Danish Ambassador to China Friis Arne Petersen’s comments on Chinese new leadership, who debuted on Thursday.

China plays a very important role for Denmark in the world economy. China’s economic and political role will continue to grow in coming years. Denmark is actively expanding our political and economic cooperation with China. The Danish Prime Minister and other cabinet members has had several meetings with some of the new members of the standing committee, so we feel familiar with them and know that they are ready to deal with the challenges that face China.

One of the challenges is the transformation of the economic growth model from being export and investment driven to be driven by domestic private consumption.

Crucial to the transformation is also the expansion of the social security system whereby people's needs for private savings is diminished, and in general ensuring better social conditions of the Chinese population. This will be a challenge for years to come and will reinforced by an aging Chinese population.

A part of building a more sustainable development model is also dealing with the large environmental and energy challenges. Continued urbanization in China and the rapid economic development has big impact on the environment and will only become bigger.

Likewise there is no doubt that economic development has created a widening income gap in Chinese society, which today has greater differences between rich and poor than the United States according to the World Bank. It can create social conflicts and tensions and is also a contributing factor to the need for transformation of the economic growth model.