China Continues to Adhere to Economic Growth, Jiang SaysChinese President Jiang Zemin reiterated during a recent tour of northeast China that China will unswervingly take economic development as its central task.The fundamental task of socialism is to develop the productive forces, and maintenance of the vitality of the Communist Party of China (CPC) serves as a guarantee for China's modernization drive, said Jiang, who is also the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. "We are confronted with a complicated and changeable situation. It requires all leading officials, especially senior officials, to make a scientific judgment of the situation, properly handle all kinds of problems and contradictions and implement the Party line, principles and policies," Jiang said at a meeting attended by officials in Jilin, Heilongjiang and Liaoning provinces on Sunday. He said young people are the future of the nation and urged a good job should be done in selecting and training young cadres. Jiang described it as a task of strategic importance for the Party and the State. Grassroots organizations are the basis of all undertakings of the Party and State. The party's policies and principles will be implemented in a "down to earth" manner in all regions and departments, Jiang said. Young Party members and officials should carry forward the Party's fine tradition and work style, work hard and persevere and take into consideration the needs of the masses, he said. Referring to economic and social development in China's Tenth Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), Jiang said that the upcoming five or 10 years will be an important period for China's economic growth and be crucial to its development in the new century. We shall usher in a new development phase, in which the Chinese people will lead a relatively comfortable life. We must start from a higher point, push ahead with the modernization drive, maintain a unity between speed and efficiency and continue a fast economic growth, Jiang said. Economic development in the new century will be characterized by readjusting economic structures and maintaining a sustained, rapid and healthy development of the national economy, he added. The next five to 10 years will be a key period for China's economic restructuring. The country will maintain fast growth while readjusting its economic structures, upgrading the industrial structure, promote the efficiency of agriculture, industry and service trade. During that time it will also give impetus to a coordinated development of different regions and a virtuous cooperation between urban and rural areas. Jiang urged state-owned enterprises to speed up reforms, establish a modern enterprise system at large and medium sized enterprises and strengthen enterprise management in a scientific way. The country will also enhance reforms in administrative departments, change the functions of the government, separate the functions of the government from those of the enterprises and reduce the government's intervention in economic affairs. China will be active in building an innovative system to make enterprises the backbone for technical innovation and scientific progress. The development of non-governmental technology-oriented enterprises will be encouraged, he said. The president also stressed the importance of improving people' s living standards in the modernization drive, especially solving problems for needy residents in both urban and rural areas. |
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