China’s economy is continuing a steady recovery this year, vice premier Han Zheng said on Sunday.
Han made the remarks to the China Development Forum, a high-level business gathering hosted by the Development Research Centre of the State Council.
Han also said China, the world’s No.2 economy, will strengthen macro policy coordination with other countries.
China’s economy is widely expected to grow more than 8 % in 2021, led by an expected double-digit expansion in the first quarter.
Analysts say the pace is driven by a low base for comparison and the recovery remains uneven.
The economy expanded 2.3 % last year, the only major economy to report growth, although the growth was its weakest in 44 years.
Meanwhile, China had administered 74.96 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Saturday (March 20), health commission spokesman Mi Feng said at a news briefing on Sunday.
That compared with about 65 million doses administered as of March 14, or an additional 10 million vaccinations in less in a week, as the country accelerates its inoculation drive with the aim to inoculate 40 % of its 1.4 billion population by the middle of the year.
Over 70 million doses of Sinovac Biotech’s shot have been administered globally so far, a company spokesman said during the news conference on Sunday. He did not say how many of those had been administered in China.
Beijing is also considering implementing differentiated policies for visa issuance, flights and controls on the numbers of people arriving in China.
This based on vaccination progress and the Covid-19 situations in the countries of origin.
“We do not exempt vaccinated people from testing and isolation measures for the time being,” said Feng Zijian, vice director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control.
Source: Channel News Asia and The Star News