Yearly meeting outlines 2023 growth plans

A tone-setting meeting to plan for China's economic performance next year has prioritized increasing domestic demand by boosting consumption in order to promote economic growth amid pressure from "demand contraction, supply shocks and weakening expectations".

The two-day annual Central Economic Work Conference, which concluded on Friday, also made it clear that efforts must be made to raise social expectations and boost market confidence, better coordinate the pandemic response and socioeconomic development, while better coordinating the promotion of supply-side structural reform and increasing domestic demand.

Addressing the meeting, President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, reviewed the nation's economic work in 2022, analyzed the current economic situation and made proposals for next year's economic work.

Meeting participants underlined the need to adhere to the overarching principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability for next year's economic work. They also called for comprehensive and faithful implementation of the new development philosophy, and stepping up the building of the new development paradigm with a focus on advancing high-quality growth and better coordinating development and security, according to a statement released after the meeting.

Emphasis will be placed on stabilizing growth, employment and prices in order to boost the economy, it said.

The implementation of a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy will continue in 2023, the statement said. Coordination of and synergy between various policies should be strengthened, and measures for prevention and control should be optimized so that they jointly boost high-quality growth, it added.

The meeting's participants highlighted that proactive fiscal policy measures need to be reinforced to improve efficiency, and prudent monetary policy measures need to be precise and forceful.

They said that industrial policy needs to take development and security into account, while social policy needs to ensure people's basic livelihoods. Employment of younger people, particularly recent college graduates, should be given special attention, they added.

To expand domestic demand, the meeting participants said multiple steps should be taken to increase people's incomes and support consumption of housing, new energy vehicles and eldercare services.

They underlined the need to effectively spur social capital through government investment and policy incentives, and encourage and attract private capital to participate in major projects. Exports should continue to buttress economic growth, they said.

The meeting participants called for stepping up the building of a modern industrial system, making breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields and improving the global competitiveness of China's traditional industries.

They stressed the need to speed up research, development and application of cutting-edge technologies in the fields of new energy, artificial intelligence, biotech, green and low-carbon development and quantum computing, and work harder to develop the digital economy.

The meeting participants underscored the importance of treating State-owned companies and private businesses as equals through legal or institutional support, and urged protecting the property of private companies and the rights and interests of private entrepreneurs in accordance with the law.

While underscoring the need to make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital, the meeting participants called for widening market access, expanding opening-up in the modern services industry and making active efforts to join high-standard economic and trade agreements, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement.

They also stressed ensuring the stable development of the real estate market while highlighting the need to prevent and defuse major economic and financial risks.

The meeting participants urged developing the real economy and strengthening mitigation against financial risks of local government debt, and said that systemic financial risks must be avoided.