China plans to grow its economy by about 8 percent this year, stressing the quality, rather than the quantity, of expansion, Premier Wen Jiabao said in Beijing yesterday at the start of this year's annual session of the National People's Congress.
The targeted increase in gross domestic product is 1.9 percentage points lower than the growth experienced last year, but it is higher than the 7.5 percent figure identified in the country's 11th Five-Year Plan, covering 2006 to 2010.
Wen's forecast was part of the annual work report he delivered to the 2,927 delegates attending the legislative session in the Great Hall of the People.
The projected growth rate conveys the signal that macroeconomic control will produce "steady and healthy" results.
The pace of China's economic growth is likely to slow this year, agreed Wang Xiaoguang, an economist at the Institute of Macroeconomics under the State Development and Reform Commission.
But Wang said the figure could still hit around 9 percent.
"Last year, the government expected growth of 8 percent, but it came to 9.9 percent," Wang said.
 "We will adhere to the strategy of strengthening the role of consumption in fueling economic development," the premier said.
He urged nationwide efforts to increase incomes in urban and rural areas, encourage spending in rural areas, reduce taxes on middle- and lower-income wage earners and farmers and reform the salary system for public servants, among other measures.
To Zheng Jingping, a senior official with the National Statistics Bureau, boosting demand is "the decisive factor" for fast and steady economic growth this year.
"The major problem plaguing China's economy is the contradiction between a remarkably strong supply capacity and comparatively stable or weakening growth in demand," said Zheng.
To maintain "fast yet steady" economic development, Wen said China's macroeconomic structure will remain stable and that "prudent fiscal and monetary policies" would continue.
Wen said the driving force for economic expansion came from investment, which also created uncertainties.
"Fixed-asset investment is still expanding too rapidly. Investment in some industries is increasing too quickly, and too many new projects have been launched," Wen said.
Qin Chijiang, an NPC deputy and financial professor, shared Wen's views. He said fixed-asset investment continues to rise in the power, coal and other sectors.
"The growth rate can neither be too fast nor too slow," said Xiao Yuhuai, NPC deputy and director of the Jilin Branch of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
"Too high a growth rate is not conducive to containing excess investment. Rather, it would easily lead to a waste of resources and overcapacity."
But if the expansion is too slow, it will be difficult to meet the demands of social progress and resolve major problems, including job creation.
"It is our foremost task to avoid big ups or downs in the economy," Xiao said.
NPC deputy Yu Xuexin, who is also director of the Chongqing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said, "It's not very difficult to hit the 8 percent target, but what's worth our attention is the quality and efficiency underlying the figure."
(Xinhua)