According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), two-thirds of all wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects that came online in 2020 were cheaper than the cheapest new fossil fuel power plants. That’s double the equivalent share for 2019.
This trend is only to continue in the future, with the cost of renewables expected to drop significantly.
“The global weighted average cost of newly commissioned solar photovoltaics (PV), onshore and offshore wind power projects in 2021 fell. This was despite rising commodity and renewable equipment prices in 2021 given there is a notable lag before these cost increases appear in project total installed costs; and significant improvements in performance in 2021 raised capacity factors, especially for onshore wind,” wrote the authors IRENA’s Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2021 report.
Compared to 2019, the cost of onshore wind fell by 13%, offshore wind dropped by 9%, and solar photovoltaics projects saw a 7% reduction in cost. New utility-scale solar PV projects commissioned in 2021 fell by another 13% year-on-year, from USD 0.055/kWh to USD 0.048/kWh.
Prof. DR. Hadi Winarto
Berikut disampaikan rangkuman dari artikel2 internet terkait dengan Middle Income Trap.
Ada banyak negara yg sampai 50 tahun lebih tetap tak bisa naik kelas menjadi negara maju. Malaysia tahun 1980 telah mempunyai income per capita sebesar US$1927 (kelas menengah bawah) dan punya visi 2020 yaitu menjadi negara maju pada tahun 2020. Tetapi pada tahun 2020 income per capita Malaysia masih US$10361, dibawah US$12535, jadi masih negara berkembang. Thailand tahun 1988 punya income per capita US$1161 dan tahun 2022 menjadi US$7631, jadi Thailand terjebak dalam perangkap pendapatan menengah selama lebih dari 34 tahun. Indonesia sudah menjadi negara berkembang sejak 1993 atau sekira 30 tahun. Jadi memang tak mudah utk menjadi negara maju (negara kaya). Di Asia hanya Jepang, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Kor Sel dan Singapura saja yg telah berhasil melompati jebakan perangkap middle class dan menjadi developed country (negara maju atau negara kaya).
Berikut disampikan info tambahan dari sumber di internet mengenai masalah Cina ingin menjadi maju tetapi mungkin terjebak dalam perangkap middle income trap.
Apa itu 'Perangkap Pendapatan
Menengah' (Middle Income Trap)
Istilah 'perangkap pendapatan menengah' adalah referensi luas untuk fenomena di mana negara-negara mengalami pertumbuhan yang cepat dan berhasil meningkatkan statusnya dari negara miskin menjadi negara berpenghasilan menengah, tetapi pertumbuhan ekonominya mulai mandek setelah itu dan gagal mencapai keinginan untuk menjadi negara dengan ekonomi berpenghasilan lebih tinggi atau terjebak di zona berpenghasilan menengah.
Definisi lainnya dapat diberikan
sebagai berikut:
"Perangkap pendapatan menengah"
adalah teori pembangunan ekonomi di mana upah di suatu negara
meningkat ke titik di mana potensi pertumbuhan ekonomi, yang didorong
ekspor berbasis manufaktur dengan keterampilan rendah, telah
kehabisan momentum sebelum mencapai kemampuan inovatif, yang
dibutuhkan untuk meningkatkan produktivitas dan bersaing dengan
negara-negara maju dalam industri dengan rantai pasok bernilai yang
lebih tinggi. Dengan demikian, hanya tersisa sedikit jalan untuk
pertumbuhan lebih lanjut dan peningkatan upah menjadi terhenti alias
mandek, dan dengan demikian gagal untuk menjadi negara maju.
Cina rawan terjebak dalam 'Perangkap Pendapatan Menengah'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwsXzUdPvbM&t=54s
Cina berisiko terjebak dalam 'middle
income trap' (disingkat MIT) atau perangkap penghasilan menengah.
Bank Dunia menganggap ekonomi dengan pendapatan per kapita antara
$1.000 dan $12.235 sebagai negara 'Berpenghasilan Menengah'.
Cina telah berada dalam kategori ini selama hampir 29 tahun sekarang. Apa arti perjalanan panjang Cina sebagai negara 'berpenghasilan menengah' adalah bahwa ia mungkin tidak akan pernah bisa melewati ambang batas di mana ia dapat dicap sebagai negara berpenghasilan tinggi. Waktu hampir habis untuk Cina karena ekonomi Asia berpenghasilan tinggi lainnya - Korea Selatan, Taiwan, dan Singapura hanya membutuhkan 23, 27, dan 29 tahun sebagai negara berpenghasilan menengah sebelum mengambil lompatan dan menjadi negara berpenghasilan tinggi (negara maju atau negara kaya).
Pada tahun 2020, pendapatan per kapita
China adalah $10.484 dan oleh karena itu negara tersebut perlu
meningkatkan pertumbuhan dengan cepat untuk menghindari jebakan
pendapatan menengah yang dihadapinya.
Evan Medeiros, seorang mantan direktur senior untuk
Asia di Dewan Keamanan Nasional Presiden Barack Obama mengatakan
bahwa Cina hanya memiliki "sekitar lima tahun" untuk
menjadi negara dengan ekonomi berpenghasilan tinggi, atau besar
kemungkinan Cina akan terjebak dalam penghasilan menengah.
Berbicara di Asia Society di New York
pada hari Selasa, Evan Medeiros mencatat bahwa Cina telah menjadi apa
yang Bank Dunia anggap sebagai ekonomi berpenghasilan menengah - di
mana pendapatan per kapita antara $ 1.000 dan $ 12,235 selama sekira
25 tahun. Korea Selatan, Taiwan, dan Singapura, tambahnya,
masing-masing menghabiskan 23, 27, dan 29 tahun sebagai ekonomi
berpenghasilan menengah sebelum naik peringkat menjadi negara maju
atau negara kaya.
"Saya pikir waktu sangat penting bagi Cina, dan saya pikir Cina tak memilikinya" kata Medeiros, yang mencatat bahwa pendapatan per kapita Cina saat ini sekitar $8.700. " Cina dalam lima tahun berikut harus berlari kencang - butuh peningkatan kecepatan jika ingin membuat lompatan itu."
Cina sudah mulai menunjukkan
tanda-tanda bahwa mereka tumbuh melewati model pertumbuhan yang
dipimpin manufaktur yang telah memicu pertumbuhan ekonomi yang cepat
dalam beberapa dekade terakhir. Penduduk usia kerja di negara ini
telah menurun sejak 2012, dan pada awal 2013 beberapa ekonom
menyatakan bahwa Cina telah mulai memasuki "Titik Balik Lewis"
- di mana upah pekerja mulai naik lebih cepat daripada tingkat
inflasi karena sumber tenaga kerja telah terkuras habis. (lihat Lewis
turning point - Wikipedia )
Medeiros mengatakan Cina perlu
melakukan reformasi pasar yang serius untuk membantu mendorong
pertumbuhan yang dibutuhkan supaya "lulus" dari tingkat
pendapatan menengah ke atas sebelum terlambat. Dia ingat menghadiri
pertemuan antara Presiden Obama dan Sekretaris Jenderal Partai
Komunis Xi Jinping pada 2013, di mana Xi menekankan harapannya untuk
menghindari jebakan pendapatan menengah. Akhir tahun itu, pemerintah
Cina menyusun sebuah program reformasi ekonomi yang ambisius untuk
membantu mencapai ini. Tetapi sejauh ini reformasi tersebut telah
menjadi "kekecewaan besar" bagi komunitas internasional,
katanya, karena hanya sedikit dari tujuan program tersebut yang benar-benar telah
dicapai.
"Apakah Xi Jinping dan [Perdana Menteri] Li Keqiang siap membayar biaya politik yang diperlukan [untuk menghindari jebakan pendapatan menengah]?" Medeiros bertanya. "Saya akan mengatakan mereka masih mempertimbangkannya."
"Saya tidak berpikir Xi Jinping adalah seorang reformis," tambahnya. "Saya pikir dia adalah seorang modernis, dan perbedaan itu penting karena pandangan Xi Jinping tentang ekonomi berdasarkan serangkaian keyakinan politik Leninis dan nasionalis, bukan kepercayaan penuh pada pasar. Jadi saya pikir apa yang akan kita lihat dalam lima tahun ke depan adalah ketegangan yang dimainkan antara keyakinan Leninis nasionalis dan kekuatan pasar."
Lower middle income | Data (worldbank.org) Upper middle income | Data (worldbank.org)
Gross National Income (GNI) Definition, With Real-World Example (investopedia.com)
World GDP per Capita Ranking 2022 | Data and Charts - knoema.com
China is now racing towards “Middle Income Trap” due to the ‘Lying flat campaign’
Akshay Narang
October 25, 2021
Chinese President Xi Jinping articulated an alert on October 15. As per the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship journal on political theory, Qiushi, Xi said, “It is necessary to prevent the stagnation of the social class, unblock the channels for upward social mobility, create opportunities for more people to become rich, and form an environment for improvement in which everyone participates, avoiding involution and lying flat.”
This was probably the first time that Xi talked about “Lying flat” or what is called tang ping in China, a movement that involves lying down and doing absolutely nothing. “Lying flat” has gained traction amongst Chinese youth as a symbol of protest against the brutal “996” working culture in China that involves working from 9 AM to 9 PM, six days a week. However, the “lying flat” campaign is now pushing China deeper into a ‘middle income trap’.
What is the ‘Middle Income Trap’
The term ‘middle income trap’ is a broad reference to a phenomenon in which countries experience rapid growth and quickly reach the status of a middle-income country, but start stagnating after that and fail to catch up with higher income economies and get trapped in the middle-income zone.
China stuck in the ‘Middle Income Trap’
China itself is at the risk of getting stuck in the ‘middle income trap’. The World Bank considers an economy with a per capita income between $1,000 and $12,235 to be a ‘Middle-Income’ country. China has been in this category for almost 29 years now.
What China’s prolonged journey as a ‘middle income’ country means is that it may never be able to cross the threshold beyond which it can be labelled as an upper-income country. Time is running out for China as other high-income Asian economies- South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore had spent 23, 27, and 29 years as middle-income countries respectively before taking a leap and becoming high-income countries.
In 2020, China’s per capita income was $10,484 and therefore the country needs to pick up growth quickly to escape the middle-income trap it finds itself in.
How “Lying Flat” is pushing China further into the ‘middle income trap’
When Xi spoke about “Lying Flat”, he seemed to suggest that the movement strikes at the very core of his “Chinese dream” ideology, which he describes as the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”.
Chinese experts however fear that the “Lying Flat” campaign could throw China deeper into a ‘middle income trap’.
Dr Gavin Sin Hin Chiu, an independent commentator and former associate professor at Shenzhen University, has been quoted by SCMP as saying, “If it [lying flat] becomes widespread, it will affect young people’s expectations of income growth, consumption, marriage and childbirth, which will be detrimental to China’s ability to avoid the middle-income trap, where growth stagnates and incomes stall.”
Chiu added, “China is now at a crossroads of becoming a high-income economy or finding itself stuck in the middle-income trap.
The lying flat movement would negatively affect China’s efforts to escape the middle-income trap.”
Xi Jinping understands that if Chinese youth stop working, then there will not be a rise in overall national income and China will stay where it is- a middle-income zone.
In the third quarter of the ongoing Financial Year, Chinese economic growth slowed down to 4.9 per cent due to the ongoing real estate crisis, power shortages and weak consumer demand. However, the lying flat campaign, which is peaking in terms of its popularity, also has a role to play. So, the lying flat campaign is already holding back Chinese growth.
The Qiushi article quoted Xi Jinping as saying, “Only by promoting common prosperity, increasing the income of urban and rural residents, and improving human capital can we increase overall productivity and consolidate the foundations for high-quality development.”
Lying flat is unlikely to go down
Xi is rebuking Chinese youngsters for adopting a minimalist lifestyle. The campaign had originated after a young Chinese man, Luo Huazhong, wrote a post on Baidu Tieba social media platform titled “Lying Flat is justice”. It explained how he embraced minimalism for the past two years. Luo said, “Life is just lying down, lying down and lying down.”
In media interviews, Luo said, “When I say lying flat, I don’t mean that I just lie down every day and don’t do anything.” He added, “Lying flat is a state of mind – that is, I feel that many things are not worthy of my attention and energy.”
Soon, the lying flat campaign spread like a wildfire in China with youth embracing the individualist campaign. It allowed them to think of their own needs instead of working in animalistic conditions to raise national income just to meet the Chinese Communist Party’s ambitions goals.
China is using its “Great Firewall” and heavy censorship to curb the lying flat campaign. Luo’s original post itself was targeted but its copies quickly spread on the internet and the Chinese youth seemed to pick up the idea well.
Chinese Communist hardliners are slamming the movement. Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the CCP mouthpiece Global Times, said, “Young people are the hope of this country. Neither they themselves, nor the country, will allow them to collectively lie flat.” State-backed media outlet Nanfang Daily too called the movement “shameful”.
But here is the real thing- if If average Chinese youngster doesn’t want to waste his youth working 12 hours every day for six days a week only to earn higher incomes, the CCP can’t force him to aim to earn more.
Lying flat is a campaign that can’t be cracked down upon and much to the chagrin of the CCP, it is throwing China into the middle-income trap for eternity.
By Ivana Davidovic
Business reporter, BBC News
"I'm continuing to get rid of the negative energy in my life. I think 2022 will be an upgrade on 2021, but I still don't want to do anything. I will continue to 'lie flat'. I enjoy this state."
When Jeff (not his real name), left his home city of Hangzhou, for a highly-paid job as an app developer in Beijing several years ago, like many young Chinese professionals, work became his life.
The little spare time he had outside work, he spent playing what he describes as "mindless" computer games. He didn't develop a social circle in his new adopted city and eventually gave up trying.
But when the pandemic hit, life as he knew it came to an abrupt stop. Like many other workers Covid made him reassess his priorities in life.
Chatting with artist friends back in his home town it struck him how although they had little money they always had something interesting to say about their day and what they were up to - while all he had was work.
When his firm started laying off staff because of the pandemic, he was forced to work 60-70 hours a week. He finally snapped and took some time off to travel.
The idea of 'lying flat', or tang ping in Chinese, means taking a break from relentless work. The tang ping movement took off during 2021 as many felt they were coming under increasing pressure to work even harder and out perform their peers.
Tired of working flat out
The background to this trend is a shrinking labour market in China, which means younger people are now under pressure to work much longer hours and they burnout.
People "feel so apathetic now they're having to deal with the coronavirus and feel exhausted. They literally just want to lie down with a book, or sit and watch some TV, rather than keep the momentum going by working hard," says Kerry Allen, the BBC's China media analyst.
This means that while the Covid pandemic might be abating, the tang ping movement is not.
On Chinese social media sites, users are posting messages saying that they do not want to return to the way things were before the pandemic, and that they now have the confidence to pursue a slower-paced life.
China's former one-child policy has meant that many young professionals have grown up without brothers or sisters, and this has added to many people's sense of strain.
Traditional values are still very important in China - being able to own a home and have children. Yet many people in their 20s and 30s worry that they will never be able to achieve these things. Those that are only children argue, for instance, they will also have to take care of their elderly parents and for many people property prices are increasingly out of reach.
In 2019, tech tycoon and Alibaba group founder Jack Ma was criticised for endorsing China's so-called 996 working culture - where people work from 9:00am to 9:00pm, six days a week.
Last year, the country's top court and labour ministry ruled these practices illegal. Yet, if working 996 is still what it takes to succeed professionally, it is perhaps no surprise that some young people are opting out entirely.
Demographic trends mean that social pressures on the young are likely to intensify. By 2035, the OECD forecasts that 20% of China's population will be over 65, which will put an increased pressure on young people to support older generations.
Jeff, who did not want to be identified over fear of a backlash, describes his own decision to ditch his job and life in Beijing as "a quiet protest [against] the current rules. Not accepting it, when people tell you you must learn more and work harder".
This can sound almost subversive in China. The sentiment he expresses has been widespread enough to warrant an explicit warning from President Xi Jinping, in an article in a Communist party journal.
"It is necessary to prevent the solidification of social strata, smooth the upward flow channels, create opportunities for more people to become rich, form a development environment where everyone participates, and avoid 'involution' and 'laying flat'," he wrote.
None of these tensions between generations are unique to China. In both the US and Europe, economists are describing a 'Great Resignation', with millions of workers either retiring, quitting or refusing to take jobs they consider pointless, or unrewarding.
So could 'lying flat' be the Chinese version of these trends? Dr Lauren Johnston, research associate at the China Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, says there are different drivers to this story.
First, there are young rural migrants in Beijing or Shanghai, who now realise "how far behind they are, in terms of being able to make enough money to buy a house, or compete with the city kids who grew up speaking English and wearing sophisticated clothing".
Dr Johnston explains some of this group may now be thinking of returning to their home towns and taking lower-paid jobs instead to be with their families.
On the other side, there are the children of richer, successful parents who are not "as hungry as the super-achieving kids from poorer families".
Dr Johnston thinks China's so-called "tiger" culture is an added barrier, where parents feel under intense pressure to help their child achieve, that school on its own is not enough. They feel they have to pay for extra lessons in maths, Chinese, English and music, or in preparing for competitive entrance exams.
It remains to be seen how all of this will play out at a time when China is facing a difficult economic picture - a slowdown in growth, debt is increasing and the country's property sector is facing a possible full-blown retraction.
As for Jeff, after pressure from his parents he finally got another job but says it is a much less-demanding role. He earns half of what he used to, but says he has so much flexibility that he is planning to remain for the foreseeable future.
"All my hobbies that I discovered during my 'lying down' time - skiing, rock climbing - I'll be able to keep doing them all. I have time to do what I love, I'm very satisfied."
China's new 'tang ping' trend aims to highlight pressures of work culture
China's new 'tang ping' trend aims to highlight pressures of work culture - BBC News
3 June 2021
Young people in China exhausted by a culture of hard work with seemingly little reward are highlighting the need for a lifestyle change by "lying flat".
The new trend, known as "tang ping", is described as an antidote to society's pressures to find jobs and perform well while working long shifts.
China has a shrinking labour market and young people often work more hours.
The term "tang ping" is believed to have originated in a post on a popular Chinese social media site.
"Lying flat is my wise movement," a user wrote in a since-deleted post on the discussion forum Tieba, adding: "Only by lying down can humans become the measure of all things."
The comments were later discussed on Sina Weibo, another popular Chinese microblogging site, and the term soon became a buzzword.
The idea behind "tang ping" - not overworking, being content with more attainable achievements and allowing time to unwind - has been praised by many and inspired numerous memes. It has been described as a spiritual movement
"Sending resumes was like fishing for a needle in the ocean," a lab technician named only as Wang told AFP news agency.
"You're beaten up by society and just want a more relaxed life... 'lying flat' is not waiting to die. I still work, but just don't overstretch," the 24-year-old said.
News site Sixth Tone reported that a "tang ping" group created on the IMDb-like platform Douban had attracted 6,000 members.
However, along with the original Tieba post, the Douban group has since been deleted, and searches for the hashtag #TangPing have been banned on Sina Weibo in an apparent effort by censors to prevent people seeing the scale of the new trend.
Increased pressures on China's youth
By Kerry Allen, China Media Analyst
There have been similar trends in recent years. In 2016, pictures of a Chinese actor slouching in a 90s sitcom became a popular meme. The following year, young Chinese netizens went wild for a "depressed egg" Japanese cartoon character called Gudetama
At the time, the Sixth Tone news website noted the rise of what it called "sang culture" or quite literally, a "doomsday culture", factoring in young people's "reduced work ethic, a lack of self-motivation, and an apathetic demeanour".
Such trends come in light of the increased pressures placed on young Chinese citizens. This demographic have grown up under the one-child policy, and are expected to work longer hours than their predecessors - a population twice as large that is increasingly retiring.
Today's population of young Chinese also face greater pressures to show they are "socially responsible" by complying with new rules set under China's controversial social credit system, and they are constantly being urged to show their nationalism by boycotting a never-ending list of foreign companies and brands.