China on Sunday set a five per cent growth target for 2023 at the annual session of parliament, marking the beginning of President Xi Jinping’s third term.
Premier Li Keqiang (67) presented his final budget at the National People’s Congress (NPC). With this, his tenure of 10 years was completed. He had announced his retirement from politics last year. He also warned of “increasing” external efforts to “suppress and contain” China.
“The term of this government is coming to an end,” Lee said at the start of a 39-page address to parliament. During this, he outlined a decade-long achievements of his administration, which include significant changes in China and its relations with the world. With this session, the third five-year term of President Xi Jinping (69) has also started. In his final report, Lee has set a target of five per cent growth for this year.
Apart from this, a target has also been set to create one crore 20 lakh jobs. It is noteworthy that China achieved a growth rate of three percent last year, which was the second lowest growth rate in the last 50 years.
Li said that China’s annual growth rate during the past 10 years has been 6.2 percent. He said that China’s foreign exchange reserves have remained more than three trillion dollars, which shows that China’s economic strength has increased significantly.
Pointing to the growing animosity between the US and the European Union, Premier Li said, “Even today we face many difficulties and challenges. Uncertainties are increasing in the external environment. Global inflation remains high, global economic and trade growth is weakening, and external efforts to contain and contain China are increasing.
