Deregulation, migrant workers hold key to boosting demand in China: academics

China should step up people-centred urbanisation and economic deregulation to bolster domestic demand, economists and academics urged, amid waning consumer sentiment, slowing economic momentum and heightened uncertainties ahead of Donald Trump’s second term as US president.

“People-centred urbanisation is the fundamental solution to China’s current domestic demand shortage,” Chi Fulin, president of the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development, said at a forum held by the Centre on Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong on Tuesday.

China’s nearly 300 million migrant workers, who are not registered as residents in the cities where they work, do not have the same access to public services such as healthcare and education as registered urban residents.

Chi said migrant workers could power significant consumption if the public service gap was filled.

“A package of incremental policies is important … with the investment focused on people,” he said, distinguishing it from the infrastructure-focused stimulus in 2008.

“It should aim to boost consumption confidence by addressing public service gaps … thereby creating substantial mid- to long-term momentum for expanding domestic demand.”