CRI听力:Experts on China's Economic Transformation

Professor Huo Deming with Peking University says the experience the world's leading industrialized countries have gone through suggests shifting away from an export-driven model of growth is one of China's only real options at this point.

"Not using investment as a driving vehicle, what else can we count on? With our experience, consumption. The US, UK as well as Japan, all those fully-grown economies, fully-developed economies... all their growth depends on consumption."

At the same time, Huo Deming suggests the Chinese government should be focusing on how to keep people working when pursuing a consumption-driven economy.

"When we want to have a consumption-driven economy, we are really saying that more jobs and more employment will help drive the economy. How to create more jobs, how to create more salaries, so on and so forth.... the interpretation is that, the translation is that, it does not necessarily imply more investment."

The Chinese government is maintaining plans to create 10-million new jobs annually over the coming 5-year plan.

This is up from the 9-million target in this current Five-year Plan.

Many observers are suggesting the expanded employment goal is going to need a wide range of new social policies.

Jerome Booth is the chair of London-based investment firm New Spatra Limited.

He's among those calling on the Chinese government to do more to improve social security.

"I think efforts needed to get people to consume more as well. And that involves giving them a sense of security in their old age. We are trying to reduce the precautionary motive to save. I mean, that's a big task that involves changing people's perception of what they may need and what they might rely on later in life,"

The 13th Five-Year Plan will be the first to be produced under President Xi Jinping's leadership.
Growth, rebalancing, upgrades, liberalization and the environment are likely to be among the overriding themes.

An official announcement won't be made until the plan is officially ratified at the annual session of the National People's Congress, the nation's top legislature, this coming March.

For CRI, I'm Luo Wen.