Beijing: Amid media reports that China plans to cut down its growth target to 6.5 percent from 7 percent, a top CPC body Thursday endorsed the 13th five-year plan which will target "medium-high economic growth" in the world's second largest economy.
The Fifth Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the highest policymaking body of the party headed by President Xi Jinping, decided at the end of the four-day meeting that China will target "medium-high economic growth" in the five years from 2016.
Ahead of the meeting official reports quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying that China's economy which slipped below 7 percent in the Q3 for the first time since 2009 does not need to grow at 7 percent this year.
"First, 6.9 percent is about 7 percent, which is in a reasonable range. We never said we must defend any target to the death," Li said in CPC mouthpiece People's Daily.
China may cut its GDP growth target to 6.5 percent in the next five years, a further decrease from this year's goal of 7 percent, a recent report in Economic Information, a newspaper affiliated to state-run Xinhua news agency said.
Till now the Chinese government has set 7 percent as the target amid the continued slowdown.
Recent IMF forecast said China's growth is expected to slow from 7.3 percent in 2014 to 6.8 percent this year and 6.3 percent in 2016 as the country struggles with its shift from export-oriented economy to one driven by consumption.
The plenary also decided that China will aim to double its 2010 GDP and per-capita income of both urban and rural residents by 2020 by ensuring more balanced, inclusive and sustainable development.
The country will also promote greater sophistication in its industrial sector and significantly raise the contribution of consumption to economic growth, a communique issued at the end of the meeting said.
The urbanisation ratio calculated based on the number of registered residents will also rise at a faster pace, it said.
In order to halt the slowdown, the party decided to put innovation at a core position for China's development in the five years from 2016 reducing too much dependence on manufacturing.
The decision taken during the four-day meet finalised the economic blueprint which will set the direction for the world's second-largest economy over the next five years.
Sectors including science, technology and culture need to be made more innovative, the communique said.
The government plans to encourage a system that nurtures innovation and sees better allocation of resources including labour, capital, land, technology and management.
China will continue to encourage mass entrepreneurship in the hope that it will lead to new technology, it said.
In response to the "new normal" of the plateauing economy,
the central government has announced a range of measures for emerging businesses, including financial support, supporting infrastructure and administrative assistance.
From January to September, around 3.16 million new companies were established in China, up 19.3 percent from a year ago, according to the latest data from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.
In this period, the high-tech sector reported 10.4 percent growth in value-added output, 4.2 percentage points higher than the figure for the whole industrial sector, the Xinhua report said.
The plenary session also finalised plans for China to attract more foreign investors by being clearer on the rules that apply to them.
The meeting decided on nationwide adoption of the "negative list" model that clearly states sectors and businesses that are off limits to foreign investment.
This will help ensure protection of foreign investors' rights and better allocate their funding.
The communique suggested the service sector should be further opened to foreign investment and systems to promote service trade should be improved.
Meanwhile, China will keep promoting the Belt and Road Initiative - the official name for Silk Road projects - by enhancing cooperation with countries and regions along the route, and participate in global industrial and equipment manufacturing cooperation, the CPC communique said.
Recognising the service sector's huge growth potential, China has taken gradual steps to accelerate its development, liberalising the finance, education, culture and medical treatment sectors in particular.
During the first three quarters of 2015, the value added of China's service sector accounted for 51.4 percent of GDP, up 2.3 percentage points from the same period last year.
