The meeting takes place as government officials are under pressure to revive confidence in the country’s economy and its commitment to economic reform.
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More than half of the members elected to the CPC Central Committee during the 18th National Congress in 2012 have been moved to different positions or were removed from their current jobs ahead of the Party’s fifth plenary session that began on Monday.
Looking at the last three decades, China’s economy has grown at an average clip of 10 percent per year, yet the country has been forced to make do with much less recently as it makes the transition to a sustainable growth model.
One goal to keep a close eye on this time around is China’s GDP, which had grown so rapidly in previous years that it was easy to meet the goals set out by the five-year plans.
Five-Year Plans – it will be the 13th since the People’s Republic was founded in 1949 – are a holdover from the days before China embraced market reforms that have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty.
Concerns over the world’s second largest economy have been growing in recent months as China continues to experience structural inefficiencies and slowing growth, which looks set to slip to a 25-year-low of under 7 percent this year.
China cut interest rates for the sixth time in less than a year on October 23.
Although the plans might seem anachronistic in China’s modern, more market-oriented economy, they still provide important guidelines for managing the nation’s affairs from boardroom to bedroom.
According to the report, the reshuffle is “extremely rare” in the history of the CPC, a result, said observers of the anti-graft campaign, which has been of unprecedented severity, and to guarantee a solid start to China’s new five-year blueprint amid a slowing economy.
Each autumn, China’s Communist Party gathers more than 350 of its top bosses to an army-run hotel in Beijing to discuss, behind closed doors, the issues facing the state.
Speculation on China’s actual GDP growth ranges from zero to just a fraction of a percentage point lower than official data.
Instead, Mr Wu said the government should focus on implementing long-delayed financial and SOE reforms as well as lower barriers to foreign investment, according to China Daily.
Other poor figures also added to the disappointment. This time, China’s growth was higher than the predicted 6.8%.
Analysts also expect the upcoming plan to increase the ruling party’s focus on environmental and social goals including raising household incomes and encouraging more use of renewable energy.
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The official Xinhua news agency, in a brief dispatch, said the meeting – formally called a plenum – had opened in Beijing.
