两会热词引外国专家热议

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2019年3月5日上午，十三届全国人大二次会议开幕，国务院总理李克强在《政府工作报告》中指出，今年再减少农村贫困人口1000万以上。

官方数据显示，在过去40年中，中国已有超过7亿农村人口实现脱贫。农村人口贫困率（生活在贫困线以下人口的比例）已从1978年的97.5%下降到2017年的3.1%。

美中贸易全国委员会主席克雷格·艾伦说，“在我看来，过去40年里，相当于一个人一生工作的时间，中国已经从全球最贫困的国家之一发展为即将完全消除贫困的国家。”

印度尼赫鲁大学中国研究教授维拉普拉萨德·谢卡·多拉也高度赞扬了中国在消除贫困方面取得的成就。他说：“如果说过去三四十年来，全球贫困人口大幅下降，那么部分原因是中国消除贫困人口的贡献。”

在芝加哥伊利诺理工学院斯图亚特商学院经济学教授科瑞尔·图尔克看来，“很多国家都很仰慕中国取得的成绩，向中国学习经验。”他补充说：“中国的经验是基于建立现代的基础设施，随后建立经济特区，这可以帮助欠发达国家实现工业化。”

“一带一路”倡议

国务委员兼外交部部长王毅在记者会上说，“一带一路”倡议已经成为世界上规模最大的合作平台和最受欢迎的公共产品。他指出，目前已有123个国家和29个国际组织签署了共建“一带一路”合作文件。

英国四十八家集团俱乐部副主席基思·班尼特说，“一带一路”倡议“是包容性的，为未来几十年的投资和发展都提供了最大的机遇”。他说：“‘一带一路’倡议聚焦于基础设施建设，最大可能地为推进全面、综合的经济发展，并在将来提高人民的生活水平奠定基础。”

外商投资

另一个热点是外商投资法草案。

图尔克说，外商投资法草案将使“外国公司在中国经商更便捷”。

希腊伯罗奔尼撒大学政治学和国际关系学系助理教授索蒂里斯·彼得罗普洛斯也持同样看法。他说，草案通过后，“新的外商投资法将减少外商投资的障碍，使外国公司在中国经营更便捷，更均衡。”

“阿拉伯眼中的中国”新闻网站总编穆罕默德·莱雅说，外商投资法草案“被认为是中国外商投资管理体制的根本变化，将促进投资环境的公开、透明和可预测性”。艾伦说：“我认为中国的领导层很聪明，他们认识到以市场为导向的竞争会促进发展，而促进发展的途径之一就是允许外国公司在中国发挥更重要的作用。”

高质量发展

在今年的《政府工作报告》中，中国将2019年的国内生产总值增长目标设定为6%到6.5%，并表示要促进高质量、可持续发展。

图尔克说：“在中国经济发展的最初一些年，国内生产总值达到了两位数增长。如今，中国正追求高质量和可持续发展。”他还说：“中国的发展惊艳了世界，使中国成为世界工厂。如今，中国创造了人数最庞大的中产阶级。”

喀麦隆智库泛非发展研究院西非分院商业和公共政策讲师兼研究员苏利亚曼·图拉伊说，中国的经济增长让非洲国家真是大开眼界。他说：“高科技投资的稳步增长说明了中国保持稳定和高质量增长的决心”， 非洲人民需要向中国人民学习，从而在国际贸易中获得竞争优势。“只要中国继续升级经济结构以促进高质量增长，在科技创新的推动下，其发展将继续为非洲国家提供机会。”

喀麦隆雅温得第二大学教授埃尔维斯·恩格尔·恩格尔表示，中国的创新促进了其他国家的经济和社会发展，帮助他们培养本国人才。他举个例子说，中国的农业科技“正把非洲的荒地改造成良田”。他表示：“随着中国从改革中获益更多，中国人民将继续弘扬创新精神，对人类的进步作出更大贡献。”（《中国日报》供稿）

POVERTY ALLEVIATION

In the government work report delivered at the opening of the annual NPC session on March 5, China pledges to reduce its population of rural poor by over 10 million this year.

Official figures show that over the past 40 years, China has lifted more than 700 million of its rural residents out of poverty, and the poverty rate—the proportion of people living below the Chinese poverty line—had fallen among the rural population from 97.5 percent in 1978 to 3.1 percent at the end of 2017.

“For me, it is just a miracle that over 40 years, over the course of one working lifetime, China has gone from one of the poorest countries in the world to one that is about to eliminate absolute poverty, ” said Craig Allen,president of the US-China Business Council.

Varaprasad Sekhar Dolla, a professor of Chinese studies at India's Jawaharlal Nehru University, also spoke highly of China's achievements in poverty reduction.

“If global poverty came down quite substantially in the last three or four decades, it’s partly because of the Chinese contribution to reducing poverty within its own national boundaries,” said the Indian scholar.

In the eyes of Khairy Tourk, a professor of economics with the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, “many countries look up to China to learn from its experience.”

“The Chinese experience is based on building a modern infrastructure and then on setting up special economic zones that would help underdeveloped countries to industrialize,” he added.

BRI COOPERATION

At a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing Two Sessions, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the initiative has become the world's largest platform for international cooperation and the most welcomed global public good. He noted that a total of 123 countries and 29 international organizations have signed BRI agreements with China.

Keith Bennett, vice chairman of Britain’s 48 Group Club, a consultancy network for British companies seeking to do business with China, said that the BRI “is inclusive and offers the greatest opportunity for both investment and development in decades.” “Its emphasis on infrastructure and connectivity lays the best possible foundations for promoting allround, comprehensive economic development and improvement of people's livelihood in the future,” he said.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Another hot topic is the draft law on foreign investment .

The draft law, said Tourk, will make “it easier for foreign firms to do business in China.”

Sotiris Petropoulos, an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of the Peloponnese in Greece, voiced a similar opinion. Once passed, “the new law is expected to decrease barriers to foreign investment and render foreign companies’operations within the country easier and more balanced than before,” he said.

Mahmoud Raya, editor-in-chief of the “China in Arab Eyes”news website,said the draft law is “considered as a fundamental change in China’s foreign investment management system, which will improve openness,transparency and predictability of the investment environment.”

“I think that the Chinese leadership is very wise, and that they realize that market-oriented competition will lead to greater growth, ” said Allen.“And one way to spur that growth is to allow foreign companies to play a stronger role in China. ”

HIGH-QUALITY GROWTH

In this year’s government work report, China sets its gross domestic product (GDP) growth target for 2019 at 6-6.5 percent, and vows to promote high-quality and sustainable growth.

“During the initial years of the country's economic miracle, China experienced double-digit growth rates. Now it is pursuing high-quality sustainable development,” said Tourk. “The Chinese development has fascinated the world. It has made the country the workshop of the world. It has also created the biggest middle class in history,” he added.

To Suliaman Turay, a lecturer and researcher on business and public policy with the Pan African Institute for Development West Africa, a think tank in Cameroon, China's economic growth is a real eye-opener for African countries. “The steady increase in high-tech investment speaks volumes of the determination of China to maintain stable and quality growth,”he said, adding that Africans need to gain a competitive advantage in international trade by learning from the Chinese people. “As long as China continues to upgrade its economic structure for quality growth, driven by innovations in science and technology, its development will continue to offer opportunities for African countries,” Turay noted.

Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, a professor at the University of Yaounde II in Cameroon, said Chinese innovation is helping to boost economic and social development in other countries, and helping them cultivate their own talent. A good example, Ngolle said, is the Chinese agricultural technology which “is transforming barren land into fertile farmland in Africa.” “As China continues to realize more benefits from its reform, the innovative spirit of the Chinese people will continue to flourish, which will contribute even more to the progress of mankind,” he added.