Zhejiang’s Economic Restructuring.docVIP

Zhejiang’s Economic Restructuring 　　Zhejiang Province is considered not only a cradle of the market economy in China， but also a major flagship for the country’s economic restructuring. 　　One of China’s traditional manufacturing powerhouses， Zhejiang’s products are sold across the world due to their affordability. After the 2008 worldwide financial crisis， however， the exportoriented local economy faced unprecedented pressure. In the first quarter of 2009， Zhejiang’s GDP grew by only 3.4 percent， ending the province’s 19-year streak of double-digit growth. 　　In 2015， its GDP growth rebounded to 8 percent， ranking among the top tier of China’s provinces， municipalities and autonomous regions. 　　According to Zhu Weijiang， vice director of the Policy Research Office of the Provincial CPC Committee of Zhejiang， the key reason the province managed to reverse the downward trend of GDP growth within a few years is that Zhejiang took the lead in economic restructuring and formulated a series of combined policies to enable the local economy to grow at a rational speed. 　　 Return of Zhejiang Businessmen 　　Foreign demands dropped sharply while domestic consumptions slowed down after the 2008 financial crisis. In this context， as an export-centered local economy， Zhejiang began to rethink investment’s role in driving economic growth. 　　Foreign investors， state-owned enterprises （SOEs） and private businesses are widely considered the three main sources of investments. However， Zhejiang didn’t perform well in terms of introducing investments from foreign investors and centrallyadministrated SOEs. So， it started looking towards the millions of Zhejiang businessmen scattered across the planet. 　　More than six millions of investors with origins in Zhejiang operate businesses outside of the province， including two million abroad. Preliminary statistics show that those businessmen invested a total of 4.5 trillion yuan， creating economic output of 6 trillion yuan combined.