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Li: 2017 GDP growth around 6.9%

Writer:   | Editor: Lily A  | From:  | Updated: 2018-01-12

PREMIER Li Keqiang said the world’s second-biggest economy is expected to have grown around 6.9 percent last year, Xinhua News Agency reported, accelerating from a 26-year low in 2016.

In the past year, China’s economy has maintained a steady and favorable trend, with the overall situation better than expected, Li said at the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Forum in Cambodia on Wednesday.

Analysts expect the economy to have grown around 6.8 percent last year, beating the government’s target of about 6.5 percent, thanks to a construction boom and robust global demand for Chinese exports. Gross domestic product expanded 6.7 percent in 2016.

The main reason why China performed well last year was that it refrained from “flooding” the economy with stimulus while pushing ahead with supply-side reforms and cultivating new sources of momentum, Li said.

The official 2017 GDP data is due to be published Jan. 18.

In another development, Premier Li said Thursday that leaders of the Lancang-Mekong countries reached consensus relevant to their shared future at the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation leaders’ meeting in Phnom Penh.

The Second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Leaders’ Meeting approved a Five-year Action Plan (2018-2022) in Phnom Penh late Wednesday, charting the course for the LMC’s development into the next decade.

Themed “Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development,” the meeting gathered leaders of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to discuss such issues as connectivity, water management and industrial production capacity.

As an important mechanism along the Lancang-Mekong River sub-region, the LMC mechanism has been focusing on sustainable development and pragmatic cooperation in the sub-region and serving as an important platform for implementing the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Five-year Action Plan is the first of its kind since the establishment of the LMC mechanism, and will serve as a guideline for the LMC’s development in the next five years.  (SD-Agencies)