Session Summary - “Economic Recovery Outlook post-COVID-19”

How to achieve a sustainable economic recovery from COVID-19?

Enterprises from a broad range of sectors from across the globe have been struggling to keep themselves afloat with economies battered badly due to lockdowns forced by the coronavirus pandemic. Although the number of daily cases of infections across the globe has been falling and some regions are gradually returning to normal, the path to an economic recovery remains fraught with challenges.

To understand the key to economic recovery, China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable invited Prof Xiao Geng, president, Hong Kong Institution for International Finance, to talk about the “Economic Recovery Outlook post-COVID-19” in the keynote speech. Here are some of his key points:

Global cooperation in combating the coronavirus pandemic is the key to achieving a “full, sustainable and quality” economic recovery.

Xiao Geng: The future of a (global) economic recovery really depends on how the whole world can work together to contain the novel coronavirus. It comes down to the role of a responsible government, no matter what a country’s political system is.

How do you analyze the China-US relations in a post-COVID 19 world?

Xiao Geng: There are three issues to consider here – national security, people’s needs and global order. Fundamentally, the two countries don’t have any real conflicts. In fact, the values of the two countries are converging. As the world’s two largest economies, people from both countries need each other.

China and the US play a particularly important role in global economic recovery.

Xiao Geng: The whole world can achieve nothing without the cooperation of these two countries, like what we are seeing happening during this pandemic. Sooner or later, the two countries have only one way (to go) – cooperation – because, otherwise, the cost will be so big, not just for both sides, but for the whole world.

Since nations are closely linked economically, geopolitical tensions can be proved to be the biggest risk for the world economy.

Xiao Geng: What’s really important is geopolitical tension, which could lead to some kind of decoupling in the supply chains. That’s something that could last quite a few years or even decades. Enterprises need to think about how to deal with potential changes in the global economic and trade systems.