With 2018 coming to an end, China’s leadership gathered to set priorities for the new year
Xi Jinping and the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee met on December 13, 2018 to go through the necessary economic focal points for 2019. Amidst the external uncertainties, the agenda for the new year will have a strong priority on domestic development. The sustained and healthy economic development of 2018 was praised during the meeting. Similarly, it was concluded the country should uphold the strategy of pursuing progress while ensuring stability. Furthermore, the country must focalize on the new development philosophy and boost high-quality development.
Keep reading to learn more about China’s priority areas for the upcoming year!
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Priority Areas for 2019
With the trade war and global economic tensions, the Politburo stressed that the country has a „strategic window of opportunity“ and „must firmly focus on getting its own goals accomplished“.
As the meeting drew to a close, the following points were chosen as focal topics:
- The three battles: potential financial risk, poverty, and pollution – are prioritized. Even more efforts will go into these major tasks, as appointed in an established action plan.
- High-quality development within the manufacturing sector will be further promoted. Additionally, a strong focus on deeper integration between advanced manufacturing and modern service sectors.
- Promotion of shaping a strong domestic market, along with improving the level of wholeness of the national economy.
- Further work on the rural strategy development – continuous work to promote the optimistic situation in agriculture, rural areas and farmers.
- Move forward with coordinated regional development and take into account comparative advantages of each region.
- Accelerate economic reforms and boost the all-around opening up.
- Raise well-being of the people and resolve issues of biggest concern.
The above general guidelines will be soon formed into specific economic policies, once endorsed at the key economic work conference.
As analysts noted, the overall message the Politburo was sending to the public was not to be „too pessimistic“ in the light of the trade war and the economic outlook of China. This comes after the leaders of China and the US had agreed to a truce on December 1.
Mixed Opinions
Unsurprisingly, 2018 has not been the easiest on Chinese economy. Many China-experts have shared their observations on the slowing economy and how China’s stock market has been performing poorly. FDI inflows into China had fallen 27.6% in November from a year earlier.
However, China’s leadership upholds the idea of the government doing a great job with economic growth being on track and safeguarding the broad social stability. This comes in the light of preparations for next year’s 70th anniversary of the Communist Party’s rule in the country.
Further efforts to celebrate the founding of the PRC
According to the statement released after the meeting, China will continue to pursue the supply-side structural reform as their main task and focus on deepening the market-oriented reform. The country plans to further open up at a high level and speed up building a modernized economy.
Another prime concern is raising market confidence and social stability. The country will keep economic growth at a reasonable level and work on stabilizing employment, as the statement said. As the country continuously works on improving its ability to lead economic work, the statement also praised the efforts made in order to fight corruption since the 19th CPC National Congress. As the statement continues, strict governance over the Party and continuous anti-corruption efforts had been successful, but must continue on a long-term basis.
With these and many more ambitious goals set for the new year, the statement is mainly sending a message of continuous confidence to the public and stresses the priority of self-reliance in times of global uncertainties
Annual Economic Conference to Follow
The above priorities were set a few days before The Annual Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC) in the ongoing week, which will be attended by high-ranking leaders such as Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, financial regulatory officials, economic planners, and provincial governors.
The event, which takes place at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, is a chance for policymakers to discuss the burning topics concerning the domestic economy and the seven priority areas as determined in the preliminary meeting. The rising damage on the domestic economy done by the trade war will certainly be on the agenda as well.
Economic policies decided at the conference will be summarized by the states media Xinhua. The reports and details will then be passed to provincial and local governments.
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