Further reform can help China enjoy optimum reform dividend

Over the past four decades China has maintained an average annual GDP growth rate of 9.6 percent. Economists across the world acknowledge the remarkable achievements China has made since it launched reform and opening-up.

To begin with, China capitalized on its demographic dividends thanks to its huge population and workforce, which played a leading role in making reform and opening-up a great success. From 1980 to 2010, China's working age population - people between 15 and 59 years old - grew at an average rate of 1.8 percent a year, while the growth of the dependent population, that is, people aged below and above the working age, was almost stagnant, even declining at the rate of 0.2 percent a year.

As long as the supply of labor is sufficient and the working-age population keeps growing, the cost of labor remains relatively low. A population structure marked by a high percentage of working-age people and a comparatively low percentage of dependent population is conducive to a healthy and steady economic growth rate, which China experienced until 2010.