Chinese leader meets entrepreneurs on 13th five-year plan

Top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng met with Chinese entrepreneurs on Friday to solicit their opinions on the 13th five-year development plan.

Five-year plans have been drawn up since 1953 to map strategies for overall economic and social development, setting growth targets and defining development policies. The 13th five-year plan will span 2016-2020, a crucial period according to President Xi Jinping.

Friday's meeting brought together dozens of heads of big private companies, including Jack Ma of Alibaba, Yang Yuanqing of Lenovo and Liu Yonghao of the New Hope Group. Many are deputies to China's top legislature or members of the top political advisory body.

Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), listened to their presentations and exchanged ideas with them, noting that the simultaneous development of the public and private sectors was initiated by the Communist Party of China to liberate and develop the productive forces.

The private sector should seize the opportunities afforded by the 13th five-year plan and elevate companies to "middle and high levels," said Yu.

He called for the development of more new technology products, and for the private sector to play a bigger role in economic upgrading and restructuring.

Yu stressed that entrepreneurs should integrate "ideological and political attainment" into their entrepreneurship and authorities should constantly strengthen "ideals and faith education" for personnel in the private economy. Endi