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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New Delhi, Nov 21: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday launched the Karnataka Milk Federation's (KMF) Nandini brand milk products in the Delhi-NCR market, pricing them marginally lower than competitors to gain a foothold in the region.

The cooperative will retail four cow milk variants, curd, and buttermilk from Friday, with competitive pricing that undercuts established players like Mother Dairy and Amul.

Cow milk will be sold at Rs 56 per litre, full Cream Milk at Rs 67 per litre, Standardised Milk at Rs 61 per litre, Toned Milk at Rs 55 per litre, and curd at Rs 74 per kg.

"We have surplus milk in the state. KMF along with Mandya Milk Union will market surplus milk of 3-4 lakh litres per day in Delhi-NCR," Siddaramaiah told reporters after launching the products.

The federation currently collects 100 lakh litres of milk daily, with local consumption at 60 lakh litres, leaving a surplus of 40 lakh litres for expansion into new markets.

However, the Chief Minister acknowledged the challenges of transporting milk over 2,500 km, which takes 50-54 hours.

There is a need to find new markets for surplus milk and gradually the KMF should be able to sell 5-6 lakh litres per day in Delhi-NCR, he added.

KMF Chairman LBP Bheemanaik assured that milk quality would be maintained during transit.

The federation has already partnered with 40 dealers in the Delhi-NCR region to facilitate sales, he added.

With a robust infrastructure of 26.76 lakh milk producers, 15,737 dairy cooperative societies, and 15 district milk unions, KMF has a turnover of Rs 25,000 crore and exports dairy products to over 25 countries.

State Animal Husbandry Minister K Venkatesh and Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy were present at the product launch.