THE Party’s policy meeting is expected to unveil a package of measures to deepen reforms to achieve sustainable economic development, experts said.

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, which is expected to steer the country to a historic turning point, is scheduled to begin Saturday.

Reforms are “essential for China as it tries to find a sustainable growth model over the medium and long term,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Thanks to three decades of reform and opening up, China has become the second-largest economy in the world, with an annual growth rate of nearly 10 percent and an approximate US$6,000 GDP per capita.

However, China’s economic growth has experienced a sequential slowdown since 2011. The growth target for 2013 is 7.5 percent.

China is facing comprehensive problems such as production overcapacity, local debts and shadow banks. An aging population and widening wealth gap also pile pressure on the old growth model.

Experts anticipate that the new reforms will focus on urbanization — a critical driving force for China’s long-term economic growth.

The director of the Asia Research Center of the London School of Economics, Athar Hussain, said that urbanization, which requires both economic and political reform, will become the most important issue for China in the next five years.

As a driving force of economic growth and rebalance, The Wall Street Journal said, urbanization will be supported at the Party meeting through Tuesday.

Experts also pointed out that the policy of focusing on the dominant role of people is very important, and will increase the autonomy and sustainability of China’s urbanization progress.

The meeting is an opportunity for China’s new leadership to show their wisdom by coping with those challenges, said Anoop Singh, director of the Asia and Pacific Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in an article published on the IMF’s website.

(Xinhua)