China will adhere to the country's family planning policy in the long term, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee explained at a conference in Beijing Thursday.

The conference, presided over by General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Hu Jintao, described family planning as a key factor in economic and social development.

The meeting urged continued research on population development strategies, improvement of population quality based on a low birthrate, better technological and service levels in family planning and controlling a rising gender imbalance.

The focus of population and family planning efforts should shift from just controlling the numbers to stabilizing the low birthrate, it said.

China would now have 400 million more people if the policy decreeing most couples could have only one child had not been put in place, official statistics show. The country's population officially reached 1.3 billion in January last year. Formulated in the early 1970s the family planning policy encourages late marriages and childbearing.

Yesterday's meeting also decided to convene the annual Central Working Conference on the Economy in the near future.

Although significant achievements had been made in the economic arena this year some deep-rooted problems including an unbalanced economic structure and inefficient growth pattern hadn’t been effectively addressed, the meeting said.

The government should continue to improve its economic macro-control policies next year, further boost reform and opening-up, step up the conservation of resources and better protect the environment, the meeting said.

It called for further efforts to push forward economic growth in a fast and sound manner so as to create a good environment for the 17th CPC National Congress scheduled for the latter half of next year.

(China Daily/Xinhua December 1, 2006)