So, it all started five years ago when the country’s top legislature – National People’s Congress (NPC) of the People’s Republic of China – elected him into office as the president of the East Asian country: a country with an over-1.3billion population.
It is often challenging to steer affairs of such a country with a population that is two times bigger than the size of the entire African population. But as visionary and determined as he is, Comrade Xi Jinping took up the mantle and never failed his people with his thoughts of building a new era with Chinese characteristics and putting China on the global map.
Obviously, after a successful five years of showing impressive records, the people’s representative body, NPC, last week Saturday unanimously re-elected President Xi Jinping to steer affairs of the country for another term.
President Xi has a vision of making China the best place to live, not only for its citizens but the world at large. So, under his leadership China is rigorously embarking on a policy to open-up to ensure that foreign businesses in China are given fair treatment and a favourable environment to operate.
The decision to re-elect him as president of China was met with excitement by the general public, who describe their President as an ambitious man with a vision to put China on the global map.
The 64-year old became president of China in 2013, and in the last five years of his rule China has undergone historic changes and now become a global economic giant with historic achievements.
As visionary as he is, his thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era were written into the CPC constitution, as well as the country’ s constitution, to become a guiding principle for China.
He laid out a two-step approach to future development: working to basically realise socialist modernisation from 2020 to 2035; and developing China into a great, modern socialist country from 2035 to the middle of the century.
Why China must hail XI Jinping
As a developing country, as it prefers to be referred to, China stands tall among its peers. In the last five years under the guidance of President Xi Jinping, China’s economy has grown substantially. The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose from 54trillion Yuan ibn 2012 to 82.7trillion Yuan and grew at an average annual rate of 7.1percent, contributing more than 30 percent of global economic growth.
Again, the quality and effects of development have significantly improved. Revenue in China’s general public budget went up from 11.7trillion Yuan to 17.3trillion Yuan. Within the same period, per capita labour productivity rose from 73,000 Yuan to over 100,000 Yuan.
The President Xi-led government is determined to eliminate poverty by 2020, an agenda he and his leadership have made a commitment to achieve so as to ensure no citizen in China is counted among the poor.
To ensure this becomes a reality, more than 68 million people have been lifted out of poverty, including a total of 8.3 million relocated from inhospitable areas.
This year, the government intends reducing poverty among rural communities by over 10 million people, including 2.8 million who will be relocated from inhospitable areas.
In his address at the 13th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China organised in Beijing, the Premier of State, Li Keqiang, said over the past five years living standards have constantly been improving.
“We will do more to support areas affected by extreme poverty, and the central budget’s newly-enlarged poverty reduction funds and related transfer payments will be weighted toward these areas.
“We will tailor measures to individuals and individual households to ensure that targetted poor populations – including elderly people, people with disabilities, and the people with serious diseases – receive the assistance they need.
“Poverty relief policies will remain unchanged for those already lifted out of poverty while the battle goes on, and the newly-poor and those who slip back into poverty will receive prompt support,” Li said.
Africa/world’s share
Many Africa countries have benefitted from China’s foreign policy and trade cooperation.
In its attempt to connect the East African Countries, China has built a 750 kilometre (466 miles) electric railway at a cost of US$4billion.
The line connects landlocked Ethiopia to the Red Sea coast in Djiboutim, and it is expected to cut the travel time between the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and the port in Djibouti from three days by road to 12 hours by rail.
Again, in 2013 Xi Jinping proposed the establishment of a network of trade routes that will link China to the rest of the world, creating a network of railways, roads, pipelines and utility grids.
A year later China established the US$40billion Silk Road Fund to finance these initiatives, and it has made investments in several key projects.
