The 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) began its 5th plenary session in Beijing on Saturday.

The meeting, scheduled to last till Tuesday, will mainly discuss suggestions on the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) for national economic and social development.

The CPC Central Committee has widely solicited opinions and suggestions from the public on the designing of the five-year plan. Judging from the policy measures adopted by the CPC Central Committee over the past few years, the basic tune of the next five-year plan has been set on the implementation of a scientific view of development, putting people first and sustainable development in a coordinated and comprehensive way.

Focus on income gap

Experts say that priorities in the new plan would be given to economic development, building a harmonious society, regional economic development, government self-improvement, political civilization, among others.

The four-day 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 Centre 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: Xinhua/China Daily