Positive development for country highlighted

China's development is still faced with many favorable conditions and the economy enjoys strong resilience, enormous potential and good momentum, a spokesman for the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China said on Saturday.

Sun Yeli, the spokesman for the congress, told a news conference that the fundamentals sustaining China's long-term economic growth remain unchanged.

"The speed of growth is indeed an important yardstick of economic performance, but it is not the only one," he said. "Following the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (in 2012), the CPC Central Committee made the judgment that the Chinese economy has entered a new normal moving from high-speed growth to high-quality development."

"The growth rate is no longer the only thing that matters. Instead, we focus more on fundamentally resolving the longer-term issues in the economy."

Official data showed that China's GDP had grown by 6.6 percent annually from 2013 to 2021, higher than the global average of 2.6 percent and the 3.7 percent of other developing economies during the same period. China's average contribution to global economic growth exceeded 30 percent during that period.

When it comes to downward pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in the international environment, Sun said China has stabilized its overall economic performance and kept it on a positive trajectory with effective and robust response measures.

"The Chinese economy is doing well among the major economies, making us still an important anchor of stability and driving force for global growth," he added.

In the next stage, Sun said the country will act on the plans and policies set forth at the 20th CPC National Congress, fully and comprehensively practice the new development philosophy, build up the new development paradigm, promote high-quality development and better coordinate development and security.

He said the country will continue to deepen supply-side structural reform, boost effective demand and ensure food and energy security and stability of industrial and supply chains. More efforts will also be made to keep employment stable, secure people's livelihoods and keep the economy operating within an appropriate range.