CPC confirms medium-high economic growth target

BEIJING - China will target "medium-high economic growth" in the five years from 2016, according to a communique released on Thursday following a key meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Leaders decided at the four-day Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee 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.

These targets for the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) were set with view to ensure that the country can realize "a moderately prosperous society" by 2020.

The country will promote greater sophistication in its industrial sector and significantly raise the contribution of consumption to economic growth, according to the communique.

The urbanization ratio calculated based on the number of registered residents will also rise at a faster pace, it said.

The ratio of registered urban residents to total population stood at 35.9 percent at the end of 2014. A national plan to promote urbanization has set a target of raising the ratio to 45 percent.

The CPC Central Committee also discussed modernizing agriculture and raising the people's quality of life. It is now targeting bringing all rural people out of the poverty by 2020 and reducing the list of counties officially categorized as poor by more than 600.