(Yicai) July 23 -- China's reforms have been remarkably effective, and the further deepening of reform is the strongest basis for confidence in China's development, according to Hu Xiaopeng, deputy director of the Institute of World Economy under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of China’s Communist Party, an agenda-setting leadership meeting held last week, adopted the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization, which sets out the obstacles and key points to overcome in further reform, Hu said in a report released today.

This is not only where China’s confidence lies in facing complex and changing situations, but also the fundamental basis of the country’s continued contribution to global economic stability, Hu said.

China's reforms have yielded notable achievements, according to Hu. Absolute poverty has been eradicated, as 99 million people living in rural areas had been lifted out of poverty as of 2020. This means the country realized a 2030 sustainable development goal of the United Nations a decade sooner. The gap between urban and rural household incomes the incomes is narrowing, with the ratio falling to 2.39 last year from 3.03 in 2013.

The country has made major progress in scientific and technological innovation, Hu pointed out. China ranked No. 12 in the 2023 Global Innovation Index compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organization, hosting the biggest number of science and tech clusters worldwide.

Green development has reached a new level, Hu said. In the past decade or so, China's energy consumption grew by 3 percent on average per year, much lower than its average economic growth of 6.6 percent, and energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product fell by 26.8 percent.

The country is also becoming a more modern place to work, he said. Exports of labor-intensive products shrank to make up less than 10 percent of the total, while exports of intermediate products have risen to account for about half, as China moves up in the system of global division of labor. 

Moreover, China has become much more inclusive, fairer, and accessible, promoting quicker growth of per capita disposable income, while building the world's biggest education, social security, and medical care systems, Hu added.

China still contributes more than 30 percent of global economic growth, and this is also closely related to its efforts to reform and open up, Hu said. Reform not only injects new impetus into the Chinese economy, but also shows the nation's resolve to seek inclusive development as well as mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation, he concluded.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Emmi Laine