Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said on Friday China will further lower its barriers to market access for various sectors to attract foreign investors, hoping they will stay and grow in the country during the 15th Five-Year Plan period from 2026 to 2030.

“We will make early rather than late, and fast rather than slow, progress and further lower the access threshold,” Wang said.

He made the remarks at a press conference following the fourth plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China's Central Committee.

He was asked about how the nation was going to boost foreign capital inflows given that the growth in foreign direct investment had slowed over the past five years.

"The opening up of the service sector will be a priority, and we will expand opening up pilot schemes in telecommunication, biotechnology and completely foreign-invested hospitals, and open the education and culture sectors wider,” Wang said.

“We will continue to improve services, hold roundtables for foreign companies, turn the list of needs by foreign companies into a list of services, burnish the credentials of investing in China so that foreign investors want to come to China, will stay in China, and can grow well in China, and share in China's development opportunities.”

Han Wenxiu, deputy director of the office at the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, pointed out that there are only 10 years left for China to realise the goal of achieving socialist modernisation by 2035.

He stressed that the country must have a sense of urgency and strive to achieve “high quality and reasonable economic growth” during the upcoming 15th Five-Year period.

Han, who is also the director of the office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, pointed to a need to speed up modernisation of the agricultural sector and reduce rural poverty, saying the latter remains the weakest link in Chinese modernisation.

He said China is committed to improving agricultural production and technology and increasing financial support for farmers.

“We should enhance the overall production capacity, quality and performance of agriculture… we will seek progress in technological, green, quality and branded agriculture,” Han said.

“We should ensure that policies aimed at strengthening agriculture, benefiting farmers and achieving rural prosperity deliver greater outcomes.

"We will strengthen a structure of diverse importing schemes that includes priority fiscal and financing support as well as participation by the private sector to consolidate the results of poverty alleviation.”

Minister of Science and Technology Yin Hejun said the country aims to increase average life expectancy from 79 to 80 years over the next half decade.

Health authorities, he added, will be particularly focused on chronic diseases' management, promoting check-ups and working to build an integrated system for easier access to medical services.