Spotlight: Global media pay high attention to China's economic policy making

News media of both the host country and the rest of the world have paid close attention to China's new economic policy making, as Beijing is holding the 12-day annual sessions of the national legislature and the top advisory body.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged Shanghai to aim at the world's most advanced technology, shifting his focus from last year's stabilization of the general situation for comprehensive reform and opening up to calling for efforts to make breakthrough in core innovative technology, the Singapore-based Lianhe Zaobao reported.

Premier Li Keqiang announced a growth target of 6.5 to 7 percent in his Government Work Report to the session of the National People's Congress (NPC) -- the national legislature -- on Beijing's plans for the year at the opening NPC session.

That was down from last year's "about 7 percent" and reflects the Communist Party's marathon efforts to replace a worn-out model based on trade and investment with more self-sustaining growth driven by consumer spending, said reports of the Associated Press.

The New York Times said that China's introducing a band rather than a hard target is a step forward in the right direction. The Reuters news agency also saw China's greater flexibility in macroeconomic management and guiding market expectations.

Foreign media reports suggested that analysts believed achieving the economic growth target for 2016 is still a challenging task.

The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper, reported Sunday that economists said it would be a "daunting task" to keep economic growth at above 6.5 percent.

Meanwhile, The New York Times on Saturday quoted Shen Jianguang, the Hong Kong-based chief Asia economist at Mizuho Security Asia, as saying that the 6.5 percent growth target is "very challenging." "They want to choose a path that maintains real growth now and defers tough times for later," Shen was quoted as saying.

With regard to this year's budget deficit, which was targeted at an amount equivalent to 3 percent of the gross domestic production (GDP), foreign media said it fell far lower than they had predicted.

Acknowledging that the draft goal saw an increase from last year's 2.3 percent, Reuters said in a report Saturday that it "still disappointed some who had hoped for a number closer to 4 (percent)."

Other media also paid attention to Premier Li's announcement that China will for the first time ever replace business tax with value-added tax (VAT). A report by The Press Trust of India on Saturday said the move was "in a bid to streamline tax structures and reduce tax burden."

"This is a significant and positive development as China will have one of the most progressive VAT systems in the world," it said, citing Lachlan Wolfers, head of indirect taxes at the China office of KPMG, a professional service company that provides audit, tax and advisory services.

In the Government Work Report, Premier Li said China aims to create at least 10 million new urban jobs and keep the registered urban unemployment rate within 4.5 percent this year.

The report provides a blueprint of China's aspirations for the next five years across a range of sectors and measures, Reuters said.

It shows "Beijing trying to strike a balance between holding up growth and restructuring underperforming industries," such as the so-called "zombie firms," Reuters added.

"Zombie firms" are economically unviable businesses, usually in industries with severe overcapacity, kept alive only with aid from the government and banks.

In his report, Li listed closing such companies as a priority for the government.

Earlier, "the government flagged major job losses in key coal and steel industries," said Reuters.

Foreign media also paid attention to a planned high-speed railway linking Beijing and Hong Kong (Taipei).

According to the draft outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan on national economy and social development, the high-speed railway will be built between 2016 and 2020.

It is the first time for an official document of China to mention the planned railway, Lianhe Zaobao said.

Also underway in Beijing alongside the NPC session is the 2016 annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) -- the top advisory body of China. Endi