Global Times: 'When China develops, the world benefits'; foreign envoys, companies express optimism in Chinese economy

BEIJING, March 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As China's ongoing two sessions project a positive, stabilizing message to the world, a number of foreign companies, institutions and envoys have expressed their upbeat view on China, with some announcing new investments in recent weeks to bank on China's vast market and the country's pledges on further opening up.

The annual national "two sessions," a highly anticipated event on China's political calendar, are being held in Beijing. On March 5, China set an annual GDP growth target of around 5 percent for 2025, according to the Government Work Report delivered to the National People's Congress (NPC) for deliberation.

A slew of other economic targets were also unveiled, with the deficit-to-GDP ratio being set at approximately 4 percent while the surveyed urban unemployment rate was targeted at around 5.5 percent.

Achievable targets

Salvador Moncada, Honduran ambassador to China who was among foreign envoys attending the NPC opening session this year, told the Global Times he believes the Chinese government must have carefully considered the GDP growth target and that he is confident that China will achieve this goal in the current economic environment.

"It would be a pretense for me to judge a number that has been, I'm sure, carefully calculated and can be accomplished given the circumstances," said the Honduran ambassador, adding that the 5 percent growth will contribute significantly to global growth.

In the Government Work Report, "high-quality development" was mentioned multiple times. In the view of Peru's Ambassador to China Marco Vinicio Balarezo Lizarzaburu, "China has entered a new phase of high-quality development."

"When China develops, other countries such as Peru also benefit," Balarezo said, noting that China has established the first Luban Workshop, a Chinese vocational education program, in Peru and the workshop is training local workers who understand lithium batteries and new-energy vehicles (NEV) manufacturing technology to provide a workforce for future bilateral cooperation in green industries.

Evaluating China's GDP growth target, Khalil Hashmi, Pakistani Ambassador to China, told the Global Times that he is confident the 2025 target will be met.

"We know that for a large and mature economy like China with nearly $18 trillion GDP, it is no longer possible to grow at double-digit. I think among the major economies, 5 percent growth is very significant and this is almost double the average of other mature economies," he said.

The Pakistani ambassador explained that he thinks the 5 percent goal is achievable because the right micro economic policies and monetary policies are in place.

"There is a high degree of optimism and confidence that economic growth and economic growth target of 5 percent is certainly achievable," Hashmi said, noting that appropriate macro-economic and monetary policies, fiscal and foreign trade policies, and investment priorities have made him optimistic about China's economic outlook.

The targeted increment of China's GDP in 2025, which will be equal to that of a mid-sized economy, will continue to contribute to the global economy which has yet to fully recover from the pandemic, Tian Xuan, a deputy to the National People's Congress and associate dean of Tsinghua University's PBC School of Finance, told the Global Times.

Tech innovation in focus

The Government Work Report has offered insights on China's development with a strong focus on technology and innovation, foreign analysts and envoys pointed out.

Fostering sci-tech innovation has become a key buzzword in the Government Work Report, according to media reports. Also, the country has announced that it will allocate a greater share of science and technology expenditures to basic research.

"There will be more focus on tech innovation. The meeting pledges to bolster tech innovation by improving market ecosystem, and increase support for AI applications and new generation of intelligent terminals (NEVs, AI-enabled phones and PCs, and humanoids) ... We think tech animal spirits may return," Robin Xing, chief China economist at Morgan Stanley, said in a statement sent to the Global Times.

China has become a powerhouse of innovation, with a strong and comprehensive ecosystem that includes hardware, software and AI, Airbus China CEO George Xu told the Global Times on Sunday.

In particular, the booming low-altitude economy will further boost China's general aviation market, and benefit the development of the helicopter market, the general aviation industry and its overall ecosystem, Xu said.

Dassault Systèmes, a French software multinational, has been closely monitoring policies related to China's high-quality development and technological innovation goals, with a focus on advancing the digital economy, green and low-carbon transformation, and the deep integration of frontier technologies like AI, industrial software, and the real economy.

"In 2025, China will remain the global core engine of innovation and industrial modernization, and Dassault Systèmes maintains strong confidence in the long-term development of the Chinese market," Zhang Ying, managing director of Greater China with Dassault Systèmes, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"Biomedicine is of great interest since this is now an area of priority and innovation is occurring in the areas of generating new molecules guided by AI, clinical trials and integration of traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine," said Moncada, Honduran Ambassador to China.

Investing in China

In recent days, foreign investors have increasingly turned their attention to the burgeoning opportunities in AI and robotics in China.

In a sign of such an interest, about 100 foreign institutions have been researching China's A-share listed companies since February, conducting surveys of more than 60 listed companies, domestic financial newspaper the Shanghai Securities Journal reported in February.

Multiple foreign financial institutions and their analysts have drawn great confidence in their prospects in the Chinese market from the ongoing two sessions.

These happened as pleasant surprises pop out in a succession since the start of 2025, from DeepSeek's chatbot to UniTree's humanoid robot, according to Tian.

"For many multinational companies, China is and will remain an important market. China is too big to be missed - as a critical source of revenue and profitability," Denis Depoux, global managing director of Roland Berger, a German business consulting firm, told the Global Times.

China today is not only a manufacturing powerhouse but also a global innovation powerhouse, Depoux said.

Many companies also translated their bullish outlook into investment actions.

Global investors have bought up $2 billion of Chinese stocks in January, as well as $8.1 billion worth of debt purchase, according to a report from the Institute of International Finance on February 18.

At the start of 2025, Morgan Stanley announced that Morgan Stanley Futures (China) Co, a wholly owned subsidiary, had officially commenced business to provide brokerage services for China's onshore commodity futures. Standard Chartered Securities China said its Shanghai branch had obtained a license to conduct securities and other businesses in China.

On March 3, US hotel giant Marriott International opened its 600th property in Greater China with the opening of the 289-room The St. Regis Shenzhen Bao'an, as the company "continues to focus on development opportunities" in China, according to a press release the hospitality provider sent to the Global Times.

Singapore-based Singapore Perennial Holdings opened up China's first wholly foreign-owned, third-grade general hospital, in North China's Tianjin Municipality on February 26. The 500-bed hospital, developed and equipped at a cost of 1 billion yuan ($138 million), is positioned to tap the rising and diversified medical care demand by Chinese citizens.

SOURCE Global Times