Finally, there is one more question that needs answering. During Xiaoping's south China tour last year he pointed out it is essential to grasp the opportunities to speed up reform and development, open the doors still wider and concentrate our efforts on running our own affairs in the best possible way. In his report to the 14th Party Congress Jiang Zemin emphasized the idea to speed things up and raised the targeted annual GNP growth rate during the 1990s from 6 percent to 8-9 percent.
Such a high rate of increase sounds encouraging at a time when the world is experiencing a universal slump. But quite a few people are worried. They would ask : What is the foundation for such unusually high speed ? How long can the "Special Express" last ? Will the brakes be slammed on like what happened in 1989 ?

Ma : During the 12 years from 1959 to 1970, Japan saw its annual GNP increase rate exceeding 10 percent for nine years. China GNP has also registered rather impressive growth over the last 14 years of reform, but we are still trailing behind Korea and in some years, we were even slower than Thailand. Our neighbouring countries are all developing rapidly. If we fail to pick up speed, we will lag behind. Low speed poses not only an economic problem but also a political problem. Backwardness means to place our country at the beck and call of others. All rising industrial nations and regions in Asia, including the "four small dragons," had recorded high speed development during the take-off stage of their economies.

>Gao : If we look at the speed of development in previous years, 1984-88 was a period of high speed growth, reaching an annual increase of 9 percent, some-times even surpassing 10 percent. In 1989 the rate dwindled to 3 percent increase left a big leeway, with the idea to quadruple the 1981 GNP by the end of this century (which means a per-capita figure of US $800-1,000). I think we have the following favourable conditions to increase the rate to 8-9 percent :

1) The 14 years of construction have provided a relatively sound material foundation. So far as total output is concerned, some of our products have reached advanced global levels.
2) The aim of reform has become more clear, and the growing market economy will inevitably bring new and greater vitality to the economy.
3) The door has been wider open and the investment environment is improving, attracting a large flock of investors from overseas.
4) After more than a decade of reform and opening, we have accumulated experience and brought up a vast contingent of entrepreneurs well-versed in technology and management.
5) Industrialization is under way in China. Compared with developed countries, we need to establish large numbers of enterprises for many industries. The development of these industries will provide a great impetus for the growth of various enterprises.
6) High-speed growth is the strong wish of the people of the entire country ; therefore 8-9 percent increase rate is no problem.