The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee convened a meeting on Friday, analyzing and studying the economic work of next year and setting out major tasks.

The meeting said that this year has been eventful and the country has risen to many daunting challenges, including the global financial crisis and domestic natural disasters. The economy has maintained a stable and relatively fast growth and society has been stable, which are hard-won achievements, it said.

The meeting, chaired by CPC Central Committee General Secretary Hu Jintao, warned that the worsening global financial crisis would have more impact on China's economic development, urging the country to take more precautionary measures to meet the challenges.

The meeting said that next year, which marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China, the nation should boost domestic demand for a stable and relatively fast economic growth, accelerate the transformation of development patterns and structure adjustment for sustainable development, deepen the reform and opening-up drive and solve problems that concern the people's interests for a healthy and rapid economic and social development.

Maintaining a stable and relatively fast economic development should be the foremost task for next year's economic work, it said, urging a better combination of ensuring growth, boosting domestic demand and adjusting structure.

An "active" fiscal policy and "moderately loose" monetary policy should be continued, and measures including tax reduction and increasing central government investment should be taken to safeguard the people's livelihood, stimulate domestic demand and transform development patterns, it said.

Consumption, rural consumption in particular, should be actively boosted and a set of major projects on livelihood, infrastructure and environment protection should be launched.

The position of agriculture as the foundation of the economy should be strengthened and agriculture production be boosted, it said.

The stable growth of foreign trade should also be maintained.

Structural adjustment should be accelerated, including developing the high-tech industry, small and medium-sized enterprises, the service sector and coordinating regional development.

More progress should be made on energy saving and emissions reduction and pollution treatment be stepped up, the meeting urged.

Rural reform and financial reform should be deepened, and people's livelihood should be improved and more jobs be created, it said.

The meeting also agreed in principle suggestions on judicial reform by the CPC Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

The reform should meet the judiciary needs of the people and aim at promoting social harmony, beef up measures to tighten the restraint on and supervision over the use of power, and remove barriers that hamper justice, it said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2008)