The fifth plenary session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is scheduled to open in Beijing on Saturday.

The four-day event, which will have discussions on national economic and social developments in the next five years, is expected to focus on narrowing the income gap between the rich and the poor, observers say.

The event is being billed as a crucial moment as China tries to produce a harmonious society and tries to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, the city and the countryside, Tang Min, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank's China Office was quoted by Xinhua as saying on Friday. "Various signs have shown that the upcoming fifth plenary session of the 16th CPC Central Committee will chiefly touch upon the solution to the problem," Tang said.

While maintaining rapid economic growth, China is concerned about balanced development and social fairness and equality to avoid the growing income gap between the rich and the poor, analysts say.

In the next five years, the central government might adjust the national system of income distribution and the fiscal expenditure structure to help the poor, Lu Zhongyuan, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council told Xinhua.

More economic input will go into agriculture to give support and protection for farmers and expenditure in the agricultural sector will increase more than in any other sector, Lu predicted.

The average income of the rich was 2.5 times that of the poor in 1995, while in 2003 that number had grown to 3.23, said Hu Angang, an economic professor at the Beijing-based Tsinghua University, in a research report.

Source: China Daily