Awwal 24, 1432, Feb 27, 2011, SPA -- China's leadership is promising to steer the economy in a new direction in its blueprint for the next five years that would empower consumers and narrow a yawning wealth gap. The latest Five-Year Plan calls for creating self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumption and reducing China's reliance on exports and investment. The leadership has said for years that China needs to alter a system Premier Wen Jiabao has declared «unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable.» The plan was approved by party leaders in October and details are due to be announced at the annual meeting of China's largely powerless legislature that opens Saturday, according to a report of the Associated Press. In a sign of the leadership's resolve, Premier Wen announced Sunday that the government was reducing its annual growth target to 7 percent, from the 8 percent goal for each of the past six years.
