Wen’s recipe: tough battles, no fallbacks

The neighbours agreed on Monday that two-way trade should be worth $20 billion by 2008 from today’s $13.6 billion. ‘‘But by 2010, it should go to $30 billion or even more,’’ said Jiabao, adding that the current figures are ‘‘too insignificant.’’

Most of this opportunity will lie in China’s problem areas, which Wen Jiabao did not underplay before India Inc.

‘‘In the process of development, we have also run into some problems. One is sluggish agriculture — it is difficult to increase agricultural output and farmer income at the same time. We are heavily dependent on coal and oil despite shortages, even in transportation and power. The prices of means of production are soaring and we need to check fixed-asset investments. Most of all, we want to address the weakest link — agriculture,’’ he said, giving a cue on where future cooperation with India may lie.

The Chinese Premier waxed eloquent about China’s accomplishments — the successful run of reforms over three decades and the profits reaped from ‘‘opening up’’ the economy.

‘‘This is a miracle,’’ Jiabao said, echoing what the world’s economists have said about China’s 27-year GDP growth record of 9.5 per cent. ‘‘We have reduced the number of people living in absolute poverty from 270 to 30 million. Per capita GDP is at $1,200. From not one kilometre of express highway in the 1970s, we now have 30,000 km. Just this year, we added 60,000 kw power generation capacity,’’ Jiabao said. Jiabao said the biggest Chinese question is getting to grow without major highs or lows. Giving an open invitation to the best Indian companies to set up shop, he said, ‘‘What is the driving force behind China’s growth? Reform and opening up.’’

‘‘We are opening up even further… China doesn’t believe only in introducing FDI, we are also interested in exchange of technologies,’’ said Jiabao. Since reforms were launched, China has attracted over $561 billion FDI, $60.0 billion of which came last year alone. ‘‘Now we want to focus on improving the quality of FDI and watching the investment mix, which is very important,’’ he said. China is keen on energy, where 70 per cent of production is coal based and demand is booming. ‘‘170 million tonne oil is produced in China, 120 million tonnes is imported,’’ he said.