"Jiang reaffirmed that it is necessary to consolidate and develop unswervingly the public sector of the economy while firmly encouraging, supporting and guiding the development of non-public sectors, and that makes me believe that opportunities for big leaps of the private sector are coming," said Qiu Jibao, a sewing machines manufacturer from east China's Zhejiang Province.

Delegates to the congress shared Qiu's confidence in the country's future when discussing the report Saturday, saying that the report set the goal of building a well-off society of a higher standard in an all-round way in the first two decades of this century and put forward many new ideas to that end.

Yang Yongmao, secretary of the Harbin Municipal Committee of the CPC in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, said that Jiang's report summarized China's basic experience in the reform, opening up and modernization drive since the Fourth Plenum of the 13th CPC Central Committee in 1989 and put forward the overall requirements for carrying out the important thought of Three Represents, making the thought a milestone following Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory in CPC's history.

"By carrying out Three Represents, developing advanced productive forces and keeping pace with the times, we are sure to make state-owned enterprises bigger and stronger," said Liu Jie, chairman of Anshan Iron and Steel Company, one of the country's state-owned steel giants.

Liu said his company has benefited a lot from the nation's reform and opening up policies, with its profits expected surging to one billion yuan by the end of 2002, 12 times the figure of 1997.

Ding Jiemin, secretary of the Huai'an Municipal Committee of the CPC, Jiangsu Province, said that the key to China's development lies in the Party.

"Jiang's report answered the questions of what kind of party to build and how to build in China and brought forward the main tasks for strengthening and improving Party building," Ding said. "We must fulfill the tasks and strive to improve the Party's leadership and ruling capacity."

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2002)