(Oct 24): China will seek to maintain a certain rate of growth and expand consumption’s share of the economy as authorities draft the next five-year development blueprint, a senior official said.
The aim is to achieve high-quality growth where the expansion is kept within a “reasonable range” and the share of household consumption “rises significantly,” Han Wenxiu, deputy director in charge of daily work at the Office of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, said at a briefing Friday.
The briefing followed a four-day conclave of ruling Communist Party’s elites to approve the outlines for drafting China’s economic plan for the 2026-2030 period. Beijing is signalling a determination to deepen its manufacturing and tech push as it looks to maintain competitive advantages. Boosting the domestic market has become also more urgent to maintain sustainable growth amid rising global trade protectionism.
In a communique released Thursday, the party’s Central Committee vowed to build a modern industrial system and called for the beefing up of technology self-reliance and strength. That reversed the order of the two issues seen in a similar document five years ago, suggesting a shift toward the broader industrial base in the economy as Beijing gets concerned about growth deceleration and investment swarming into new sectors, causing waste and excess capacity.
Economists broadly expect growth to slow down in coming years. The communique repeated a goal that implies an average annual target of about 4.5% over the next decade, according to an estimate by Macquarie Group. China’s economy is on track to have grown an average 5.5% annually during the five-year period ending 2025, according to previous government estimates.
Zheng Shanjie, chairman of the National Reform and Development Commission, ranked “optimising and upgrading traditional industries” first among four priorities in building a modern industrial system.
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The country needs to consolidate and improve the global competitiveness of its petrochemical, machinery and shipping industries and foster the advanced manufacturing cluster, he said at the briefing. The drive is expected to generate about 10 trillion yuan (US$1.4 trillion) in new market opportunities in the next five years, the head of China’s top economic-planning agency said.
Emerging and future industries will be expanded, with new energy, new materials, space and aviation and low-altitude economy being targeted as “pillars,” Zheng said. He identified sectors such as quantum technology, bio-manufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear future energy, brain computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and sixth-generation mobile communication as where new growth drivers will be fostered.
There is “huge potential” for China to expand the services industry, Zheng said. Better integration of services with advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture will accelerate the “restructuring and optimisation of the economic ecosystem” and a higher quality of life for the Chinese people, he added.
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China will also “appropriately” advance the building of new infrastructure to anticipate demand and improve the transport system to enhance connectivity and efficiency, Zheng said.
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