One can be led to believe that the Covid-19 crisis has generated completely new strategies in many governments, but I still believe it rather accelerated developments that were already underway before the pandemic began. I have long argued that China will become the world’s largest single market. This development is likely to be intensified with its new upcoming five-year plan, which will be presented internally in October and to the public in the New Year.
The plan may challenge the consideration among non-Chinese investors and companies on whether to be in the Chinese market, as it is quite demanding to take part in. Curiously, there have been a number of Chinese exporters who, amid the Covid-19 crisis, tried their luck in the Chinese market. Some of them found it difficult for them to establish a market position and break through, among other things, because of competition. This is quite telling about the Chinese market in general, but despite this challenge, the most likely scenario is that the Chinese economy is now getting pushed toward attaining higher growth rates.