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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Rajasthan: Constable shunted to police lines after sharing Rahul Gandhi's post on 'vote theft'
Jaipur (PTI): A constable posted in Didwana-Kuchaman was shunted to police lines after he allegedly reposted a post by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi using the official X handle of the district police.
The post, which alleged "vote theft" in Haryana by the central government and the Election Commission, was reposted on Wednesday evening. However, it was removed immediately after the matter came to the notice of senior officials.
Officials said that the police department does not support the post.
The constable was responsible for operating the X handle. He was removed from the duty and attached to police lines, the officials said.
Superintendent of Police Richa Tomar said that the police department does not support the post and it was removed immediately after it came to notice.
"The post may have been shared due to an individual's mistake or account hacking. A detailed inquiry has been assigned to the Additional Superintendent of Police, Didwana," the SP added.
The post had claimed irregularities in Haryana's voter list, including multiple votes registered under the same photo and duplicate entries across different constituencies.
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