Xi says China's economy has hope, potential to maintain long-term stable development

BEIJING -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has said that China's economy has the hope and potential to maintain long-term stable development.

It is "completely possible" for China to meet the current standards for high-income countries by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period and to double the total economic volume or per capita income by 2035, he said.

Xi made the remarks in an explanatory speech on the CPC Central Committee's proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 which was made public Tuesday.

There will be many unstable and uncertain factors in the external environment in the coming period as many risks and hidden dangers may impact the domestic economic development, said Xi, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic has a far-reaching impact and the world economy may continue to suffer from a downturn.

He stressed that the medium- and long-term goals should pay more attention to the economic structure optimization so as to guide all parties to focus their work on improving the quality and efficiency of development.