2nd Ld: CPC convenes key meeting on nation's next five-year plan

Leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) met in Beijing on Monday to discuss an economic blueprint that will set the direction and pace for the world's second largest economy over the next five years.

The fifth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee will review proposals for a new five-year plan for the country's national economic and social development from 2016-2020.

A final plan, after taking into account these proposals, will still need to be ratified by the annual session of China's top legislature in March next year before taking effect.

The CPC Central Committee Political Bureau will also report its work to the Central Committee during this week's meeting.

The CPC has regularly offered suggestions for China's economic and social development plans since the early years of the people's republic in order to help guide policy.

This week's four-day meeting comes at a time when the world economic powerhouse has entered a "new normal" state of slowed growth.

China's economy expanded 6.9 percent in the third quarter of 2015, the first time quarterly growth has dropped below 7 percent since the second quarter of 2009, the height of the global recession.

Other poor figures also added to the disappointment. Industrial production was lower than expected, with September growth at a six-month low. Fixed-asset investment continued to slow and power use was also weak.

The new five-year plan, China's 13th, has henceforth garnered increasing attention from observers both home and abroad.

So far, few details of the new program, the first of its kind under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping, has been made available to the general public, although authorities said they have previously solicited public opinions on the new plan in a limited scope.

Like in previous five-year plans, a GDP growth target is likely to be included. Market estimates that the growth target for 2016-2020 will be put between 6.5 and 7 percent. Endi