Measured in terms of GDP, China is now the fourth largest economy in the world, and since 2000, its contribution to global GDP growth (in purchasing power parity terms) has been larger than that of the US and more than half as big again as the combined contribution of the three next-largest emerging economies (India, Brazil and Russia).
Market reform has unleashed the potential of China labour force into export-oriented manufacturing industries, creating an emerging middle class eager for levels of consumption comparable to their Western counterparts. However, it has also created socials tensions as farmers are pushed of their land by development and millions of older workers are deprived of their jobs by reforms at State Owned Enterprises.
ODS believes that China may shortly reach a milestone in its economic development where the main engine of its growth moves from being exports to Western markets to its own domestic markets and that the emergence of China as a consumer society will have profound global implications.
Drawing on data gathered from China’s National Bureau of Statistics and supplemented by the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report and other sources, the aim of this report is to provide a detailed explanation of current trends in the Chinese municipality of Beijing, the country’s capital and second-largest city, from two perspectives: those concerned with trends domestic consumption trends within China and the market opportunities they are likely to provide and those interested in the state of the country’s export-oriented economic sector, particularly its potential as a recipient of foreign capital.
As well as covering such topics as GDP, incomes, trade, consumption patterns, foreign investment, transport and telecommunications infrastructure, government and administration and the labour market, the report also provides a considerable body of socio-economic research on such topics as social insurance, healthcare and education as ODS believes that trends in these areas are crucial to understanding likely future outcomes in Beijing, as well as China as a whole.
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