Key meeting sets priorities for next year

CPC leadership calls 2021 crucial for country's drive toward modernization

China will strive to spur domestic demand, strengthen strategic support of science and technology for economic development and expand high-standard opening-up to enable its economic growth to remain within a reasonable range in the next year, according to a key Party meeting on Friday.

The meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, analyzed the economic work for 2021.

Meeting participants said that given grave challenges and difficulties, China has maintained strategic focus on its development and produced achievements that have won acclaim from the people and the world through careful planning, decisive action and arduous efforts.

They reviewed the country's achievements in poverty reduction, environmental protection and risk prevention as well as in scientific and technological innovation, reform and opening-up and the improvement of people's livelihoods. They noted that China will be the only major economy that registers positive economic growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic this year.

Despite economic revival, uncertainties remain amid the ongoing pandemic and in the external environment, the participants stressed, while calling for strengthening awareness of opportunities and risks and making scientific and solid steps to ensure the country takes the initiative in its economic work.

Calling 2021 crucial in the country's drive toward modernization, participants underlined the need to uphold the overarching principle of making progress while ensuring stability for next year's economic development.

At the new development stage, efforts should be made to build the new development paradigm with the domestic market as the mainstay while domestic and international markets complement each other in order to promote high-quality growth, participants said.

They stressed the need to strengthen reform and innovation, take a systemic approach in economic work, continue to consolidate the results of epidemic control and socioeconomic development and coordinate development and security to meet the ever-growing demand of the people for a better life.

While underscoring the importance of intensifying supply-side structural reform, the meeting participants urged efforts to emphasize demand-side reform to create a higher-standard dynamic balance between supply and demand and improve the overall efficiency of the national economic system.

Efforts should be made to advance reform and opening-up, enhance the nation's strategic power in science and technology and raise the country's ability to control the industrial and supply chains independently, they said.

The country should also work to shape a stronger domestic market, solidify the agricultural foundation, intensify measures to curb monopolies and prevent disordered capital investment, promote healthy development of the real estate market and consistently improve environmental quality, they added.

Participants called for synergy between poverty alleviation achievements and rural vitalization, and required readiness to defuse and prevent risks. It also stressed the need to be vigilant against COVID-19 and strengthen work related to epidemic prevention and control.

On Tuesday, the CPC Central Committee held a symposium with non-Party members to solicit comments and suggestions on economic work, demonstrating the CPC's democratic decision-making process. Representatives of non-Party members put forward suggestions that included advancing the construction of intelligent cities, fostering new growth drivers through spurring domestic demand and promoting digital economy development.

While presiding over the symposium, Xi commended the non-Party members for their important role in helping the CPC Central Committee make decisions in a scientific and efficient manner.

Regarding economic work in the coming year, Xi said the country will make efforts to coordinate epidemic control and socioeconomic development and synergize development and security to ensure steady economic growth and social harmony and stability.