Pursuit of high-quality development key task: China Daily editorial

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China opens at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Oct 16, 2022. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/chinadaily.com.cn]

The report delivered at the opening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Beijing on Sunday recognizes "pursuing high-quality development" as one of the "essential requirements" for China's modernization.

Since it was first proposed at the 19th National Congress of the CPC in 2017, high-quality development has become the focus of China's socioeconomic development. It is fair to say that to achieve the goal of building a modern socialist country in all respects, China must, first and foremost, pursue high-quality development, since, as the report pointed out, without a solid material and technological foundation hopes of building a great modern socialist country in all respects cannot be realized.

The report makes it clear that development can resolve many problems and high-quality development is of crucial importance to the country's future. This means reforms will be implemented to develop the socialist market economy, promote high-standard opening-up, and efforts will be made to foster a new pattern of development that is focused on the domestic economy and features a positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows.

Over the past decade, China's economic strength has increased significantly, with its gross domestic product growing from 54 trillion yuan ($7.48 trillion) to 114 trillion yuan, accounting for 18.5 percent of the world economy, an increase of 7.2 percentage points. From 2013 to 2021, China's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 6.6 percent, higher than the average of 2.6 percent for the world and 3.7 percent for developing economies in the same period.

It is these development achievements that have created space for the country to focus more on the efficiency, fairness and sustainability of national development.

Forming a virtuous circle in which the government ensures sound institutions to enable productive interactions between the market and society, individuals and communities, and enterprises, means that pursuing high-quality development will be an all-entities approach.

In turn, a booming market sector and vigorous economy will improve people's livelihoods and ensure the government has enough resources to provide the necessary public services that are another defining characteristic of high-quality development.

The report, which mentions high-quality development nearly 20 times and outlines how to resolve a number of pressing bottleneck issues, serves as a guidance for China to constantly improve the quality of its development in the coming years.

It also indicates that this is an overarching task that must be integrated into the country's responses to the risks and uncertainties that have arisen at home and abroad. Pursuing high-quality development is essential requirement for China's modernization and the report makes clear that there will be no resting on the country's laurels in the coming years.