Xi stresses deeper-level reform, higher-level opening-up

President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for efforts to promote deeper-level reform and pursue higher-level opening-up to provide strong impetus for establishing a new development pattern.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while presiding over the 15th meeting of the central committee for deepening overall reform.

Xi stressed that accelerating the establishment of a new development pattern featuring dual circulation, which takes the domestic market as the mainstay while letting domestic and foreign markets boost each other, is a strategic decision made in accordance with changes in China's development stage, environment and conditions, and a systematic deep-level reform concerning the overall situation of the country.

Efforts should be made to give full play to reform, remain firm in strategic determination, uphold and improve the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and modernize China's governance system and capacity, he said.

Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy heads of the central committee for deepening overall reform, attended the meeting.

To build a new development pattern, both short-term responses and medium and long-run growth should be considered as a whole, and the country needs to accelerate reforms that help increase the efficiency of resource allocation, and reforms that help improve growth quality and efficiency, Xi said.

It is necessary to link up the construction of a new development pattern with the implementation of the strategy for coordinated regional development and the construction of pilot free trade zones, and explore building a new development pattern and creating a new highland of reforms and opening-up in regions where conditions permit, he said.

He stressed the importance of the forward-looking study of reforms, active and effective handling of unstable and uncertain factors, expanding policy space, and enhancing institutional resilience.

The meeting reviewed and approved a series of guidelines on innovative development of foreign trade, vitalizing higher education in the country's central and western regions, standardizing private schools for compulsory education, standardizing medical practices and pushing ahead with garbage sorting.

It also heard reports on the progress of rural reforms since the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee.

The meeting called for efforts to enhance the quality of foreign trade, stabilize the industrial and supply chains, foster new growth drivers, further promote trade facilitation and optimize the environment for foreign trade development.

The meeting stressed upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership over universities and colleges to further develop higher education in the central and western regions. It called for focusing on local features and pooling education resources to stimulate the endogenous driving force of higher education in the regions.

The meeting noted that privately-run schools offering compulsory education should be kept well-regulated in a bid to fully implement the Party's education policy and uphold overall Party leadership over compulsory education.

Highlighting the vital contributions made by the country's medical and health care system in fighting COVID-19, the meeting stressed technological innovation as well as further regulation and more supervision on medical institutions and workers.

The meeting urged faster construction of facilities and better supporting policies to speed up the forming of a long-term waste-sorting mechanism.

Giving prominence to ensuring food security, the meeting stressed keeping the public ownership of land unchanged, not breaking the red line of cultivated land, and not damaging the interests of farmers.

Efforts should be made to improve the rural property rights system and the market-oriented allocation of factors, boost the allocation efficiency of various factors such as rural land, capital, talent, and technology, and stimulate the inherent vitality of rural areas, according to the meeting.

More accurate, targeted, and effective policies should be implemented to guide agricultural development transforming from production-oriented to quality-oriented, the meeting noted.

The country should vigorously implement the strategy of rural vitalization and set up sound institutions, mechanisms, and policy systems for integrated urban-rural development, said the meeting.

More work should be done to strengthen the resolve and confidence of all parties in deepening reform and accumulate strength for embarking on a new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country, it said.

Editor: John Li