It is likely that the “The Third Plenum of the 18th Chinese Communist Party Congress,” which takes place in mid-November, will set the government’s economic policy course for the next five to 10 years. The path ahead will see domestic consumption and substantial financial innovation and liberalisation replacing the emphasis on exporting, and heavy public sector investment, as the prime drivers of growth.
The road that President Xi Jenping and Premier Li Keqiang are embarked upon may involve the most far-reaching economic reforms since former leader Deng Xiaoping made his famous 1992 Shenzhen speech.
In 1992, Deng underscored the need to follow through on the “modernisation” course that he initiated in the 1980s and he emphasised the need for the economy to strengthen investment and become far more export-oriented. These policies, pursued by Deng’s successors, spurred extraordinary overall economic growth including the emergence from poverty into the mainstream of hundreds of millions of Chinese.