Prioritize people's prosperity
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More needs to be done to narrow the income gap, reform the tax system, and offer migrant workers welfare in cities.
The top strategy established by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, held in mid-October 2010, to promote the country's scientific development and transformation of its economic development mode, is of an overall and strategic significance to the drafting of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) for national economic and social development.
The transformation of China's economic development mode over the next five years is meant to realize the transformation of the country's development strategy from focusing on expanding its economic size to increasing people's incomes by adopting an equitable, scientific and sustainable approach. The key to achieving such a much-needed policy target lies in the adoption of reforms and development that prioritize people's prosperity.
Prosperity of a country and its people are extremely important. The long-established government-led growth model in China, however, has obviously focused on increasing the State coffers. Such a model means the country has made some remarkable achievements - it has expanded its economic aggregate and alleviated poverty - however, the rapid increase in the country's revenues and expansion of State capital during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) period have made prominent the issues arising from a development strategy obsessed with increasing the size of the national economy.
The past years also show that a development model that prioritizes increasing State revenue causes the growth of its social consumption capability to lag behind that of national productivity, widening the gap between urban and rural areas and between the rich and the poor, and worsening social contradictions and risks.
Policies and measures that put more priority on promoting people's prosperity over the next five years will create good expectations for national economic development. They will help the country cultivate a domestic economic growth force. At the same time, they will help narrow the disparity in income distribution, allow people to share the fruits of the country's fast economic growth, and promote an equitable society.
