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| Economic Change: Agricultural Land, Value Added in Agriculture and Export of Goods and Services |
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Source: World Bank, Online Database, Downloaded: 14 January 2009 |
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While more and more land is used for agriculture in China, the value added to the GDP by farmers is shrinking substantially. In the late 1960s farmers produced some 40% of GDP with 40% of the land; today, farmers use 60% of the land area and produce about 10% of the GDP. During only three decades China has transformed itself from a country based, to a large extent, on subsistence farming into a modern economy where 90% of the value added is generated in industry and services. |
| This dramatic economic change in China was the consequence of fundamental economic reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, which abandoned the state-run command-and-control economy of Mao's time and created market- and export-oriented manufacturing and services sectors. In 2005, exports of goods and services contributed some 40% to China's GDP - up from less than 5% in the mid-seventies before the reforms. |
