Foreign news

Challenges, goals and proposals from China’s ruling party plenum communiqué

Published

4 years ago

October 29, 2020

The 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded its fifth plenary session in Beijing on Thursday with the release of a communique.

The 14th Five-Year Plan (FYP) (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 are the key topics of the communique.

Here is a look at all the highlights from the communique of the meeting.

Decisive success made in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects

This year is the final year of China’s 13th FYP period (2016-2020), and the communique highlighted that the implementation of the 13th FYP has been smooth.

By adhering to the new development concept and unswervingly advancing reform and opening-up, great achievements have been made since the fourth plenary session, the communique said.

During the past year, China has deepened supply-side reform, enhanced macro-economic regulation, and expanded domestic demand as the strategic foundation.

Economic growth has been better than expected, people’s livelihood has been improved and social stability has been maintained.

During the 13th FYP period, which is coming to an end in 2020, China has made great progress with stable economic growth and better economic structure, the communique said, noting China’s GDP is expected to surpass the 100 trillion yuan ($14.9 trillion) mark in 2020.

More than 55 million people in China have been lifted out of poverty in the past five years.

China has built the world’s largest social security system in the 13th FYP period, the communique said, adding that the country’s basic medical insurance has covered over 1.3 billion people, and basic old-age insurance has covered nearly 1 billion people.

Meanwhile, during the past five years, more than 60 million new jobs were created in China’s urban areas, it said.

As for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the whole country coordinated the prevention and control work with economic and social development and put people’s safety and health first.

Major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics was vigorously promoted, and major achievements were made in various undertakings of the Party and state.

The strength of the leadership of the CPC and the Chinese socialist system has been further demonstrated in the past five years, it added.

New challenges, opportunities ahead

With regards to the blueprint for the future, the communique stressed that the whole Party must take into account the overall strategic plan for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with major changes in the world that have not occurred in a century.

A thorough understanding is necessary about the new characteristics and requirements brought about by the changes in the evolution of the principal contradiction facing Chinese society, it said.

Also, given that China is in the primary stage of socialism, more attention should be paid to the new contradictions and challenges brought by the complex international environment.

The communique underlined the importance of strengthening awareness of opportunities and risks and cultivating opportunities amid crisis.

Additionally, the CPC has raised a set of long-range objectives for China to achieve socialist modernization by 2035.

China’s economic, technological and composite strength was also stressed, as well as development in new industrialization and the modernization of China’s system and capacity for governance.

The communique also said effort was needed in boosting the well-rounded development of society, including social etiquette and civility and the advancement of eco-friendly ways of work and life.

China’s opening-up, per capita GDP, the implementation of the Peaceful China initiative and well-rounded human development were also highlighted.

As for the goals to be reached during the 14 FYP period, the communique said that the overall leadership of the CPC must be upheld to realize the 14th FYP and efforts should be made to mobilize all positive factors and rally all the forces that can be rallied to form a strong synergy to promote development.

Proposals to reach the goals

– Uphold the central role of innovation in its modernization drive and implement an innovation-driven strategy.

– Build a modern industrial system and upgrade the economic structure. It will continue to support the real economy, improve manufacturing power and modernize the industrial and supply chain to improve high-quality growth and core competitiveness.

– Nurture a strong domestic market and establish a new development pattern. The country will smooth domestic circulation and let domestic and international circulation reinforce each other, spurring consumption in an all-round way and expanding investment.

– Deepen reform comprehensively in pursuit of a high-level socialist market economy.

– Prioritize the development of agriculture and rural areas and fully advancing rural vitalization.

– Advance coordinated regional development and a new type of urbanization.

– Promote the cultural sector and improve its cultural soft power.

– Accelerate green and low-carbon development, continuously improve the environment and quality and stability of ecosystems and raise the efficiency of resource utilization.

– Pursue high-level opening-up and explore new prospects of win-win cooperation.

It will continue to widen the opening-up and leverage the advantages of its huge market to promote international cooperation and achieve win-win results.

– Improve people’s standard of living and actively implement strategies to address the aging population.

– Strengthen national security capabilities and increase the capacity to deal with traditional and non-traditional security challenges to protect people’s lives and security and maintain social stability.

– Maintain the long-term prosperity and stability of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and promote the reunification of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, as well as peaceful cross-Strait development.

It aims to keep a stable external environment and promote the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for humanity.

A total of 198 members and 166 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee attended the meeting.

Also present were members of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and senior officials of relevant sectors, as well as experts, scholars and several deputies of the 19th CPC National Congress who work at the grassroots level.

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Foreign news

French Envoy Seeks Collaboration With NAN To Boost Seamless Relationship

Published

1 month ago

February 5, 2025

The Gleamer

The new French envoy to Nigeria, Marc Fonbaustier, on Wednesday called for collaboration with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) toward strengthening the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries.

Fonbaustier, who is the French ambassador to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, NAN’s Managing Director, in Abuja.
The ambassador said that his purpose of visiting was to pay tribute to the MD, and to seek collaboration in three areas with a view to promoting stronger, seamless and fruitful partnership between both countries.

He added that Nigeria and its people were hospitable, especially to the foreigners and ambassadors alike.

He added that Nigeria was a country with so much energy, strength, stamina and so many talents.

In Nigeria, with the population of this size, it is inevitable that the elites of the country are very outstanding, “and there may be a Franco/Nigeria moments now”, he jokes.

According to him, France and Nigeria can collaborate more and learn from each other.
“I could feel it particularly during the state visit of President Bola Tinubu which took place in November 2024.

“I was there and I could see the intensity, the strength and the scope of the partnership, and I am here to scale up that partnership in all sectors.

“I am coming here for three reasons, first, to pay a tribute to the NAN MD and his team for the quality of this agency. We can testify that the contents that you publish are very factual, and also very well set up and structured.

“You do fact checking and you really do try to provide the community with quality information. I think, as a French ambassador, I can recognise that as part of a living democracy,” he said.

The French ambassador said the second reason for the visit was to intimate the NAN MD of France’s eagerness to go on partnership with NAN saying he hoped for assurance of a seamless, fluid and easy relationship.

He said that his third reason stemmed from his observation that NAN recently signed some partnership framework agreements with Egypt and China, saying “it may be time to think of balancing this partnership with others”.

“Especially with French, and to talk with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to see if there’s ground for a closer relationship between NAN and AFP.

“Which is also a recognised agency like yours, and I bet you the sky will be the limit to the collaboration, ’’he said.

Responding, the NAN MD informed the envoy that the agency was African’s biggest news content provider on account of its size.

Ali gave the envoy a little details of the agency’s operation and its outreach, saying “as our continent’s biggest news content provider, we have offices nationwide and in selected African countries.

“We have offices in countries such as South Africa, Cote d’ivoire, Addis Ababa, and then we have offices also beyond the shores of Africa. We have in New York and we are the only resident wire service in the United Nations.

“At a time in the past, the agency had 11 foreign offices, including Moscow, and presently, we are trying to re-open some of our shut offices, especially in London.
“We value partnership and understanding that we have with similar news organisation such as Reuters and, incidentally, we have a long standing relationship with AFP which you just raised.
“I know for years we have exchange of news between NAN and AFP but it’s a cooperation that we will like to strengthen and with your greater involvement,’’ he said.

The MD commended the ambassador for reaching out and engaging with some Nigerians communities to douse the tension of the allegation made by the Nigeriens.

He also lauded the envoy’s leadership and visibility to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, “which has helped to douse the perception and misconceptions about France, especially in the Sahel”.
“I think you have helped to reverse some of this perceptions. I thank you for the kind words that you said about the agency and about our management.

“We also see partnership as an important tool in checking the spread of fake news.
“We’ve seen instances where fake news has done great deal of damage, and with the coming of social media it has done even greater damage.

“Our country is facing a lot of challenges, one of which is the increasing insecurity, and the social media has been used by those who do not want to see our country to prosper,” Ali said.
He further said that NAN was a credible news agency that always fact check to correct the wrong narratives by those who are in the business of causing troubles.

He also told the envoy that the agency has its content in the Nigerian indigenous languages, starting with Hausa and it would proceed to Yoruba and Igbo languages later, “then later in future to French.

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