The out-going chief of the World Bank's mission in Beijing has urged China to develop its debt market to tap domestic capital in addition to foreign share issues to fund its many infrastructure projects.
Pieter Bottelier, 60, is due to leave Beijing in early July to take up a senior advisory post in Washington after 4.5 dramatic years, in which he has seen the unification of the currency, a successful fight against the worst inflation since 1949 and China become the second-biggest market for foreign investment in the world.
In a wide-ranging interview in his Beijing office, he looked back over his time in China and identified the main areas in which more work had to be done to complete the country's ambitious reform programme.
Question: What do you remember most from your years in China? Mr Bottelier: Most memorable is to have been a witness and a participant in an extraordinarily exciting period of rapid change in China. The last 18 years of reforms are probably the longest period of sustained rapid development and stability this country has had in over 150 years.
So much of the international comment completely forgets the historical context. The more China progresses, the more criticism it seems to receive.
Specifically, most memorable is the rapid progress in marketisation. When I came, grain coupons and foreign exchange certificates were still in common use. These things we have almost forgotten today; they are collector's items.