“Reform and opening up is a major and crucial choice that is shaping the destiny of contemporary China,” Wen said in his address to members of China’s parliament, National People’s Congress, as it began its annual session amidst tight security at the Great Hall of the People.
He told the deputies that the country needed to “unswervingly” promote reform in economic and political institutions, develop socialist democracy and improve socialist market economy and “liberate and develop the productive forces.” He also spoke about the “problems” of “formalism and bureaucratic behaviour” and vowed to attach “greater importance to combating corruption”.
“Opening up is also a kind of reform, and a nation cannot become strong if it is not open and inclusive,” Wen said in his two and a half-hour long annual speech. Wen also projected that China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would grow at 8 per cent and rise in the Consumer Price Index should be held around 4.8 per cent as he set the targets for 2008. China reported a GDP growth of 11.4 per cent in 2007 and CPI at an 11-year monthly high of 7.1 per cent in January this year.
Wen spoke of “too great” a price paid by China in terms of resource consumption and environmental pressure for its growth and the need to bridge the gap between the incomes of urban and rural areas, a major worry for the top Communist leadership.