SteelOrbis Shanghai
China's 17th Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing on December 3-5. Held annually by the Communist Party of China, this is the most important conference in China in terms of determining the macro-economic ideas and trends for the coming year. It is understood from the conference that the most important change in Chinese economic policy compared to last year will a shift from a "moderate but relatively tight" monetary policy to a "tight" monetary policy. In addition, energy-saving and pollutant reduction are set to be a vital part of economic efforts in 2008, with these issues mentioned several times at the conference, indicating thereby that more efforts will be made on the elimination of out-of-date steel capacities and environmental protection.
The conference agreed that China needs to develop its agricultural base and to take stronger action towards the better satisfaction of the fundamental needs of the masses, to increase energy-saving and reduce pollution.
To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, China is to adopt various measures such as tightening its monetary policies, improving science and technology and labor quality, as well as developing managerial skills, with the aim of changing the fundamental conditions in China.
The major economic tasks facing China in 2008 are as follows:
1. To perfect and carry out macro-control measures, to maintain a healthy trend in economic development. This is a key task to prevent rapid economic growth from turning into overheated economic growth and causing serious inflation. Moderate financial policies and a relatively tight currency policy shall be implemented next year. Meanwhile, it is also important to make further use of currency policy in macro-control in order to strictly control the volume and frequency of credit loan supply. Equal emphasis shall also be put on permission for new projects, so as to prevent investment from rebounding and to keep economic growth reasonable.
2. To strengthen the fundamental status of agriculture and boost activity regarding agricultural and rural economic development.
3. To improve the capability of independent innovation, promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure.
4. To put more emphasis on energy-saving and pollutant reduction. Next year is a vital year for the completion of the set goals for energy-saving and pollutant reduction in the 11th Five-Year Plan. More emphasis shall be put on the acceleration of generalization and application of advanced technologies and on effective measures to keep high-consumption and high-emission industries from developing too rapidly.
5. To promote organized regional development and steady urbanization.
6. To comprehensively deepen reforms
7. To improve the level of the open economy
8. To focus on improving people's livelihood and promote social harmony.