Emulate China

CHINA celebrated its national day and 70 years of communist party rule on Oct 1 in glamour and a military parade showcasing the country’s technology, and a promise from President Xi Jinping that no force can shake the status of this great nation.
According to global standard, China is a developing country and enjoys the same special and differential treatment afforded to Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe.
Meaning we share similar challenges and development aspirations with China.
Its rise to global superpower is a tantalising experience, something which all developing countries should aspire to emulate.
Since initiating market reforms in 1978, China has shifted from a centrally-planned to a more market-based economy and has experienced rapid economic and social development.
GDP growth has averaged nearly 10% a year – the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history – and more than 850 million people have lifted themselves out of poverty.
China reached all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and made a major contribution to the achievement of the MDGs globally.
Essentially, it was the stable and enduring leadership coupled with strong national will dragged China from a civil war battered and impoverished state to be the world’s second largest economy.
As a constitutional democracy transiting from a communal based traditional society, our challenges are many but the dream of making PNG a rich Christian black nation, or in other words a developed nation in 10 years, should be underpinned by strong and stable leadership, with an informed and realistic projection to where exactly we want to go.
The Chinese are like us – resilient – but are realistic in their projection.
President Xi said on the occasion that China will become a moderately prosperous society by 2021 and a fully developed, rich and powerful nation in 2049.

David Lepi,
Pan Melanesia