Lawmakers approve China's five-year plan against economic headwinds

BEIJING - Chinese lawmakers on Wednesday approved the country's economic and social development blueprint for the 2016-2020 period, which sets targeted average annual economic growth at above 6.5 percent in the next five years.

A total of 2,778 lawmakers, or 97.27 percent, voted for the five-year plan at the closing meeting of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC).

China has set 2020 as the target year to realize the "centenary goal" of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, pledging efforts to double GDP and per capita personal income from the 2010 level before the Communist Party of China's 100th anniversary of founding in 2021.

To this end, the five-year plan aims to keep medium-high growth in the next five years. By 2020, the size of China's economy is expected to exceed 90 trillion yuan ($13.8 trillion), compared with 67.7 trillion yuan in 2015, according to the plan.