Galvanizing demand key to economy

Customers shop along the renovated Nanjing East Road Walkway in Shanghai. [Photo/Xinhua]

Party leadership meeting calls for greater efforts to overcome challenges

The Chinese economy is recovering, but domestic demand remains insufficient and economic transformation and upgrading still face new difficulties and obstacles, according to a key Party leadership meeting on Friday.

The meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee was presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, with a view to analyzing the current economic situation.

The meeting came as the world's second-largest economy strives to recover amid slowing global growth resulting from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both domestic and international challenges have dented confidence and overall demand.

Since the start of this year, the nation has carried out coordinated macroeconomic policies, with China's economy and society fully resuming normal operations. The triple pressures facing the economy — shrinking demand, supply shocks and weakening expectations — have eased amid better-than-expected first-quarter growth, according to a statement after the meeting.

Market demand has gradually recovered, economic development has shown an upward trend and the economic operation has achieved a good start, it added.

However, the meeting's participants said, as stronger growth impetus is needed, greater efforts are required to overcome the difficulties and challenges hindering the nation's high-quality development.

Restoring and expanding demand is the key to consistent economic recovery, they said. Proactive fiscal policy should be stepped up, while prudent monetary policy should be targeted and effective, so that they will work together to boost demand, the meeting participants added.

Multiple steps should be taken to help increase the household income of urban and rural residents to boost services consumption, while private investment should be also driven up effectively by leveraging the role of government investment and policy incentives, according to the meeting.

The meeting participants stressed the importance of reform and opening-up in bolstering economic growth, saying that attracting foreign investment should be put in a more important position in order to stabilize the fundamentals of international trade and investment.

Efforts should be made to remove the obstacles, in terms of laws and regulations, as well as hidden barriers that affect fair competition among enterprises of various ownership, to allow them to achieve common development and to consistently boost the confidence of all market players, they said.

The meeting participants also called for accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system with the real economy as the pillar, stressed the need to strengthen scientific and technological self-reliance, and highlighted the development of new energy vehicles and artificial intelligence.

Efforts should be made to foster the well-regulated and sound development of platform companies, and encourage leading firms in the sector to explore and innovate, the meeting noted.

The meeting's participants also urged efforts to effectively prevent and defuse risks in key fields, and to guide the reform of small and medium-sized banks, as well as insurance and trust institutions, to defuse potential risks.

They noted that "housing is for living in, not for speculation", and called for efforts to ensure steady and healthy development of the nation's real estate market and advance the establishment of the new development mode for the real estate sector. Management of local government debt must be strengthened, and new hidden debt must be controlled strictly, according to the meeting.

Furthermore, the meeting's participants called for concrete measures to ensure people's livelihood and improve people's well being. They emphasized the need to promote employment, particularly increasing jobs for college and university graduates.

The meeting urged consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and taking actions to ensure food security and the supply of important farm products.