Photo taken on Dec. 1, 2020 shows a drone formation ready for testing at Tianjin EFY Technology Co., Ltd. in north China's Tianjin Municipality. The Binhai New Area in Tianjin has been actively boosting the development of drone industry in recent years by encouraging innovations among local companies. The district has built up a complete industrial chain of drone research, development, production and testing.Photo:Xinhua

At a meeting on Friday, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau called for overall reform and opening-up, enhancement of national strategic technologies, an increase in the self-reliance capability of industrial chains and the formation of a powerful domestic market.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting on Friday to analyze the economic work for 2021.

The meeting pointed out that next year would be of special importance for the country's goal of building a modern socialist country, adhering to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, building a new development pattern and continuing to do a good job in the "six stabilities" and "six guarantees" in a bid to maintain economic growth in a reasonable range.

The meeting also called for expansion of the domestic consumption strategy, strengthening of support for sci-tech strategies and expansion of higher-level opening-up to ensure a good start to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period and celebration of the 100th anniversary of the CPC's founding.

"Innovation will be of upmost importance in 2021, with much effort to be focused on making up for the lack of domestically independent and original innovation," Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Friday.

Given that China was the first of the major economies to post positive growth this year as well as effective measures to put the epidemic under control, Cong forecast that the economy will report growth of 4-6 percent in 2021.

The meeting also stressed the need to step up anti-monopoly efforts and prevent disorderly expansion of capital.

Cong said the country will continue to provide a relatively relaxed environment for the development of new technologies but will likely strengthen supervision of new areas of the economy such as the digital economy to prevent potential risks.

Preventing the disorderly expansion of capital is the key part, Tian Yun, vice director of the Beijing Economic Operation Association, told the Global Times on Friday. 

He said this is related to the suspension of Ant Group's dual listing, as the government has noticed that some companies are gaining profits from the promise of technological innovation without having really brought any benefits to the people or the country. "It is against the policy of stimulating domestic consumption," he said.