BEIJING — China must build and improve mechanisms for pushing forward high-quality development, according to a statement released after the Central Economic Work Conference that concluded on Dec 20.

“High-quality development is the fundamental requirement for determining the development path, making economic policies, and conducting macroeconomic regulation at present and in the period to come,” according to the statement.

China must create the indicators, policies, standards, statistical and performance assessment systems that can push ahead high-quality development.

“As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, China’s economic development has also entered a new era. The basic feature is that China’s economy has transitioned from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development,” the statement said.

Realizing high-quality development is a must for sustaining healthy economic and social development and adapting to China’s new principal contradiction between unbalanced development and the need for a better life, it added.

Quality development is also crucial for becoming a moderately prosperous society in all respects and building a modern socialist country in all respects, and for complying with economic laws.

The document listed eight major tasks centering around pursuing high-quality development, including deepening supply-side structural reform, stimulating the vitality of market entities and seeking wider opening up.