BEIJING, July 25 -- The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Friday held a symposium with representatives of the central committees of non-CPC parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), and personages without party affiliation, to seek opinions and suggestions on the country's current economic situation and economic work for the second half of the year.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the symposium and delivered an important speech. He stressed that to do the economic work well for the second half of the year, the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability should continue to be followed.

He called for fully, faithfully and comprehensively implementing the new development philosophy, accelerating the building of a new development pattern, comprehensively deepening reform and opening up, intensifying the role of macro policies in regulating the economy, expanding domestic demand, boosting confidence and preventing risks.

He also stressed endeavors for the continued improvement of the economic performance, stronger endogenous driving force and better social expectations, continuously defusing risks and hidden dangers, and effectively upgrading the quality and appropriately expanding the quantity of the economy.

Li Qiang, Cai Qi, and Ding Xuexiang, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the symposium. Entrusted by the CPC Central Committee, Li briefed the symposium on economic work in the first half of the year, and relevant considerations for economic work in the second half of the year.

Those who made speeches at the symposium include Zheng Jianbang, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang; Ding Zhongli, chairperson of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League; Hao Mingjin, chairperson of the Central Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Association; Cai Dafeng, chairperson of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy; He Wei, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party; Jiang Zuojun, chairperson of the Central Committee of the China Zhi Gong Party; Wu Weihua, chairperson of the Central Committee of Jiusan Society; Su Hui, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League; Gao Yunlong, chairperson of the ACFIC; and Fan Jie, a representative of personages without party affiliation.

They fully agreed with the analysis and judgement of the CPC Central Committee on the current economic situation and its arrangements for economic work in the second half of the year.

They put forward opinions and suggestions on firmly promoting high-level opening up, intensifying the efforts to overhaul disorder on the internet, accelerating the innovation in and development of artificial intelligence, strengthening the integration of industrial and talent chains, and advancing the development of the biopharmaceutical industry.

Their opinions and suggestions are also about facilitating the development of new consumption, coordinating and optimizing the building of scientific and technological innovation platforms for the manufacturing industry, stimulating the high-quality development of the sports industry, cultivating new pillar industries, and promoting coordination of the layout between innovation chains and industrial chains.

After listening to everyone's speech carefully, Xi delivered an important one. He said that they had put forward constructive opinions and suggestions on doing the economic work well in the second half of the year, and the CPC Central Committee would conscientiously study these opinions and suggestions and actively adopt them.

Xi Jinping pointed out that in the first half of this year, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee, all regions and departments have better coordinated epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development, and proactively promoted macro-policy efforts.

As a result, the national economy has been continuing to recover and performing well in a steady manner, remarkable results have been achieved in industrial upgrading, new progress has been made in the reform and opening up, food and energy security has been effectively guaranteed, people's livelihood has been well safeguarded, residents' incomes have increased simultaneously with economic growth, and high-quality development has been solidly promoted. China's economic recovery leads the world's major economies, and its long-term sound fundamentals have not changed, with bright development prospects.

Xi pointed out that to address the prominent issues and challenges in the way of economic development, it is imperative to intensify the role of macro policies in regulating the economy, actively expand aggregate demand, and strenuously advance industrial optimization and upgrading. We should also continue to deepen reform and expand high-level opening up, effectively guard against and defuse risks in key areas, and do a good job in ensuring and improving people's livelihood, so as to promote sustained economic recovery and fulfill the development goals for the year.

Xi stressed that during the first half of the year, central committees of the other political parties and personages without party affiliation, with the CPC and the country's central work as the focus, conducted fact-finding missions and put forward opinions and suggestions on important issues including how to recover and expand consumption, accelerate advancing the high-quality development of digital economy, and promote the upgrading of key industrial chains in the manufacturing sector.

They have also conducted democratic supervision over the ecological environment of the Yangtze River in a flexible and efficient manner. By doing all these, they have provided the CPC Central Committee with important information for making rational decisions.

Xi expressed his heartfelt thanks to all on behalf of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi proposed three hopes to the other political parties, the ACFIC and personages without party affiliation.

First, they should unify their thinking and have a stronger sense of responsibility, align their thinking and actions with the analysis and judgement of the economic situation by the CPC Central Committee, gain a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the policies and decisions made by the CPC Central Committee, so as to form a synergy to prevail over various risks and challenges that lie ahead.

Second, they should fully perform their duties and actively play their roles to carry out in-depth fact-finding missions and actively offer opinions and suggestions on major issues such as promoting infrastructure construction, modernizing the industrial system at a faster pace, and advancing reforms in key areas.

Third, they should build consensus; shore up confidence in growth; assist the CPC and government in dispelling people's doubts, guiding their expectations, and building consensus among them; strengthen theoretical and political guidance to those in the private sector; and work with relevant departments in implementing favorable policies for enterprises, so as to further stimulate the vitality of business entities.

Those who attended the meeting included Shi Taifeng, Liu Guozhong, He Lifeng, Zhang Guoqing, Wu Zhenglong, and other leading officials from relevant departments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

Prominent non-CPC figures present included Shao Hong, He Baoxiang, Wang Guangqian, Qin Boyong, Zhu Yongxin, Yang Zhen, Zhang Endi, Li Yuefeng, Fang Guanghua, and Yang Wenliang.