Growth quality is the priority

Reform program can inject vitality in the economy and realize more inclusive and environmentally friendly development

China has achieved remarkable economic growth since it launched reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, but the need to improve the quality of its economic growth has become urgent.

To realize real quality growth amid various kinds of challenges and restrictions, China needs to not only depend on its own efforts, but also draw on international experience.

While more needs to be done, progress has been made in China's economic growth.

First, economic efficiency has increased by a large margin. A variety of data show that the rise in China's productivity has been among the fastest in the world over the past 30-plus years. According to research by the University of Pennsylvania, for instance, the average annual growth rate of total factor productivity was more than 3 percent from 1980 to 2011.

Second, the intensive use of resources and energy has decreased remarkably. China's progress in this respect is actually much bigger than people anticipated. From 1978 to 2013, China's energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product decreased by 4 percent on average each year. Were it not for this, China would have consumed another 11.2 billion tons of standard coal last year according to its GDP, three times the actual consumption that year.

Third, the stability of economic growth has improved markedly. From the late 1970s to mid-1990s, China's economic growth fluctuated considerably. Since the mid-1990s the improvements in the economic system and macro control ability have stabilized China's economic growth, except for 2008 when the global crisis broke out the gap in China's economic growth between two consecutive years has been within 1.6 percentage points.

Fourth, more and more people have benefited from China's economic growth. From 1981 to 2010, China lifted more than 670 million people above the World Bank's poverty line of $1.25 a day according to the purchasing power parity of 2005, contributing more than 93 percent in terms of its contribution to global poverty alleviation during that period. At the same time, China's urbanization ratio rose from 17.9 percent in 1978 to 53.7 percent last year. And the permanent urban resident population rose to 710 million from 130 million.

However, despite these achievements, there are many outstanding issues concerning the quality of China's economic growth.