China’s Third Plenum to discuss reforms, sustainable growth
November 9, 2013, 7:16 am

China’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector rose to 51.4 per cent in October [Getty Images]

The meetings, known as the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of China’s Communist Party (CPC) will look to President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to re-energise the country’s growth drivers as the global economic recession begins to pinch at China’s dynamo.

The decisions taken during the meetings, which are held behind closed doors, will determine China’s market policies for the next 10 years.

Experts say that China’s successes in recent years has created a cumbersome industrial overcapacity, domestic debt, rapid and often uncontrollable urbanisation, as well as the persistent challenge of cleaning up a smog-infested environment.

Chinese leaders have pledged to allow markets greater self-governance, reducing government intervention and moving away from archaic preferential policies. They will also likely discuss fiscal and tax reform, greater transparency, and the encouragement of competition in a bid to drive innovation.

Last week, in  a meeting with the prominent international think-tank 21st Century Council non-governmental forum, Xi pledged to continue China’s economic reforms and policy of opening up its markets.

“The more China is developed, the more the country will open up,” he said.

“There are sufficient factors supporting China’s economic development. We are confident that the Chinese economy will keep growing in a sustained and healthy way.”

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China’s economy beat expectations and registered growth at 7.8 per cent in the third quarter.

Growth had fallen to 7.5 per cent in the second quarter on dampened global demand for Chinese goods.