President Xi Jinping has affirmed China’s goal to achieve moderate prosperity by 2020 through steady economic growth, according to a report by China Daily.
Xi has also stated that the country has to keep on progressing at no less than 6.5 percent year-on-year for the next five years. The development comes after the president met with top officials to sort out the proposal for China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), which will be reviewed and approved by the National People's Congress in March.
According to Chinese economist Justin Yifu Lin, an economics professor at Peking University, in order to achieve the goal, China's per capita GDP would need to reach $12,000, an increase from the current $7,000.
For Zheng Xinli, vice chairman of the China Center for Economic Exchanges, the improvement would allow the country to avoid the so-called middle-income trap, which stifles development as soon as per capita income reaches middle-income level.
However, President Xi is not only contented with a focus on steady growth, he is also emphasizing overall improvement for the country.
"In the next five years, China's development should not just be focused on growth speed, but also on growth in volume and, more important, growth in quality," said Xi.
Now in the third quarter, China's GDP growth rate has dropped to 6.9 percent, down from 7 percent in the last quarter and the lowest level after the global financial crisis. Experts expect the trend to continue, with the second largest economy registering a less than 7 percent growth while improving economic restructuring reforms.
"The government has sufficient policy ammunition to counter the cyclical slowdown. Meanwhile, we are relatively constructive on China's long-term potential growth rate, given the large 'catch-up' potential in both capital accumulation and productivity," said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at HSBC.