-- The leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has adopted proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.

-- The new development plan proposals, which stress innovation, domestic demand, quality of development and high-level opening-up among others, will provide more development opportunities and bring shared prosperity to the world.

With the COVID-19 pandemic dealing a severe blow to the world economy, China is expected to play its role as a key engine to rekindle global growth in the future, global observers said.

The leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has adopted proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.

China's new development plan proposals, which stress innovation, domestic demand, quality of development and high-level opening-up among others, will provide more development opportunities and bring shared prosperity to the world, according to scholars and politicians at the Understanding China Conference which closed Sunday in Guangzhou.

Photo taken on Sept. 16, 2020 shows the night view of Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)

OPPORTUNITIES FROM HIGHER-LEVEL OPENING UP

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected the global economy will contract by 4.4 percent this year in its latest World Economic Outlook report released in October.

At the Understanding China Conference, Martin Jacques, a British scholar and political commentator, said the ongoing pandemic has a far bigger impact on the world than the 2008 financial crisis.

Participants attend the opening ceremony of the "Understanding China" conference held in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

The attendees of the conference also expressed concerns about the structural problems facing the world economy and the anti-globalization approach taken by some governments in the world.

In its development proposals, China highlights its wider and higher-level opening up, which is in contrast to the headwinds of protectionism and unilateralism.