China will focus on economic restructuring, changing the mode of development and improving quality and efficiency of the economy, and will not pursue a "growth without development" or even a "growth with negative development", a Chinese minister said in Beijing Monday.

Ma Kai, minister in charge of the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC), said the experience of the past two decades and the onset of the SARS epidemic made the government aware of the importance of securing balanced, sustainable growth.

Ma said the seven-percent growth target set by the central government for 2004 was in conformity with the country's long-term development goal and the requirement of reducing pressure on resources and environment.

It would place the country in a good position to focus on deepening reform, pushing forward economic restructuring and improving economic quality and efficiency, he said. He said the goal of next year's macroeconomic control was to resist the temptation to attain a high speed of growth that cannot be sustained so as to avoid major fluctuations in the economy.

Ma said in order to achieve the macroeconomic goal of next year,the government was to concentrate on 10 aspects of its work:

1. To fully utilize the treasury bond fund to restructure the economy and ensure balanced growth.

2. To increase the income of farmers and improve the all-round capacity of grain production.

3. To accelerate upgrading of traditional industries and improve their international competitiveness.

4. To curb the trend of irrational investment and expansion of low-level production capacities.

5. To ease the bottlenecks in economic growth.

6. To adopt an active employment policy and combine economic growth closely with the creation of new jobs.

7. To increase the income of the people and enhance the role ofconsumption in promoting economic growth.

8. To push forward development of western parts of the country and rejuvenation of the old industrial zones in northeast China.

9. To expand foreign trade and attract a greater deal of foreign direct investment.

10. To carry out the strategies of sustainable growth and rejuvenating the country with the development of science and education and to develop all social causes, including culture, public health, broadcasting, TV, film and sports.

(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2003)