Blueprint unveiled to right growth imbalances
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-19 22:03

Communist Party of China has outlined a vague economic blueprint aimed at rebalancing an economy which has promoted 25 years of miraculous growth but engendered a massive wealth gap.

The details, carried by Xinhua news agency, come a week after the party's annual plenary session adopted the 11th five-year plan for economic and social development.

It said that China must bring about more balanced and efficient growth and calls for major efforts to raise farm incomes, boost employment and create a more effective social security system.

While reiterating the goal of doubling 2000 gross domestic product per capita of 855 US dollars by 2010, China must "fully carry out the scientific concept of development, coordinating regional development and making China an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly society".

Gross domestic product per capita is currently around 1,000 dollars.

The world's most populous country aims to reduce its profligate energy consumption per unit of production by about 20 percent from current levels that are four times that in the United States.

It also vowed to intensify pollution controls, while promoting the development of the information, biotechnology, hi-tech materials, recyclable energy and aerospace sectors, the report said.

New technologies should be widely adopted to develop recognisable name brands with proprietary intellectual property rights, it said.

China should also improve its new currency regime after it revalued the yuan in late July and set up a managed float, aiming to gradually reach full convertibility, it said, but gave no timeline.

It repeated that China would introduce a more market-oriented interest rate system step by step and put in place a deposit insurance system to promote investor protection.

The plan further reiterates its intention to actively develop the stock and bond markets.

Meanwhile, a social security system suited to the nation's economic development level should be established, a goal regulators are still struggling with since the breakdown of the state's cradle-to-grave model.

Income distribution which has created a yawning wealth divide between rich and poor must be adjusted, it stated without saying how.

Greater efforts should be made to protect the rights of women and children, as well as develop welfare for the handicapped, while at the same time more must be invested in the health sector and public medical services, it added.

The document formally endorses ongoing efforts to build a strategic oil reserve, a scheme that has repeatedly been delayed.

It adds that China would rely on domestic resources to meet its energy supply and develop oil substitutes, even though the country is increasingly reliant on exports to meet the needs of an economy that in the first half of this year expanded at 9.5 percent.

The National People's Congress, will review the draft of the five-year plan at its annual session next March.