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| President Hu Jintao delivers a report at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Monday, Oct. 15, 2007. The Congress, which opened on Monday, will last seven days till Oct. 21st. Photo: Xinhua/Liu Jiansheng |
Chinese President Hu Jintao called on the 73 million members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese people on Monday to hold high the "great banner of socialism with Chinese Characteristics" in their strive for building "a moderately prosperous society in all respects."
Hu made the call in a keynote speech at the 17th CPC National Congress Monday on behalf of the 16th CPC Central Committee. The Congress meets every five years.
The theme of the Congress is "to hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, follow the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents, thoroughly apply the Scientific Outlook on Development, continue to emancipate the mind, persist in reform and opening up, pursue development in a scientific way, promote social harmony, and strive for new victories in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects," Hu said.
Hu said the Chinese government was committed to tackling damage to the environment, advance rural incomes and ensure product safety in an economy that's doubled in size since he became president in 2002. China is now the world's fourth largest economy.
"We will quadruple per capita GDP of the year 2000 by 2020 through optimising the economic structure and improving economic returns while reducing consumption of resources and protecting the environment," he said.
The per capita target is viewed as a response to concerns about inequality and the neglect of citizens in rural China.
The People's Bank of China is expected to raise its key interest rate from 7.29% to cool the surging economy.
However, China creates about 12 million jobs annually but an estimated additional 25 million people become available for work each year.
So while the government seeks to slow down the economy, it needs sustained rapid growth.
2007 will be the fifth straight year of double-digit growth.
Hu said that the government would push for an increase in domestic consumption. China "must pursue a policy of boosting domestic demand, particularly consumer demand," Hu said.
He called for a transition away from the economy's reliance on foreign investment and exports to a "well-coordinated combination of consumption, investment and exports."
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``Our economic growth is realized at an excessively high cost to resources and the environment,'' Hu said. He pledged that China will ``ensure the quality and safety of products.''
Hu also said that policies including ``gradually'' making the yuan convertible on the capital account would be introduced. China will improve energy efficiency, cut emissions from factories and add subsidies to boost agricultural production, Hu told the Congress.
``We will adopt comprehensive measures to maintain a basic equilibrium in the balance of payments,'' he said. In foreign trade, China will ``stress quality, adjust the mix of imports and exports,'' sell more services overseas and upgrade the assembly of imported materials.
Xinhua, China's State news agency, reported that Hu said that building a moderately prosperous society in all respects is a goal for the Party and the state to reach by 2020, and represents the fundamental interests of the people of all ethnic groups, he said.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics means the localization of Marxism. Hu said that "We will, under the leadership of the CPC and in light of China's basic conditions, take economic development as the central task, adhere to the Four Cardinal Principles and persevere in reform and opening up, release and develop the productive forces, consolidate and improve the socialist system, develop the socialist market economy, socialist democracy, an advanced socialist culture and a harmonious socialist society, and make China a prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious modern socialist country."
The opening meeting of the Congress was attended by more than 2,200 delegates from around the country.
China's average per capita GDP will reach USD$2,400 in 2010, a senior official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said last October.
Zhang Xiaoqiang, Vice Minister of the NDRC, said that at then exchange rates, China's GDP will reach $3.2 trillion in 2010.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China's GDP exceeded 2.2 trillion US dollars in 2005, ranking fourth in the world, after the United States, Japan and Germany.
However, per capita GDP was only 1,703 US dollars last year, ranking a lowly 110th in the world.
Experts said that while it has a big GDP, China's economy is still facing problems such as low efficiency, a low technological level and low added value.
China's GDP is 5% of world GDP, yet it consumes 25-40% of the world's crude coal, iron ore, steel, alumina and cement.
Only three out of 10,000 Chinese enterprises have intellectual property rights for their core technologies. 99 percent of Chinese firms have no patents and 60 percent do not have their own brands.
