China holds key economic meeting to plan for 2021

BEIJING -  The annual Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday, as Chinese leaders charted course for the economy in 2021.

In a speech at the conference, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, reviewed the country's economic work in 2020, analyzed the current situation and arranged the economic work for next year.

China will make efforts to build more independent and controllable industrial and supply chains, according to a statement released after the annual Central Economic Work Conference.

The security and stability of industrial and supply chains is the foundation of forming a new development paradigm, the statement said.

China will promote employment, improve its social security system, optimize income distribution structure and expand the middle-income group as part of efforts to expand domestic consumption, the meeting said Friday.

The country will lift some administrative restrictions on purchases in an orderly manner and tap into the consumption potential of counties and townships, according to the statement.

China will seize time to formulate an action plan for peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030.

The country will support areas with favorable conditions to peak the emissions ahead of the schedule, according to the statement.

China has previously announced that it will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

China will keep its macro policies consistent, stable and sustainable in 2021.

The country will continue to implement proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, amid efforts to maintain necessary support for economic recovery, the meeting said.

China will enhance its efforts to develop the digital economy and increase investments in new infrastructure.

Efforts should be made to strengthen the sustainability of investment growth and allow it to continue to play a key role, according to the statement. 

Reforms, opening-up in all-round way

China will promote reforms and opening-up in an all-round way, the meeting said.

To build a new development paradigm, the country must establish a high-level socialist market economic system, pursue a high-level opening-up, and make reforms and opening-up reinforce each other.

More efforts should be made to improve macroeconomic governance, and strengthen the coordination of international macro policies.

The conference called for efforts to stimulate the vitality of market entities, ease market access, promote fair competition, protect intellectual property rights, build a unified market and create a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment.

The conference also urged efforts to promote the healthy development of the capital market, and improve the quality of listed companies.

China will positively consider joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and attach importance to the application of international norms to safeguard national security.

Toughening  supervision over monopoly, unfair competition

Efforts will be made to intensify anti-monopoly supervision and prevent disorderly capital expansion next year, the meeting said.

Anti-trust and anti-unfair competition are the inherent requirements for improving the socialist market economic system and promoting high-quality development.

The country supports platform enterprises to pursue innovative development and enhance international competitiveness, and supports the joint development of the public and non-public sectors.

Laws and regulations concerning the identification of platform monopolies, management of data collection and use and protection of consumers' rights and interests will be optimized, said the meeting.

Financial innovation must be advanced under prudent supervision, it added.

National strategic technologies

China will strengthen its national strategic technologies with efforts including giving full play to the state's role in organizing major science and technology innovations.

The country will step up efforts to resolve major difficulties that constrain national development and security.

The meeting stressed giving full play to the institutional advantages of a new-type of system that pools national resources as well as the role of key academies, institutions and colleges which act as national teams. It also called for more efforts to optimize the allocation of scientific research strength and the sharing of resources.

The meeting urged efforts to step up the formulation and implementation a 10-year action plan to boost basic research, and concentrated efforts in the layout of a number of basic discipline research centers.

It also pledged support for eligible local areas in building international and regional science and technology innovation centers.

The meeting stressed giving full play to the principal role of enterprises in science and technology innovation, and pledged support for leading firms in establishing innovation consortiums to drive innovation activities of small and medium-sized firms.