China's socialist market economy is the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP. In addition, it is also one of the world's fastest growing major economy, with growth rates averaging 10% over the past thirty years. Just by looking at these statistics, it is undeniable that China's economy had been booming with prosper over the last few years. But just what is the cause of this rapid growth in China's economy? 

In 1978, after years of state control of all productive assets, the government of China embarked on a major program of economic reform. It encouraged people to start rural enterprises and private businesses, liberalized foreign trade and investment, made state control over some prices less strict, and invested in industrial production and the education of its population, who are its workforce. To almost everyone, this strategy has worked incredibly in aiding the growth of China's economy. New machinery, more advanced technology and more investments in infrastructure are part of the improvements China has made to ensure that its economy prospers. However, I shall not further elaborate on this point lest this blog post will turn into a Wikipedia page. 

I personally feel that the leaders of China had much foresight to come up with such strategies to improve the economy in their country. They knew that the setting up and success of private businesses would lead to other countries wanting to do business with them. Education was also of great importance, as they knew that an educated population of people would lead to a higher level of efficiency in China's workforce.  New machinery, more advanced technology and more investments in infrastructure also helped China attract more foreign investors. All these measures led to the rapid economic growth in China and were taken as the leaders of China were confident that they would affect the country's economy positively, despite the risk. Hence, the leaders of China possessed an important quality that contributed to the rapid economic growth there: foresight. 

Since China has a large population, labour is readily available. What makes it more attractive is that it is available at a low price. Cheap labour has led to companies in China being able to hire more workers to help out in factories, thus making the production of goods efficient and of good quality. This has led to mass production being made possible. Mass production enables companies to churn out goods faster than ever, therefore ensuring that stocks will not run out so easily. These two factors are of great importance to China's economic growth and opening up of their country to international trade. 

Even though China is a completely different country from Singapore, their rapid economic growth will no doubt have its implications on us. Firstly, as China's economy grows, more goods on the market will be made in China. As a matter of fact, such goods are already aplenty. Products such as those made by the US-based company, Apple, although may be designed in California but are actually made in China. Truth to be told, the reason for this is that the labour force and infrastructure in the US is not at the level necessary to support Apple's operations. Fun fact: The Chinese factory where most iPhones reach final assembly employs a staggering 230,000 workers. This no doubt proves the power of China's labour force. Secondly, since Singaporeans were educated to be bilingual, we have an advantage when it comes to discussing partnerships with outstanding Chinese companies. This could perhaps help our local businessmen, architects and other talents expand their businesses and be offered greater opportunities in China and beyond, giving rise to our economy altogether. Examples will be given in the next paragraph.

Even though most of us know that China has one of the largest and fastest growing economy in the world, did you know that Singapore has numerous joint ventures with them? Here are some examples. The China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, the Sino-Singaporean Tianjin Eco-city and the opening of businesses such as Breadtalk outlets in China are all examples of Singapore-based companies expanding to China or projects by the Singaporean government in China. These projects shows the close bond between the two countries. Moreover, due to the rapidly increasing standard of living in China, the Chinese citizens can afford to travel to Singapore, let alone patronize our local businesses in their home country. Both of these lead to growth in Singapore's economy. However, when put in the form of tourism, Singapore's economy is affected almost directly by the actions of the Chinese citizens. Them traveling to our country will result in the growth of our economy, more specifically, especially in the hotel, tourism and F&B industries. Ergo, in an event that China's economy falls, Singapore's economy may be forced to decline as well, although not as much. However, we should always remain vigilant and depend on ourselves when it comes to keeping our country's economy stable.