Political Lens

Finnish president to pay state visit to China

President of Finland Alexander Stubb, at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, will pay a state visit to China starting from Monday.

Xi will hold talks with his Finnish counterpart on bilateral ties and issues of common concern. Stubb will also meet with Premier Li Qiang and top legislator Zhao Leji during his four-day China tour.

Finland is among the first Western countries to recognize the People's Republic of China, and the day Stubb arrives in Beijing will mark the 74th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

China is willing to maintain high-level exchanges with Finland to carry forward traditional friendship and strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in areas such as trade and green transformation, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a daily news conference on Friday.

Beijing is also ready to work with Helsinki to jointly address global challenges and continue to push bilateral ties for new progress, Lin said.

New Macao chief executive appointed

Premier Li Qiang presided over a plenary meeting of the State Council, China's cabinet, on Friday, with a decision to appoint Sam Hou-fai as the sixth-term chief executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region being reached at the meeting.

Sam will assume office on Dec 20, according to the meeting.

Addressing the meeting, Li said the central government will continue to fully, faithfully and firmly uphold the principles of "one country, two systems", "Macao people governing Macao", a high degree of autonomy and fully support the chief executive and the SAR government for law-based governance.

The central government will also support Macao in leveraging its unique advantages to integrate into and serve the overall development of the country, and support the chief executive and the SAR government in safeguarding national security, promoting the development of appropriate economic diversification and continuously improving people's well-being in order to promote social harmony and stability and enable Macao to develop and prosper together with the mainland, he said.

Vice-Premier: Policies adopted for development

Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang met with representatives of the Advisory Board of Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing on Friday.

Ding said the overall development of the Chinese economy remains stable with progress as the country is stepping up implementation of a package of growth-oriented policies to strive to meet economic and social development goals for the year.

He said the strengths of the Chinese economy in various aspects are being consolidated and enhanced, with the development momentum sparked by reforms and innovation becoming increasingly robust, which will effectively propel the nation's economy to achieve long-term and steady growth.

Ding reaffirmed China's commitment to opening-up, saying that the country upholds economic globalization and is willing to share development achievements with the rest of the world.

Growth-oriented measures prioritized

China will continue to implement a package of growth-oriented policies to good effect to meet this year's economic and social development goals, the State Council, the country's Cabinet, said on Friday.

The package includes monetary, fiscal, property and business support measures.

Going forward, efforts should be made to evaluate and optimize these policies in a timely manner and intensify countercyclical adjustments so as to enhance the effectiveness of macro controls, according to the State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang.

The meeting also emphasized the interplay between policy measures and market dynamics, as well as the need to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all stakeholders to better unleash growth drivers.

China Daily