The 18th CPC National Congress opened on Nov 8 to herald a new leadership for China, which will set the course for the world's most populous country and second largest economy for the next decade. The new leadership will face up to the challenge of guiding the country through a transitional period, says an article in South Korea-based JoongAng Daily. Excerpts:

China's economy has stopped its galloping pace of double-digit growth and is expected to register a growth in the range of 7 percent this year because of both the economic and financial crises in Europe and its own economic constraints.

The State played a key role in China's 30-year miracle of development by pumping in massive financial incentives to stimulate industrial activities and exports and accelerated growth through a deliberate appropriation of capital. But they produced several side effects, for example, corruption and imbalanced income distribution.

China faces the urgent imperative to transform its growth model. The economy is unbalanced. Savings take up more than 50 percent of the gross national disposable income, contributing to the country's enormous current-account surplus.

China will have to shift its growth engine from exports to domestic consumption, but such a task requires a fundamental rationalization of the State's role. The State must deepen financial reform and allow more freedom in the money markets to determine interest rates, wages and foreign exchange rates.

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