Xi: China's economy has potential to maintain long-term stable development

President Xi Jinping said that China’s economy has the hope and potential to maintain long-term stable development.

It is “completely possible” for China to meet the current standards for high-income countries by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period and to double the total economic volume or per capita income by 2035, he said.

Xi made the remarks in an explanatory speech on the CPC Central Committee’s proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, during last week’s plenary session of the CPC Central Committee. The speech was made public on Tuesday.

Taking into account the external and domestic economic development environment, Xi stressed the medium- and long-term goals should pay more attention to economic structure optimization so as to guide all parties to focus their work on improving the quality and efficiency of development.

“There will be many unstable and uncertain factors in the external environment in the coming period as many risks and hidden dangers may impact the domestic economic development and the COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impact and the world economy may continue to suffer from a downturn,” said Xi.

China should focus on promoting high-quality development during its 14th Five-Year Plan period, which is based on the scientific assessment of the environment and conditions for the country’s development, Xi said.

The Chinese president reaffirmed the role of development as the Party’s top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country, and underscored the imperative to deliver high-quality development in the new era and new stage.

To forestall and defuse various kinds of risks and proactively address challenges brought by external changes, China needs to focus on taking care of its own matters and improving the quality of development, said Xi.

He also stressed efforts to remain committed to the new development philosophy, focusing on deepening supply-side structural reform, transforming the development model, and delivering real benefits to all the people.

During his explanatory speech, Xi emphasized the need to promote common prosperity, “an essential requirement of socialism and the shared aspiration of all Chinese people.”

Advancing poverty alleviation has been the top priority for the CPC since its 18th National Congress, and lifting all rural residents out of poverty represents a significant step toward common prosperity, Xi said.

More than 93 million rural residents shook off poverty between 2013 and 2019 in China. It is necessary to further emphasize promoting common prosperity for everyone as China embarks on a journey to fully build a modern socialist country, Xi said.

The proposals called for “more notable and substantial progress in promoting common prosperity for everyone,” and “solid efforts to push forward common prosperity,” Xi noted.