China aims to maintain its stable, fast economic growth in the
coming 2006-10 period, the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CPC)
said Tuesday, stressing social harmony in the pursuit of
development.
The Party sets a target for China's per capita gross domestic
product (GDP) to double from the year 2000 to 2010 in its Proposal
for Formulating the 11th Five-Year Program (2006-10) for National
Economic and Social Development, which was approved at a
just-closed plenary session of the Party's central committee.
Asia's second biggest economy, driven by strong investment and
exports, expanded a robust 9.5 percent in the first six months this
year and is widely perceived to see only a slight slowdown
in2006.
Nonetheless, China's per capita GDP has only jumped to the
1,000-US dollar level, and, the economy is also beleaguered by such
problems as heated investment in certain industries -- which
triggered the latest round of macro-control over the past year --
as well as not strong enough consumption, increasing trade disputes
and outside pressure demanding currency appreciation, analysts
say.
A communique issued after the CPC session, attended by President
Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, said China's growth target should
be achieved on the back of "optimized structures, higher efficiency
and lower costs".
Energy costs for the same amount of GDP, for instance, should be
reduced roughly 20 percent in the coming five years, it said.
The communique emphasized China should maintain basically
balanced international payment, but did not mention any further
reforms of the renminbi exchange rate. Some developed countries
including the United States have been pushing China to raise the
value of its currency in an effort they said to narrow trade
deficits with China.
Typically, it reiterated economic growth and social progress
should be engineered with a "scientific concept of development",
aterm frequently used by top Chinese leaders indicating the shift
of the government's development philosophy from growth-centered to
people-centered.
The communique called for "properly handling the people's
internal contradictions and earnestly solving the most realistic
and direct interest problems that the broad masses are mostly
concerned about."
Job creation should be put on a higher agenda in the course of
economic and social development, it stressed. The communique said
efforts should be exerted to "ease the trend of a widening income
gap among different regions and a part of social members."
Chinese farmers' earnings lag behind city residents not only
inamount, but in growth rate -- being 7.7 percent for city dwellers
and 6.8 percent for rural people last year, official figures
show.
Commenting on the communique, Ding Yuanzhu, an economist with
the National Development and Reform Commission, told Xinhua that he
believes the top leadership is treating the building of harmonious
society as a "long-term, important" target.
(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2005)