China’s economic growth is expected to have slowed to just over 6% this year, and it is unlikely to accelerate anytime soon. In fact, economic commentators generally agree that China’s economic performance in 2019 – the worst in nearly 30 years – could be the best for at least a decade. What observers can’t seem to agree on is how worried China should be, or what policymakers can do to improve growth prospects.

Further opening and reform of China’s financial sector is good news for foreign firms and even better news for China itself. Financial innovation will encourage economic growth and benefit companies and the public sector alike.

This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to poverty reduction. In the Nobel Committee’s view, the economists’ use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), a method adapted from medical sciences, to test whether specific interventions work has “considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty.”

In the here and now of climate change, it is easy to lose sight of important signs of progress. China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is a case in point. By changing its economic model, shifting its sources of fuel, developing new transportation systems, and embracing eco-friendly urbanization, China’s sustainability strategy is an example of global leadership that the rest of the world should consider very carefully. In the rush to demonize China over trade, the West has missed this point altogether.

The growing anti-China sentiment in the United States is counterproductive to the trade relationship between the two countries. Americans must understand that this bilateral trade relationship is, in fact, beneficial to both nations.

The US-China trade war has distorted a clear-eyed view of how both par-ties arrived at the current confrontation. Rather than “hegemonic” policies being pursued by China, it is more accurate to say that both sides have delayed difficult structural reforms and are now paying the price.

In February, China’s State Council unveiled guidelines for developing the “Greater Bay Area” (GBA), covering nine cities around the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, plus Hong Kong and Macau. While the rest of the world remains mired in a seemingly interminable debate over how to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth, China is working to deliver it.

China’s increasing role in global economic, security and governance means that domestic reforms will have implications beyond its borders.

While shadow banking remains too risky to fully legitimize as a reliable form of finance for China’s economy, there is one aspect that, under strong supervision, may provide relief for financing needs that banks cannot fully satisfy.

China’s foreign inward investment regime will witness a great leap forward next week during the final plenary of the ‘Two Sessions’ meetings, with the fast-tracked passage of a streamlined and liberal foreign investment law.