China charts course for modernized economy

BEIJING - After decades of rapid growth, China is shifting its economic focus to high-quality development, with "developing a modernized economy" high on the agenda. Now an economic catchphrase, the idea provides a blueprint for the world's second-largest economy during the next five years and beyond.

It will be embodied in innovation-driven industries with coordinated development, an open and fair market, efficient and fair income distribution, coordinated urban-rural and regional development, energy conservation and environmental friendliness, and an open economy with higher standards.

Efforts will be made to give full play to the role of the market, while the government is expected to play a bigger part. The real economy, once outshone by rampant real estate prices and financial speculation, has again gained traction.