China remains largest developing country: Economist
Beijing, April 16: China remains the world's largest developing country despite having a a low per capita GDP, lingering urban-rural gap, weak industrial competitiveness and technological innovation, according to an economist.
The remarks were made by Wang Yuanhong, an economist at the State Information Centre, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.
"We should look at both economic aggregate and per capita figures when measuring the real development level of a country," Wang said.
Despite being the world's second largest economy, China's per capita GDP in 2016 was only 80 percent of the world average, one-seventh of the US and was ranked the 68th globally.
"Chinese per capita consumer spending was only $2,506 in 2016, less than half of the world average and only 7 percent of the US."
The Engel's coefficient, which measures food expenditures as a proportion of total household spending, stood at 29.3 per cent in China, much higher than developed economies.
"It means the Chinese people still have to spend big on basic needs, and their expenditure on culture, health care, entertainment and tourism are much less than people in developed countries," Wang said.
He said China was still "a follower in technological innovation", with businesses inadequate in research and development.
"Eighty percent of core technology, most of high-end equipment, and core components are reliant on imports."
Despite emerging new technology, products and business models, China is yet to complete building an innovation-driven growth pattern, Wang said.
The disparity of people's incomes per capita between provinces can be as large as more than four times, and there is still a marked gap in infrastructure and public services between cities and villages.
"China's urbanisation ratio was only 58.52 per cent in 2017, far below the around 80 per cent of developed countries," Wang said.
Compared with developed countries, China lags behind in many other areas including environment protection, investment effectiveness and market supervision, the economist added.
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Karnataka to introduce new affordable housing policy with EWS mandate for private developers
Bengaluru: Karnataka is drafting a new Affordable Housing Policy that may require private real estate developers to allocate a portion of their projects for economically weaker sections (EWS). This initiative is part of preliminary discussions aimed at addressing the state’s housing challenges.
The policy is being developed by the Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS), an urban-focused research organization co-founded by Nandan Nilekani and Deepak Parekh. IIHS was chosen for this task without a tender process.
Housing Minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan's office has confirmed that discussions are underway to include a clause mandating private developers to reserve inventory for EWS buyers. At present, residential layouts are only required to allocate spaces for civic amenities such as parks and playgrounds.
The policy is a key component of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's agenda for affordable housing. It aims to streamline procedures in the housing sector while ensuring inter-departmental coordination. It will replace the 2016 housing policy and is expected to help Karnataka secure additional funding from union government housing schemes.
Funding challenges have hindered the state's housing programs, such as the Chief Minister’s One Lakh Housing Scheme, where the per-unit cost of ₹11.2 lakh places a significant financial burden on beneficiaries. With banks reluctant to lend, the government faces an estimated ₹3,700 crore shortfall.
The state is evaluating two affordable housing models proposed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The first model, the Land Sharing Model, involves the government providing land to private developers, who would dedicate 30-50% of the land to affordable housing. Once the housing units are completed, they would be handed over to the government for distribution, while the developers would monetize the remaining land.
The second model, the Interest Subsidy Model, suggests offering a 3-5% subsidy on home loan interest, which would reduce monthly installments for beneficiaries from ₹8,700 to ₹5,500-6,800. This approach is expected to cost the government ₹60-170 crore annually.
