On March 26, the China Development Forum 2023 Annual Meeting opened in Beijing. Zheng Shanjie, Director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at the meeting that over the decade of the new era, China's economy has withstood numerous risks and challenges, achieved historic accomplishments, and undergone historic changes. At present, China's economy is maintaining steady progress with an overall positive trend.

Zheng Shanjie, Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated:

● From the supply side, there has been steady improvement: agriculture has remained stable, industrial growth has accelerated, and the service sector has rebounded strongly, with accommodation and catering up 11.6% year on year and software and information technology services up 9.3%. From the demand side, there has been a steady recovery: total retail sales of consumer goods grew by 3.5%, previously suppressed demand for service consumption recovered rapidly, and fixed-asset investment grew by 5.5%. While domestic demand was recovering at a faster pace, exports overcame numerous difficulties and grew by 0.9%. From the perspective of confidence, confidence has steadily strengthened: in February, both the manufacturing PMI and the non-manufacturing business activity index hit new highs in recent years, and market expectations improved markedly.

● In innovating and improving macroeconomic regulation, China will continue to expand domestic demand, strengthen coordination among fiscal, monetary, employment, industrial, investment, and consumption policies, and form a synergy that promotes high-quality development. It will fully leverage the fundamental role of consumption in economic growth, actively expand effective investment, and vigorously and in an orderly manner advance the 102 major projects of the 14th Five-Year Plan and other major economic and social development projects. It will encourage and support the sound development of social investment.

● In comprehensively deepening reform and opening up, China will solidly advance the development of a high-standard market system, foster a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized first-class business environment, and pursue high-level opening up.

● This year, China will also coordinate the promotion of urban and rural regional development. It will comprehensively advance rural revitalization, cultivate new forms and models of rural industries, and broaden channels for farmers to increase incomes and become prosperous. In coordinating development and security, it is necessary to ensure the security of important resources such as food and energy, and continuously enhance the resilience and security of industrial and supply chains; it is necessary to prevent and defuse risks in areas such as finance and real estate, and build a long-term mechanism for preventing and defusing risks.‍

Zheng Shanjie, Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated that the enormous potential and steady, healthy development of China's economy will help the world economic recovery proceed steadily and substantively, and will also provide extremely broad cooperation space and very valuable development opportunities for investors at home and abroad. It can be said that traveling with China means traveling with opportunities, and investing in China means investing in the future.