Xinhua, Beijing :
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday pledged to continue reforms to attain the economic growth target of about 6.5 percent this year despite challenges ahead.
The annual government work report, delivered by Li at the opening meeting of the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, set the GDP growth target at around 6.5 percent, or higher if possible in practice.
The target, which Li said is “realistic and in keeping with economic principles,” is the lowest for more than 20 years for China. Nonetheless, China remains one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
The target will help steer and steady expectations and make structural adjustments as well as help achieve the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, Li said while delivering the report at the session, the first since Xi Jinping was endorsed as the core of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee last October. Li called for uniting more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Xi as the core and working hard to fulfill development targets.
2017 is of crucial importance for the country as the CPC will convene its 19th National Congress in the second half of the year to elect a new leadership for the next five years during which Xi’s vision of a well-off society will be achieved.
