This can only mean that China is much better positioned to speed up its modernization drive, a course that has delivered and will continue to deliver prosperity within and beyond its borders.

But the different conditions also mean new challenges for China's sustainable development.

China has made remarkable steps in lifting its 1.3 billion population out of poverty with its reforms and opening-up policies. But today, a widening income gap tops the agenda of Chinese policy-makers. Clearly, a series of reforms to accelerate industrial restructuring and boost agricultural development is imperative.

Excessive investment in 2004 meant energy and resources were tested to the full, making the environment worse. It follows that an extensive growth pattern can no longer be an option.

To address these problems requires adoption of technologies, management and business thinking that might be new to Chinese firms but abundant in multinationals.

How China responds to these problems will, to a large extent, define the progress of its development.

Domestic and overseas businesses that are keen to jump onto the speeding China bandwagon must do more to take opportunities in the country's pursuit of sustainable economic development and social harmony in the new century.

(China Daily)