Key economic meeting signals China gearing up for milestone accomplishments

The annual Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from last Tuesday to Thursday, as Chinese leaders charted course for the nation's development in 2020.

Completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieving the goals of the 13th Five-Year Plan will be the top priority of the CPC's work next year, and concerted efforts should be made in this regard, according to the conference.

In the past year, China has maintained a sustained and sound economic and social development, as well as made key breakthroughs in the “three tough battles": targeted poverty reduction, effective prevention and control of financial risks, and general improvement in the environment.

China has made historic achievements in fighting poverty over the past decades, becoming a major contributor to the world's poverty reduction endeavors.

The number of impoverished rural residents dropped from 98.99 million in late 2012 to 16.6 million by the end of 2018, according to official statistics.

The conference stressed the basic trend of the Chinese economy maintaining steady growth toward long-term sound development remains unchanged, though against the background of the global financial crisis, accelerating profound changes, and increasing sources of turbulence worldwide.

To these risks and uncertainties from abroad, the conference proposed a series of countermeasure. "We need to be well prepared with contingency plans," said the conference.

And to achieve the milestone, completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieving the goals of the 13th Five-Year Plan is the key.

Major economic tasks for 2020 were mapped out at the conference.

They range from the new development philosophy, to the details of improving the people's well-being, the structure and quality of employment, and plans to deepen the reform of the economic system.

China is at a pivotal stage of transforming its growth model, improving its economic structure and fostering new drivers of growth.

To boost high-quality development, the conference stressed building new driving forces through faster implementation of regional development strategies, such as the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The regional development strategies have not only narrowed the development gap among different regions, but also sped up urbanization process in a new way.

China has been offering the world its wisdom and approaches to solving problems of different kinds in the past years.

Now the world is watching the country sprinting toward a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

The conference set the tone for the country's milestone accomplishments in the coming year.