CHINA’S top leaders have set the economic priorities for next year in the key Central Economic Work Conference held from Wednesday to Friday in Beijing.

Recognizing the country’s hard-won economic achievements this year amid effective control of COVID-19, the meeting outlined specific tasks for 2021, a year of special importance as it marks the beginning of China’s new five-year plan period and the 100th founding anniversary of the CPC.

This year’s conference is especially under the spotlight as global policymakers and investors are watching how the world’s second-largest economy will continue to emerge from the pandemic and help restore global economic growth.

China has become the only major economy in the world to achieve positive growth in 2020, the meeting said.

For next year, China will work to ensure that its economy runs in an appropriate range with the implementation of targeted and effective macro policies, the meeting said.

It will keep its macro policies consistent, stable and sustainable in 2021, with continued implementation of a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy.

In 2021, the country will take a solid first step in building the new development paradigm, in which domestic and foreign markets reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay.

The potential of the domestic market should be fully tapped, the meeting said.

China will strengthen its national strategic technologies in 2021 and make efforts to build more independent and controllable industrial and supply chains.

As uncertainties still loom over the global economy, the meeting stressed efforts to guard against various risks and challenges.

The meeting listed anti-monopoly supervision as one of the key tasks for next year, vowing to prevent disorderly capital expansion.

Laws and regulations concerning the identification of platform monopolies, management of data collection and use, and protection of consumers’ rights and interests will be improved, it stressed.

Financial innovation must be advanced under prudent supervision, the meeting said.

On the financial front, solid efforts should be made to resolve hidden debts of local governments, the meeting said.

China will work to solve prominent housing problems in big cities as one of its key economic tasks for 2021.

Sticking to the principle that “houses are for living in, not for speculation,” the country will adopt multiple policies to promote steady and healthy development of the real estate market, the meeting said.

The country will also strive to tackle problems related to seeds and farmlands next year as part of its efforts to ensure food security, it said.

While developing its domestic market and addressing potential challenges are among the priorities set by the government, Chinese leaders are also aiming for a more open and inclusive growth that can be shared by all from the world.

The meeting also called for efforts to stimulate the vitality of market entities, ease market access, promote fair competition, protect intellectual property rights, build a unified market and create a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment.

China will positively consider joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and attach importance to the application of international norms to safeguard national security, it said.

As part of China’s commitment to tackling the global issue of climate change, the country will seize time to formulate an action plan for peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030, and support areas with favorable conditions to peak the emissions ahead of schedule, according to the meeting.

China has previously announced that it will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

(Xinhua)