* The annual Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from Wednesday to Thursday. Despite the headwinds facing China's economy, international institutions and multinational companies remain optimistic about its prospects.
* As Beijing moves to implement the priorities laid out at the conference, international responses indicate growing confidence in China's long-term trajectory and its contribution to the world economy.
* Beijing's push for high-standard opening is reinforcing global businesses' confidence, as expanding innovation platforms, regional industrial hubs and improved market conditions create new opportunities for multinational companies.
* China's accelerating green transition is strengthening its global competitiveness and driving new opportunities for international cooperation, as rapid advances in clean energy and advanced manufacturing boost exports and support more optimistic economic forecasts.
BEIJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The annual Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from Wednesday to Thursday as Chinese leaders decided priorities for the economic work in 2026, outlining policy directions ranging from boosting domestic demand, pursuing innovation-driven growth to advancing green transition.
Despite the headwinds facing China's economy, international institutions and multinational companies remain optimistic about its prospects. For instance, the IMF has raised its forecast for China's 2025 economic growth to 5 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from its October estimate, citing recent measures to support consumption-led growth.
This year's conference sent a clear message: China aims to fully tap the economic potential, continue to pursue both policy support and reform and innovation, ensure both market vitality and effective regulation, combine investment in physical assets with investment in human capital, and respond to external challenges by strengthening internal capabilities.
HIGH-QUALITY DEVELOPMENT
The conference stressed the need to fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy, move faster to forge a new development paradigm and focus on promoting high-quality development. Its emphasis on new quality productive forces and innovation-driven development aligns closely with the direction multinational executives say they are observing on the ground.
Herve Azoulay, a former Schneider Electric executive and professor at the Silk Road Business School in France, said China's innovation clusters are transforming industrial processes through technologies such as predictive maintenance, industrial energy-efficiency upgrades and intelligent supply-chain systems.
He said these ecosystems allow domestic and foreign partners to experiment with new industrial models and accelerate breakthroughs in high-end manufacturing.
Artificial intelligence is emerging as a major growth lever. After the "DeepSeek moment" earlier this year, Goldman Sachs took a close look at AI's economic implications. Shan Hui, the bank's chief China economist, said the bank estimates that if AI is fully adopted across the economy, China's GDP level could be 8 percent higher over the next decade.
She said early signals are encouraging, with companies investing aggressively and experimenting with applications even at the current exploratory phase.
A DBS Bank report highlighted the same structural trend, noting that fixed asset investment is shifting decisively toward semiconductors, advanced materials, renewable energy equipment and AI-integrated manufacturing systems. This shift, the bank said, reflects deliberate policy efforts to cultivate an economy that is more balanced, innovation-driven and self-sustaining.
Deloitte China chief economist Xu Sitao said the Chinese economy outperformed expectations, achieving its growth target without large-scale stimulus. He expects targeted support for young parents and low-income households, broader trade-in programs and lower mortgage rates to help stabilize household sentiment.
Despite cyclical pressures, many global observers believe China is positioned to play a larger role in global growth over the next five years.
As Beijing moves to implement the priorities laid out at the conference, international responses indicate growing confidence in China's long-term trajectory and its contribution to the world economy.
HIGH-STANDARD OPENING-UP
Beijing's pledge to advance high-standard opening is resonating with global businesses' expectations. Azoulay said the new policy direction is creating "privileged interaction spaces" for international actors.
He pointed to R&D co-laboratories in AI, robotics, biopharma and smart mobility, alongside openings in niche equipment for advanced industry, energy storage and microgrids.
Azoulay noted that major regional clusters -- the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region -- are emerging as hubs where technology, capital and experimental regulation converge. These areas, he said, have played "a decisive role" in allowing multinationals such as Tesla and Schneider Electric to establish operations and innovate.
He added that stronger intellectual property protection, pilot free-trade zones and the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port are making China more appealing to global companies.
European firms see similar potential. Andreas Glunz, managing partner for international business at KPMG in Germany, said China's wider market access and regulatory alignment with Europe "help enhance the resilience of European industries."
GREEN TRANSITION
China's ambitions in green transition -- another key theme of the policy meeting -- are attracting wide global attention. Glunz said China and Germany share "natural complementarity" in energy transition and green technologies, including battery storage, electric vehicles, wind and solar power. He said China's investments in these areas are reshaping its competitiveness while opening new cooperation opportunities for foreign firms.
Azoulay said China's progress in electric mobility, batteries and renewable technologies could make the global green transition "faster, more affordable and more widely accessible."
His assessment is echoed by the DBS Bank report, which said clean energy, climate adaptation and digital infrastructure will be central to China's investment cycle in 2026.
These structural shifts are also reflected in global forecasts. Goldman Sachs Research said that China's exports have proved "super-resilient" this year, thanks to advanced manufacturing and supply chain rerouting.
Shan said this resilience contributed to significant upward revisions to its 2026 and 2027 GDP forecasts. "This might be the largest upward revision to China's real GDP that I have seen since I came to Hong Kong in 2019," she said. The bank expects Chinese exports to grow 5 to 6 percent annually.
Stephen Morgan, professor emeritus of Chinese economic history at Nottingham University Business School, said China has taken a lead in areas such as electric vehicles, solar and wind power.
He noted that the rapid rollout of these "green technologies" is reducing China's own emissions while driving down global costs.
(Video reporters: Zhao Tianlin, Yu Lizhen, Liang Jiajun, Zheng Jingxia, Sun Qing, Chen Jie, Di Chun, Wang Huan, Wang Kai, Ma Ruxuan, Zhou Yang, Hong Ling, Zhao Xiaoqing, Li Hengyi.)■
