International observers have noted that China's Government Work Report emphasizes enhancing its own development momentum and economic resilience. They state that the report sends a clear message of China's unwavering commitment to promoting high-quality development and achieving both effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth in its economy. A China with strategic resolve and developmental vitality will provide valuable stability and certainty for a turbulent world.
The Government Work Report highlighted that over the past year, China's economy has advanced under pressure, demonstrating strong resilience. The report also outlined major targets, strategic tasks, and significant projects for the upcoming period, aiming to ensure a strong start.
"Against a backdrop of relatively weak global demand, China has achieved new results in promoting high-quality economic development over the past year," said Jeremy Stevens, Asia Economist at Standard Bank Group. He noted that China's active development of future industries such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, humanoid robots, hydrogen energy, and 6G communications has boosted employment and incomes, thereby expanding domestic demand and providing significant momentum for global technological innovation.
Fabian Hanle, an Executive Director at the German "hidden champion" company FUDE Group, who lived and worked in China for over a decade, has been closely following the policy signals from China's annual political sessions. "Facing rapid changes in the external environment, the Chinese economy continues to show remarkable resilience," Hanle stated. He added that during recent years, China has become a global leader in research and application within fields like artificial intelligence, biomedicine, robotics, and quantum technology through innovation-driven, high-quality growth. Furthermore, China's vigorous development of renewable energy and active promotion of a green transition have made it the world's largest investor in renewables, continuously expanding its scale.
"Amid a complex and volatile international environment, China achieved 5% growth last year, fully demonstrating the strong resilience and institutional advantages of the Chinese economy," said Leong Zhi Hua, Secretary-General of the Malaysia "Belt and Road" Committee. He mentioned that China's continuous rollout of policies to stabilize growth and promote development, through measures such as expanding domestic demand, stabilizing market expectations, and optimizing the business environment, provides strong support for high-quality economic development.
Byung-Joo Jeon, Director of the China Economic and Financial Institute in South Korea, has paid close attention to the content related to capital markets in successive Chinese Government Work Reports and observed positive changes. He stated that since 2024, China's capital market has placed greater emphasis on transitioning from quantitative to qualitative growth, striving to create returns for investors and providing fertile ground for innovative companies.
"Having topped global manufacturing value-added for 16 consecutive years, producing and selling over 16 million new energy vehicles, and increasing the share of core digital economy industries in GDP to over 10.5%... From China's development achievements, I see huge opportunities for industrial cooperation between Italy and China," said Michele Petriccioli, President of the Italian BRICS Research Association. He expressed that Italy and China can leverage their respective strengths to enhance cooperation in areas like electric vehicles and hydrogen energy, contributing to global sustainable development.
The Government Work Report set this year's main expected target for growth at around 4.5% to 5%, with efforts to achieve better results in practical work. This scientifically sound economic growth target has sparked discussion internationally.
Dmitry Mayatsky, Associate Professor at Saint Petersburg State University, commented, "The '4.5% to 5%' target is a steady, progressive, positive, and pragmatic economic growth goal, aligning with expectations for China's economic development." In his view, advantages such as a supersized market, comprehensive deepening of reforms, steady expansion of institutional opening-up, and the vigorous trend of technological innovation empowering high-quality development are accumulating, which will open broader prospects for the Chinese economy.
"Amid turbulent changes, the supporting conditions and fundamental trends for China's long-term economic improvement will not change. China will continue to bring new opportunities to the world through its own new developments," said Fabian Pizarro, Head of the "China Phenomenon" program at Radio Cooperativa in Chile. He believes that the setting of China's growth target reflects a balance between "reasonable quantitative growth" and "effective qualitative improvement." Practice shows that by coordinating technological progress, industrial upgrading, and social development, China will continuously enhance its endogenous economic momentum and development resilience through structural optimization, innovation drive, and institutional arrangements.
"This year's economic growth target incorporates considerations for people's livelihoods, development resilience, and long-term planning, demonstrating a proactive goal orientation and policy direction. It is a scientific decision that balances immediate reality with long-term prospects," said Rageh Abdel Moneim, Dean of the Faculty of Languages at Suez Canal University in Egypt. He stated that the confidence behind the target stems from the huge advantages and innovative vitality of China's vast market, considered alongside long-range objectives, reflecting the Chinese government's positive and pragmatic work style.
Eduardo Tzili-Apango, Associate Professor at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico, believes that persisting in expanding domestic demand, vigorously boosting consumption, accelerating high-level self-reliance in science and technology, and developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions are key directions for China's future socio-economic development. A more stable domestic market and continuously improving technological capabilities will provide crucial support for China's long-term stable growth, effectively enhancing its ability to respond to changes in the external environment.
The Government Work Report called for further expanding high-level opening up, adhering to win-win cooperation, steadily expanding institutional opening, extending international circulation, and using opening up to promote reform and development.
Jung Jae-young, Director of the China Research Center at the Sejong Institute in South Korea, opined that at a time when economic globalization faces headwinds, geopolitical risks are intensifying, and global economic growth is sluggish, China's high-level opening up plays a positive role in promoting global common development and improving global governance. He emphasized that strengthening international cooperation is crucial, and China's firm commitment to multilateralism and open cooperation makes significant contributions to jointly addressing global challenges and building a more just and reasonable global governance system.
"This year's Government Work Report continues to signal China's active promotion of international cooperation," Tzili-Apango noted. He said that cooperation platforms, exemplified by the high-quality Belt and Road Initiative, will continue to play an important role by providing more opportunities for relevant countries to participate in global cooperation through infrastructure construction, trade facilitation, and industrial collaboration. By signing more free trade agreements, improving logistics and industrial cooperation platforms, and strengthening scientific and technological exchanges, China is continuously expanding its space for external cooperation and maintaining a diversified and stable international economic and trade landscape.
Petriccioli stated that China's emphasis on actively expanding autonomous opening, further expanding pilot openings in value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, wholly foreign-owned hospitals, and promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, among a series of measures aimed at promoting mutually beneficial open cooperation, demonstrates China's adherence to true multilateralism and provides solid support for improving global economic governance.
Hanle expressed that China remains a trustworthy partner for Germany, and maintaining cooperation means opportunities for both sides. Germany has many "hidden champion" companies focused on environmental technology that can support China's green transition, while Europe can also gain inspiration from China's strong innovative momentum.
"China's sustained and stable economic development brings more opportunities for trade, investment, and technological cooperation to Belt and Road partner countries," said Leong Zhi Hua. "With the high-quality implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement and the Belt and Road Initiative, cooperation prospects between Malaysia and China in industrial collaboration, green development, and the digital economy will be broader, jointly injecting momentum into regional and even global economic growth."
"Stable economic operation and continuous upgrading of the consumption structure in China provide significant opportunities for foreign trade and industrial development in Latin America," Pizarro said. "China's rapid development in areas like energy transition and advanced manufacturing has a sustained spillover effect on exports, investment, and employment in Latin America, injecting certainty into the stability of global industrial and supply chains. Latin American countries should deeply explore pathways for industrial collaboration with China, transforming resource endowments into industrial competitiveness, to achieve mutual benefit and shared growth with China."