Party meeting set for October with nation’s 2026-30 economic road map key focus of agenda

The 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China will hold its fourth plenary session in October in Beijing, with a focus on deliberating the next five-year plan for the country’s social and economic development.

The announcement came on July 30 after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which was presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

During the upcoming session, the Political Bureau will report its work to the CPC Central Committee and study the proposals for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan, China’s strategic road map for national economic and social development between 2026 and 2030, according to a statement issued after the July 30 meeting.

It was noted at the meeting that the next five years is a crucial period for consolidating the foundation and making comprehensive efforts to basically realize socialist modernization.

As China is facing profound and complex changes in its development environment, with strategic opportunities, risks, and challenges coexisting and uncertainties and unforeseen factors growing, it is essential to maintain strategic focus, actively adapt to the changes, secure strategic initiative in fierce international competitions, and make significant breakthroughs in the strategic task of promoting Chinese modernization, the statement said.

It is important to accelerate the building of a new development paradigm, consider both domestic and international situations in a coordinated way, and balance development and security, the statement added.

The meeting’s participants highlighted the need to promote the overall well-being of the people, make solid strides toward common prosperity for all, and ensure that decisive progress is made in realizing socialist modernization.

At the meeting, the current economic situation was analyzed, and arrangements were made for economic work in the second half of the year.

Participants emphasized the need to give full play to macroeconomic policies, expand domestic demand on all fronts, steadfastly deepen reform, and promote deep integration of technological and industrial innovations.

They emphasized the need to effectively utilize various structural monetary policy tools to support technological innovation, boost consumption, and assist small and micro-sized enterprises.

While highlighting the need to stabilize the fundamentals of foreign trade and foreign investment, the meeting’s participants called for assisting foreign trade enterprises facing significant shocks, optimizing export tax rebate policies, and building high-level pilot free trade zones and other platforms for opening-up.

Prior to the Political Bureau meeting, the CPC Central Committee held a symposium on July 23 with non-CPC personages to solicit opinions and suggestions on the current economic situation and the economic work for the second half of this year.

Presiding over the symposium, Xi said that in the first half of the year, China’s economy made steady progress while maintaining stability.

This demonstrates that the nation’s economic foundation is solid and has multiple strengths, strong resilience and great potential, and that the positive factors supporting high-quality development are continuously accumulating, he said.

Noting that the economy still faces many risks and challenges, Xi underscored the need to properly understand the situation, enhance the awareness of potential dangers, think about the worst-case scenario, and make good use of development opportunities, potential, and advantages to consolidate and expand the positive momentum of economic recovery and improvement.

In terms of economic work in the second half, Xi emphasized the importance of maintaining the consistency and stability of policies and enhancing their flexibility and foreseeability, as well as stabilizing employment, enterprises, the market, and expectations.

He underscored the need to vigorously boost consumption, address “rat race” competition, facilitate domestic circulation while reinforcing the dual circulation of domestic and international markets, and strive to meet the economic and social development goals for the year.

Contact the writer at caodesheng@chinadaily.com.cn