CPC outlines blueprint for reform

Top Chinese leaders Xi Jinping (C), Li Keqiang (3rd R), Zhang Dejiang (3th L), Yu Zhengsheng (2nd R), Liu Yunshan (2nd L), Wang Qishan (1st R), Zhang Gaoli (1st L) attend the third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 12, 2013. The session lasted from Nov. 9 to 12. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

The Communist Party of China (CPC) unveiled a new reform blueprint on Tuesday to push forward the development of the world's second largest economy.[Special report]

A more decisive role of the market in allocating resources and enabling farmers to enjoy more property rights were highlighted in the reform agenda at the end of a four-day plenary meeting of the 18th CPC Central Committee.

China aims to achieve decisive results in key areas by 2020, according to a communique issued after the meeting.

Economic reform is key, and the core solution is a proper relationship between government and market, leaving the market to play the decisive role in allocation of resources and the government to play a better service, according to the communique.

The primary task is to build an open and unified market with orderly competition, according to the document.

Land in cities and the countryside, which can be used for construction, will be pooled together in one market, it said.

A rising urban-rural gap and disputes over land requisition have long been a headache for the Chinese government that is rapidly pushing forward the urbanization process.

A new and integrated system of urban-rural relations will allow people living outside cities equal participation in modernization and better property rights.

Equal exchanges of urban-rural elements and balanced allocation of public resources should be promoted. A healthy development mechanism for urbanization will be improved, according to the communique.

To better coordinate the reforms, a central leading team for "comprehensively deepening reform" will be set up to be in charge of designing reform.

Reforms will be carried out in the transformation of government functions and building a modern fiscal system that supports the initiative of both central and local governments.

Reforms must also be accelerated in the social sector including education, employment, income distribution, social security and public health.

China's reform and opening up, which began 35 years ago, has made China an economic powerhouse of the world and lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. But the investment and export-oriented growth model is difficult to sustain.

"The meeting is a new turning point of Chinese history," said Chi Fulin, head of the China Institute for Reform and Development, a think tank based in south China's Hainan Province.

"It decisively impacts on the realization of a series of strategic targets, including the Party's goal to develop China into a well-off society by 2020," he said.

Martha Leiva, a Nicaraguan woman who visited Beijing in 1991 and stayed in the capital city for five years, was amazed to see the number of skyscrapers and cultural facilities when she came back in February.

"Nicaragua is also a developing country full of problems. I hope it can learn from China's reform experiences," said Leiva, who was practicing Chinese Zen at the Chinese Culture Center, a cultural education organization catering for expats.