Recently, Nanjing University and Guangming Daily jointly released the Chinese Think Tank Index (CTTI) Annual Excellent Research Award, which represents the highest quality of research by Chinese think tanks. The report of “Comprehensive Estimation of Emerging Markets Countries and Their Development Prospects” produced by Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University has the honour of winning the award. The report was jointly completed by Hu Biliang, Tang Xing, Yin Lin, and Liu Qian, and other researchers participated in the discussion.

The lead author of the report, Hu Biliang, Executive Dean and Professor of Economics of Belt and Road School at Beijing Normal University, points out that in the 21st century, the group rise of emerging market countries becomes the major driving force for the global economic growth and plays an increasingly important role in global governance.

However, the existing definitions of emerging market countries are vague, one-sided in Western discourse, and far from the reality. Professor Hu argues that the important significance of this report is that it clearly defines the concept of emerging market countries and establishes the standards of emerging market countries objectively, comprehensively and innovatively. As the largest emerging market country in the world, China has had a certain degree of academic discourse in this important research field, which lays the foundation for a better construction of its more systematic academic system, discipline system, and discourse system in the future.

In professor Hu’s opinion, compared with other research articles on emerging markets or emerging market countries, the report of “Comprehensive Estimation of Emerging Markets Countries and Their Development Prospects” shows six prominent characteristics. Originality is the frst. The article is new original work from the definition, the theoretical basis of the development, and the selection of indicators for the comprehensive measurement of emerging market countries, to the selection and determination of specific countries, the generalization and summary of the current basic characteristics, and development prospects of emerging market countries. There is no article in the world that is similar to this one which has a brand-new and comprehensive originality. Second is its theoretical property. The article grasps the development orientation and basic characteristics of emerging market countries and applies the fundamental theories of development economics to systematically analyze the main elements that promote the development of developing countries, which overcomes the one-sidedness and shortcomings of investment orientation in the study of emerging market countries in the past and has a more profound theoretical basis than previous related studies. The third is its systematicness. Based on the basic theories of development economics, the article conducts a comprehensive analysis from ten indicators in five dimensions of the scale of development, institutional environment, economic growth, social economic structural changes, and development momentum. The fourth is pertinence. The article raises research questions based on the objective development experience of developing countries. For a period of time, emerging market countries have been growing faster than developed countries. What are the reasons behind this phenomenon, what are the problems, and what is the development prospect? These are all practical issues that these countries are quite concerned about. The article provides basic answers to these questions, which has great practical pertinence and guiding significance. The fifth is that the report is normative. This article complies with normative research methods. Based on a systematic understanding of the basic principles of development economics, it uses data provided by international organizations and comprehensively applies classification (comparative method), induction, non-inferior solution set intersection method, etc. 30 emerging market countries are selected from a range of 183 countries/regions which have ofcial systematic data, and for the frst time the number and specifc countries of emerging market countries were accurately determined. The research combines qualitative and quantitative method, which provides relatively convincing results and lays a sound foundation for further in-depth research. Sixth is internationality. The study is not just a study done for China, but a study done for all countries in the world. This study is not an isolated study, but a study comparable to long-time related studies in the world, so it has considerable international comparability.

Think Tank Research and Release Centre of Guangming Daily and China Think Tank Research and Evaluation Centre of Nanjing University jointly launched the 2020 CTTI source think tank annual research collection activity in November. The activity received 268 valid works from 163 source think tanks. 30 received the Annual Excellent Research Award. Apart from that, several other awards, including the Annual Outstanding Research Award and the Annual Think Tank Construction Outstanding Case Award, were issued.