Learning from China

The remarkable journey of China, the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion, covering about 9.6 million square kilometres, from one of the world's poorest nations to a global economic powerhouse offers critical lessons for countries like Pakistan. Its transformation over just four decades is often described as an economic miracle.

Until 1979, nine out of ten Chinese lived in absolute poverty. Bureaucracy was bloated and inefficient, innovation was stifled, and the country remained closed to the outside world. But in 1979, Deng Xiaoping initiated reforms that reshaped China's destiny. He emphasised learning from abroad and sent delegations to study economic models in Singapore, Japan and Pakistan.

Deng's reforms drastically cut government employees, boosted efficiency and opened China to global trade and investment. In 2020, President Xi Jinping announced that absolute poverty had been eradicated from China.