Volunteers lend credit to expo

THE FIRST CHINA INTERNATIONAL IMPORT EXPO, which was held in Shanghai, concluded on Saturday. During the expo, more than 5,000 volunteers did a good job promoting China’s image. Thepaper.cn comments:

The main pavilion of the expo was known as the “four-leaf clover”, and the volunteers were called small leaves, providing services ranging from information services to checking ID cards.

That’s a giant progress compared with the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, in which the volunteers mainly acted as guides. This time, only one-third of the volunteers were guides, with the others doing professional duties such as being liaison officers, providing services at media centers or assisting other professionals with their work.

The volunteers showed great dedication, often working late into the night to make preparations for the next day. With the efforts of these behindthe-scenes heroes, the expo was safe and orderly and it made a deep impression on the participants and visitors.

Most of the CIIE volunteers were youngsters born after 1995, and their good, professional attitude also promoted a good image of the younger Chinese generation all over the world. They are the pride, not only of Shanghai municipality, but also of China as a whole.

From the younger generation one can see the future of a whole nation. The more than 5,000 CIIE volunteers are typical representatives of the young people in China, and they have shown the world their courage, hardworking spirit, as well as professionalism.

As President Xi Jinping has said, young people should dare to have dreams, dare to chase their dreams, and be diligent in pursuing their dreams. Doing so will grant the world firmer confidence in China’s future.

Some worry China might fall into the so-called middle income trap. That worry is unnecessary.

From 1979 to 2010, the average annual GDP growth rate of China was as high as 10 percent, 7 percentage points higher than the world’s average. However, during that period, China’s economic growth was mainly driven by its labor dividend, so it stayed relatively low in the global value chain.

Such a growth mode is unsustainable in the long run because of demographic changes and the damage caused to the ecological environment. Since the early 2010s, China’s economic growth rate has slowed, but the main drivers are now efficiency and domestic consumption.

Given this, what China needs to do is effectively expand domestic consumption to balance the lower growth rate, adjust the economic structure to promote quality growth and deepen reform so more people enjoy the fruits of development.

In the coming 20 years, an estimated 150 million college graduates will enter the job market in China, which not only means more better educated workers, but also a strong consumption force. With such a big educated labor force, as well as more investments in research and development, China is undergoing a new round of technological upgrading and shifting toward an innovation-driven development mode. Besides, the open minds of people with higher education backgrounds will also make it easier to deepen reform and continue the economic restructuring process.

But among all its advantages, the most important one is China has political stability. The central leadership has long stressed its firm determination to advance reform and opening-up. In the coming five years, it is necessary to implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and let the market play a decisive role in allocating resources.

China’s economy is on a healthy track and there is no reason to worry.