HONG KONG, Nov 8 Reuters Economic policy shift in China and the investment opportunities it is creating are drivers for longterm bets in the country by global asset managers, top executives said on Wednesday.

China is the world39;s secondlargest capital market after the U.S., the head of BlackRock39;s global client business, Mark Wiedman, said at the Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit in Hong Kong.

Long term, China has to be part of a global investment portfolio.

Wiedman was among more than a dozen top executives of international firms speaking at the flagship event which began on Tuesday, and comes against a backdrop of economic slowdown in China where a massive debt crisis in the property sector has crippled some of its biggest companies and scared off investors.

Still, Wiedman said a significant policy shift is taking place in China which will make future investment more driven by capital markets as individuals diversify savings away from property and term deposits.

So long term, those are big opportunities for us, he said, without elaborating on the policy shift.

Also at the summit, Capital Group CEO Mike Gitlin said China39;s economy is undergoing massive transition.

But if you lean into where the policies are going, you39;ll have a better opportunity to benefit from investing in those areas, Gitlin said.

China is likely to achieve its annual growth target of 5 smoothly, People39;s Bank of China PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng told a separate forum…