China has unveiled its rural reforms in its ‘No.1 Central Document’ for 2025

CGTN Europe interviewed Zhang Zhiwei, President & Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management

Transcript

00:00China has unveiled this year's number one central document, outlining the priorities for rural development,

00:07ensuring the country's food security and raising the pay of farmers are main highlights.

00:12As the first policy document released each year, it's seen as a key indicator of the government's priorities.

00:17Shi Weichang is President and Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

00:22The new development is about technology breakthrough and how to bring the benefit of this technology progress into the rural area.

00:33So I think on both front, I think the government is on one side, you know, keeping consistent policy going,

00:41on the other side trying to make something new, make something exciting to happen.

00:47And you really think that these agricultural efficiency moves fit into China's broader modernization strategy?

00:56Yes, it does. Absolutely. I think on the agriculture side, I think agriculture has always been a pretty big part of the economy,

01:04but there's also a consensus that the productivity there can be improved.

01:09And the AI development, I think there's a lot of things that could happen.

01:16I'm very curious what's going to happen on the application side of AI in different areas of the economy.

01:22Agriculture is just one area. I think there are other manufacturing, education,

01:29many sectors that investors are actually now looking at.

01:33So that I think this year, the focus for the market is about where, in which area,

01:41this AI development can be applied and generate the most benefit.

01:45You talked about big data and the advances made in robotics,

01:49but there really is a role here for homegrown AI tech like DeepSeek, isn't there?

01:54I wonder where you see the particular opportunities.

01:58Absolutely. I think nowadays, you know, DeepSeek is applied to everywhere.

02:04Actually, I have, you know, friends all over the country, everybody, you know,

02:09installed this app onto their phones and using it daily.

02:13I've been using it daily for the past month and I really found it quite useful.

02:19And this widespread application that all kinds of questions you can ask.

02:26I can imagine that, you know, farmers could use this app to find out what's the best way to boost their productivity,

02:36to what kind of business or sub-sector particular products they need to, technology they need to adopt.

02:44So it's a very open, really wide range of possibility for the farmers.