
Photo: VCG
Chinese leaders concluded a major three-day economic meeting Friday, outlining the course of the country’s economy for the year to come.
So what did they decide?
Here are seven “major tasks” the leaders — including President Xi Jinping — outlined for 2019:
1. MANUFACTURING UPGRADING — China will promote the development of high-end manufacturing, including modern service industries. As the leaders put it, they will “unswervingly” make China a high-end manufacturing powerhouse.
2. DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION — China will create a stronger domestic market. The goal here is to “unleash people’s consumption power,” especially by improving product quality and — as in #1 above — developing services industries, from education to medical care and tourism.
3. RURAL REFORM — China will revitalize rural areas. This includes promoting agricultural industries and improving the living environment in rural areas.
4. REGIONAL COORDINATION — China will promote coordinated regional development. This includes making the Yangtze Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, and Great Bay Area the engines of high-quality growth.
5. QUICKENED REFORM — China will accelerate the pace of economic structural reform. This includes setting up a number of state-owned investment groups and pushing forward mixed-ownership reform. It also includes further reform of financial markets, attracting long-term investment into China, and establishing a high-tech stock board as soon as possible.
6. FOREIGN INVESTOR ACCESS — China will open up further to foreign investors. This includes relaxing market access and protecting legal rights, especially the intellectual property rights, of foreign companies. China will scrap foreign ownership caps in more business areas, and implement the consensus from the China-U.S. summit and push forward trade talks between the two countries.
7. PEOPLE’S LIVELIHOODS — China will “safeguard and improve people’s livelihoods.” This means stabilizing the employment rate, especially for high school graduates, farmers and retired soldiers. It also includes longer-term development of the property sector, which will account for variations among different cities.
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