Xi hails steady recovery amid challenges

He urges efforts to make greater progress in 2024 at gathering to ring in New Year

China has successfully achieved the main targets for economic and social development in 2023, with the estimated total economic output set to exceed 126 trillion yuan ($18 trillion), President Xi Jinping said on Friday.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark when addressing a gathering in Beijing organized by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the nation's top political advisory body, to ring in 2024.

Last year, China's GDP amounted to around 120 trillion yuan. In March, the Chinese government set a GDP growth target of around 5 percent for 2023.

Xi said that over the past year, China has overcome internal and external difficulties with determination and resilience, and promoted economic recovery and development. Agricultural production has reached a new high, employment and prices have remained stable, and scientific and technological innovation has made new breakthroughs, he said.

Xi lauded the progress in the rapid growth of innovation-driven productive forces that push forward the development of strategic emerging and future-oriented industries, and said that the new round of reforms of the Party and State institutions is almost complete.

High-level opening-up is continuing to expand, and remarkable progress has been made in flood control, debt reduction, risk mitigation and delivery of housing projects, he said, adding that household incomes have grown faster than economic growth.

Noting that the work on Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions has been further strengthened, Xi said that effective measures have been taken to oppose and deter separatism on the Taiwan question. The diplomacy with Chinese characteristics has solidly advanced, and the external environment for China's development has continued to improve, he said.

These accomplishments have not come easily and are commendable, Xi said. "We have created new opportunities and gained strategic initiative in the face of crises and challenges, greatly enhancing our confidence and strength."

Xi emphasized that 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and is also a crucial year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for National Social and Economic Development. He urged efforts to make greater progress in consolidating and enhancing the positive momentum of economic recovery, improving people's well-being, maintaining social stability and advancing the Chinese modernization with concrete steps.

Efforts should be made to make greater progress in building a new development pattern, promoting high-quality development, comprehensively deepening reform and opening-up, achieving high-level self-reliance and self-sufficiency in science and technology, and comprehensively promoting rural revitalization, he said.

Xi called on the CPPCC members to widely build up consensus and actively provide suggestions and advice for the nation's socioeconomic development.