On 28 August, Mr. Cheng Siwei, former Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and Chairman of the China National Democratic Construction Association delivered a speech at the Travelers Club at the invitation of Oxford Chinese Scholar’s Fund. He stressed that China’s economy would continue to grow rapidly after the Beijing Olympic Games. Over 70 people from the business and academic communities and Chinese companies attended. Charge d’Affairs Chen Xiaodong was also present.

Cheng introduced the external and internal challenges that China faced. Externally there are the subprime mortgage crisis, price hike of food and energy and depreciation of dollars. Internally there are excess surplus of liquidity, inflation upsurge, drop in investment and export and natural disasters. China’s economy will come into adjustment and it might slow down a bit this year and next year.

But it can still keep a rate of 10%. And the reasons behind are as following. First, the subprime mortgage crisis has bottomed up and it is expected to end before the end of next year. Second, high oil price is not sustainable. It might drop below 100 dollars a barrel. Food price will also keep within a reasonable scope. Third, US dollars will not remain weak for ever. Forth, China is taking measures to increase domestic consumption, stimulate investment and increase export competitiveness.

Cheng also introduced China’s energy policy. He said that China paid attention to energy and climate change. It is taking measures to reduce emission and the detailed targeted has been set. However, China is still in the phase of development. It takes time to solve the rapid increase of emission. So China hopes to work together with the international community.

Cheng also answered questions on exchange rate of RMB, environmental impact on economy, development of SOEs, the prospective of capital market, inflation and China’s role in the world.

He also had interviews with Nik Gowing, anchor of Business Daily of BBC Radio International and Martin Wolf, chief economist of Financial Times. He answered questions on China’s economic prospective, stock market, RMB exchange rate and energy consumption policy.