Panagariya meets top official of key Chinese eco think-tank

On a visit here to hold in-depth exchanges with Chinese officials over the state of India-China economies amid global economic decline, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya today met the top official of a think-tank of China's planning body.
Panagariya met Li Wei, President of the Development Research Centre, which is the main economic policy think-tank assisting top planning body the National Development Reforms Commission (NDRC), the governing body of the implementation of the country's five year plans.
China has just approved its 13th Five Year Plan to be implemented from next year aimed altering China's export dependent economy to the one based more on domestic consumption.

Chinese President Xi Jinping early this month has directed officials to ensure that China's GDP which for the first time since 2009 has fallen below 7 per cent in the third quarter should not go below 6.5 per cent.
Before his meeting with Li Wei, Panagariya heading a high level official team from NITI Ayayog visited the Binhai New Area in the neighbouring Tianjin city where 285 Fortune Global 500 companies had invested and established branch offices at the Free Trade Zone stated to be a base for China's advanced industrial and financial reform and innovation.
China is implementing new set of reforms setting up new Free Trade Zones which focussed more on innovation and modern technology to transform its exports base from cheap goods to that of high technology.

Panagariya along with Li will take part in China-India Development Roundtable, 2015 here tomorrow after which he will also visit China's highly industrialised city, Shenzhen.
The Round Table covers topics line "China's and India's Economy in the Global Economic Restructuring: Opportunities and Challenges", "Regional Trade Associations: Implications for India China" and "Strengthening Sino-Indian Cooperation: Building Close Development Partnership".