-- China has set a modest economic growth target for 2021, as the world's second-largest economy is experiencing fundamental changes with its development focus shifting from quantity to quality.
-- China is always committed to the people-centered philosophy of development and strives to further improve people's livelihoods through pursuing high-quality development.
-- China, in pursuit of stellar scientific and technological achievements, is upholding innovation as the central role in its modernization drive while making itself a country of innovators.
-- The government is walking a fine line between economic development and environmental protection.
by Xinhua Writers Jiang Tingting, Xie Jiang, Xuan Liqi
BEIJING, March 6 -- China has set a modest economic growth target for 2021, as the world's second-largest economy is experiencing fundamental changes with its development focus shifting from quantity to quality.
"A target of over 6 percent will enable all of us to devote full energy to promoting reform, innovation and high-quality development," Premier Li Keqiang said Friday in this year's government work report submitted to the national legislature.
The annual target was significantly below the consensus of analysts, who expected growth could beat 8 percent this year.
The lower-than-expected target shows China is becoming more tolerant of moderating growth and will give provinces more room to pursue high-quality development that is more efficient, equitable, sustainable and secure, said Bai Yongxiu, a professor at Northwest University.
"Sticking to the new development concept and the high-quality growth model is a must to secure a good start for fully building a modern socialist country by 2050," said Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
Since the 1960s, only a dozen of over 100 middle-income countries and regions have become high-income economies, as they shifted their development models from quantitative expansion to qualitative improvement. By contrast, those countries and regions that stagnated or even regressed all failed to realize this fundamental change.
"China must pursue high-quality development in order to escape the middle-income trap," said Zhang.
