Plenum marks milestone in further reform

Editor's note: The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, held from Monday to Thursday, will profoundly advance reform and opening-up. Six experts share their views on the issue with China Daily:

Plenum charts course for future growth

The just-concluded third plenum of the 20th CPC Central Committee can be compared with the third plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978 which launched reform and opening-up and unleashed China's unprecedented economic rise.

It can also be compared with the third plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee in 2013 that emphasized the importance of narrowing the wealth gap, the need for more balanced regional development, along with improving the social welfare system and boosting the role of the private sector alongside that of State-owned enterprises.

By adopting the "Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization", the third plenum of the 20th CPC Central Committee has set the stage for promoting a "new type of industrialization" to enable China's industries to rise up the value chain, and further improve China's competitiveness by promoting advanced manufacturing and digitalization, and securing the supply chains while further developing core and emerging technologies.

The plenum vowed to promote, among other things, homegrown, high-end, intelligent and green manufacturing, while supporting strategic and emerging industries such as semiconductors to make key industrial and supply chains more secure in the face of increasing external pressure, especially from the United States and its allies.

It also vowed to further reform specific industrial sectors including high-tech and property, without draconian policy shifts, promote initiatives to overcome the economic and social challenges, and enhance self-sufficiency in technology, while avoiding fundamental changes.

In other words, the third plenum has charted the course of the Chinese economy's future development in the face of an increasingly complicated global outlook and challenges.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday revised China's 2024 economic growth forecast to 5 percent in an update to its World Economic Outlook from 4.6 percent in April, while lowering the US' growth forecast. As such, the compass of the third plenum points to a growing economy serving the Chinese people as well as the people in other countries.