A key meeting that mapped out China's economic priorities in 2022 has stressed proper understanding of the strategic goal and pathways of realizing common prosperity.

The country should create and accumulate social wealth continuously, and at the same time avoid polarization, according to a statement released after the annual Central Economic Work Conference that concluded Friday.

To realize common prosperity, the nation should first "make a bigger and better cake" through joint efforts of the people, and then divide and distribute the cake properly through rational institutional arrangements, the statement said.

"This is a long historical process, and steady steps should be made toward this goal," it said.

China should strengthen the implementation of the job-first policy in its pursuit of high-quality development and better leverage the role of economic growth in boosting employment, according to the statement.

It stressed efforts to exert the role and function of wealth distribution, stick to the system in which distribution according to work is dominant, improve the policy where remuneration is distributed according to various factors of production, and enhance the role of taxation, social security and transfer payments.

Enterprises and social groups that have the intention and capability of participating in public-interest and charitable activities should be encouraged to do so, the statement said.

It said basic public services should be provided in a targeted manner in fields that concern people the most, such as education, healthcare, old-age care and housing.