Deepening of reform to top plenary agenda

The Communist Party of China Central Committee will hold its third plenary session in July in a significant move to comprehensively deepen reform and advance Chinese modernization, according to a decision made at a key Party meeting on Tuesday.

The meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Party's core leadership, also analyzed the performance of the economy and deliberated on a document on policy measures for advancing the high-quality, integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

According to a summary of the meeting, policymakers underscored that moving forward with reform and opening-up is a must in the face of complex domestic and international landscapes, a new round of sci-tech and industrial revolution, and fresh expectations from the general public.

"The whole Party must take the initiative in giving greater prominence to reform, and deepen reform in all respects with a focus on promoting Chinese modernization," the summary said.

In comprehensively deepening reform, the policymakers stressed the need to leverage reform in the economic system as the springboard, aiming to better promote social fairness and justice and enhance the public well-being.

The goal is to provide strong momentum and institutional guarantees for Chinese-style modernization, they said.

As for the economy, the policymakers noted the growing positive factors in economic performance this year, with continuing momentum of growth, better social expectations and concrete steps made in high-quality development.

China's GDP grew 5.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, beating expectations despite challenges from insufficient demand.

The meeting also pointed out challenges facing the world's second-largest economy, including lack of effective demand, significant pressure facing businesses in their operations, and risks and hidden dangers in key sectors.

The policymakers reaffirmed the need to carry out proactive fiscal policies and maintain prudent monetary policies.

They emphasized the need to promptly issue and effectively utilize ultra-long-term special government bonds, accelerate the issuance and use of special bonds, and keep up the intensity of necessary fiscal expenditure.

They pledged to adopt policy tools such as adjusting interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio, in order to increase support for the real economy and reduce the overall cost of social financing.

To boost domestic demand, the meeting underlined measures to create more scenarios for consumer spending, cater to the people's diversified needs for quality consumption, and move forward with people-oriented new urbanization.

The development of new quality productive forces must be tailored to local conditions, the policymakers emphasized, adding that more work must be done to build up emerging sectors, plan the development of future industries and employ cutting-edge technologies to empower the transformation and upgrade of traditional industries.

As part of broader measures to deepen reform and expand opening-up, the meeting called for proactive steps to expand trade in intermediate goods, service trade, digital trade and cross-border e-commerce.

Private enterprises will receive more incentives to explore global markets, and the government will take stronger steps to attract and utilize foreign investment, according to the meeting summary.

As for the real estate sector, the policymakers reiterated the necessity to follow policies tailored to different cities and to ensure that local authorities, real estate companies and financial institutions assume their due responsibilities to ensure the delivery of housing projects to protect homebuyers' legitimate rights.

They pledged to consider new policy measures in handling the inventory in the real estate sector and to optimize efforts to build new homes, in alignment with new changes in the supply and demand of the real estate market and the public's expectations for high-quality housing.

The meeting highlighted the need to thoroughly implement local government debt risk resolution plans, thereby ensuring that provincial-level regions and cities facing high debt risks can reduce their debt while maintaining stable development.

It called for concrete efforts to advance green and low-carbon development, including the implementation of the plan to continuously improve air quality and the 10 major actions for peaking carbon emissions.

The policymakers called for the Yangtze River Delta, one of China's economic powerhouses, to take the lead in aligning with international high-standard economic and trade rules, actively promote high-level collaborative opening-up, and forge new strengths for a higher-level open economy.