Kamler's state-of-the-art plant, for instance, will soon be able to produce bicycles with just 12 employees per shift.

The international financial crisis, he said, was not an inevitable outcome of globalization, but the consequence of the excessive chase of profit by global financial institutions and a "grave failure of regulation".

Chinese President Xi Jinping offered a vigorous defence of globalisation and free trade in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, which underscored Beijing's desire to play a greater global role as the United States turns inward.