Noting that China is confronted with numerous, unavoidable issues that call for urgent solution, President Hu said that persistent efforts must be made to seek truth from facts and to keep pace with the times, especially to implement the strategic concept that "the development is the overriding principle" as advocated by late senior leader Deng Xiaoping.

Hu acknowledged that efforts must be made to strengthen and consolidate the economy of public ownership and, at the same time, to encourage, support and guide non-public sector economies.

Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said that it is also essential to bear in mind and implement the scientific concept of development.

Moreover, he said, China must adhere to the strategies of making overall plans and taking into account rural and urban development, regional development, economic and social growth, harmonious development of human and nature, and domestic construction and opening up to the outside world.

The Chinese president made these remarks while addressing a group of members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a broad-based national advisory body, on the side of its ongoing annual session from March 3 to 12.

Hu and other leaders, including Wu Bangguo, chairman of the country's top legislature, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice-President Zeng Qinghong, exchanged views in panel discussions on Thursday with different groups of CPPCC National Committee members.

On a separate occasion, Premier Wen Jiabao said China is at a critical juncture of economic development.

"We should, by taking advantage of the crucial strategic period, do a good job of guiding, protecting and giving full scope to the enthusiasms of all sides in accelerating the pace of development".

China should do a good job in macro-economic regulation with appropriate and effective measures, Wen told members of CPPCC National Committee representing economic and agricultural sectors.

Wen said he was convinced that China will overcome various difficulties and hardships and promote and carry forward the current good situations as long as "we are a sober-minded and do things in line with the objective law."

Meanwhile, Vice-President Zeng Qinghong said it is of vital importance to doing a good job in advancing social and economic development, and the primary objective of various non-Communist parties in participating in state affairs is precisely to promote the country's development.

The vice-president called on non-Communist parties, which are represented in the CPPCC, to continue offering their proposals so as to help the Chinese government further improve leadership in administering the country.

(China Daily March 5, 2004)