China's economic recovery brings confidence to world economic recovery: Polish expert

China's economic recovery has brought confidence to the recovery of the world economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a tough global recession, Sylwester Szafarz, former consul general of Poland in the Chinese city of Shanghai, has told Xinhua.

The freight train departs from Xi'an to Europe on April 8, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's GDP grew by 3.2 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics. Szafarz spoke highly of the growth, saying that China has overcome the adverse effects of the epidemic and the global economic recession, and has become the first major economy to resume growth since the outbreak of the epidemic. "This will play a positive role in the reconstruction of the world economy in the post-epidemic era."

Szafarz noted that as European countries have been striving to contain the spread of the coronavirus, China has shared its valuable anti-epidemic experience and expertise, donated medical supplies, and dispatched medical personnel to countries in need, effectively helping Europe's economic recovery.

China's economic stimulus measures are "mild," and are worth learning for European countries, Szafarz said. "I believe that there is room for further expansion of cooperation between Europe and China in the fields of economy, finance, society, science and technology in the post-epidemic era."

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in the first half of this year, the China Railway (CR) Express delivered a total of 3.67 million units of anti-epidemic goods to European countries including Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Lithuania. The total volume of goods shipped reached 461,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), an increase of 41 percent year-on-year.

Szafarz also hailed the role played by the CR Express in Europe's economic recovery. The China Railway Express has brought epidemic prevention materials to Europe, which greatly helped the continent resume work and production as soon as possible.

"I believe that both Europe and China hope and need to further deepen cooperation, and promote the economic recovery of the two sides in the post-epidemic era under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and '17+1 cooperation.' This will also form a benign stimulus to the global economic recovery," he said.

Poland is building a Central Transportation Port as a central hub for air, rail and road travel, whose construction scope sits between the Polish capital city of Warsaw and Lodz, an important node city for the CR Express. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called the project "a window of Poland to the world."

"I believe that Poland's Central Transportation Port is expected to become an important transportation and logistics hub connecting China with European and American countries, and it will help the China Railway Express transport goods to western European countries through Poland with higher efficiency," Szafarz said.

Szafarz noted that the pandemic has provided an opportunity to expand bilateral cooperation between Europe and China, which is conducive to Europe's economic recovery.

"The Chinese economy took the lead in recovering, and it also injected confidence and momentum into the recovery of the European and global economy in the post-epidemic era," he said.