NAIROBI - China's economy has proven quite resilient and innovative, with the outlook for the next year upbeat amid the country's latest optimization of COVID-19 response, a scholar has said.

"There are all indications that China's economic growth will be on an upward trend in the coming year," Cavince Adhere, a Kenya-based international relations scholar, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The recently concluded Central Economic Work Conference in China has underlined the role of consumption in economic development and the role of innovation in economic transformation, he noted.

The scholar said Africa looks forward to another year of closer economic ties with China, which has been the continent's largest trade partner since 2009.

"China is welcoming more African agricultural produce into its largest consumer market. Fortifying the domestic market while promoting global trade by China will see an increased optimism in the economic recovery of the world," he said.

To better coordinate anti-virus efforts and economic development, China has optimized its COVID-19 response policies dynamically. In its latest move, China announced to downgrade the management of COVID-19 from Jan 8, 2023, treating it as a Class B infection rather than a more serious Class A infection.

Regarding COVID-19 response, Adhere said China has performed well in coordinating pandemic response and economic and social development.

"China is currently implementing new policies aimed at sustainably overcoming the burden of the pandemic while facilitating renewed opening and integration into the global economy. This is welcome," he said.

"When most economies went into recession, China became one of the handfuls that registered positive economic growth," he said. As the world's manufacturing hub, China was the source of many industrial products that enabled other countries to put up a spirited fight against the pandemic and hoist global commerce, Adhere said.

China's gradual recovery from the pandemic has been a boon for global economic recovery, said the scholar.

In regions such as Africa, he said that Chinese companies remained active, implementing infrastructure and connectivity projects as other countries pulled their workforce from the continent.

The scholar also lauded China's contribution to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

African countries and other developing countries benefited from China's substantial airlifts of medicine, therapeutics, equipment and protective clothing, he said.

The world has witnessed incredible support from China in the fight against the pandemic, Adhere said, adding that China demonstrated international responsibility by focusing more on the interests of humanity.