Photo provided by John Ross

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhuanet) -- The opening up of China, the world’s most rapidly growing market, is potentially beneficial for all countries, said John Ross, Senior Fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.

John Ross gave an interview to Xinhuanet recently, hailing China’s achievements made in the past four decades since the implementation of the reform and opening up policy.

In his view, China’s success in reform and opening up is not only a boon to the Chinese people, but also an engine for global growth.

“China has become the main focus of world economic growth and international economic stability, since the onset of the international financial crisis,” Ross stated.

“During 2007-2016, up to the latest internationally comparable data, China accounted for an astonishing 44% of world growth measured at current exchange rates,” he explained.

In 2017, China's GDP expanded 6.9 percent, picking up for the first time in seven years.

“The IMF projects that in 2022 China will still be accounting for 30% of world growth at current exchange rates,” he added.

Although “China creates the world’s most successful model of economic development,” said Ross, “it never attempts to export its model, and no country can mechanically copy it,” he pointed out.

On the contrary, an increasing number of countries have drawn experience from China’s economic overhaul with highly successful results, Ross held.

“It is particularly clear in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Ethiopia and India, and is also now beginning to affect countries such as Ecuador and Poland,” he gave some examples.

As China emphasizes that it will not close its door to the world, and the door will only become more and more open, Ross believed that this will have a “decisive effect on the world”.

He highlighted the importance of China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, saying that it is of significant weight for regional economic development.

In 2018, China will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening up, a policy that has led to China's rise to the world's second largest economy.