(Yicai Global) Oct. 28 – China's economy could expand by 8 percent each year till 2030 due to the country's competitive edge in new technologies and its huge, resilient market, according to a former chief economist at the World Bank.

The research and development cycle of new technologies involving the internet, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and fifth-generation mobile networks is short, which benefits China that has a large labor force, Justin Lin said during his speech at Lenovo Tech World 2020 this morning.

Moreover, China houses world-leading industrial chains and advanced supply chain systems even though there is a development gap between it and developed economies, said Lin. These factors help the world's second-largest economy resist external impacts and keep on expanding, he added.

As one country is catching up with others, the whole group should end up richer. China can contribute 30 percent to the global economic growth every year as it is a market that develops the fastest with superb opportunities to offer to entrepreneurs, Lin suggested.

Under normal conditions, China can maintain a basic growth rate of about 6 percent, 3 percentage points higher than those of other nations, according to Lin.

But Covid-19 has made a dent in the superpower's trajectory. This year, China's gross domestic product may widen by 2 percent or 3 percent while the global economy may contract by 5 percent, the economist predicted.

Global trade will decrease due Covid-19 so many China-made products designed to be exported need to be sold domestically in the short-term, said Lin. But in the long run, it is inevitable that the increasingly affluent domestic market will become most central along with a rising service sector, he added.

Editor: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine