(Yicai) Nov. 17 -- The State Council, China's cabinet, has held an executive meeting where it outlined arrangements for implementing major national strategies and boosting security capacities in key areas.

China should step up efforts to improve project approval procedures, place greater emphasis on investment in innovation and intangible assets, and promote the development of new quality productive forces to implement major national strategies and boost security capacities in key areas, according to a State Council executive meeting presided over by Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Nov. 14.

Implementing major national strategies and boosting security capacities in key areas are China's main strategic and security needs, said Zhang Linshan, a researcher at the Academy of Macroeconomic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Investing in these two directions can generate immediate pulling effects, create huge long-term development potential, promote the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure, make up for shortcomings in key areas, enhance the factor productivity, and help consolidate the recovery of the economy and achieve the expected goals of economic and social development, Zhang noted.

The executive meeting also deployed policies to enhance the alignment of supply and demand of consumer goods to further boost consumption and stressed the importance of promoting consumption upgrading to drive industrial upgrading and support enterprises in expanding the supply of distinctive and high-quality consumer goods to achieve a higher-level dynamic balance between supply and demand.

The transformation of residents' consumption towards higher-quality goods requires promoting both consumption and industrial upgrading, leading new supply with new demand and creating new supply with new demand to promote the formation of a virtuous cycle between consumption and investment and between supply and demand, said Chen Lifen, director of the Market Circulation Research Office of the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council.

The results of this State Council executive meeting indicate that the policy approach is shifting to pursuing a higher level of dynamic balance and positive interaction between supply and demand from the previous stimulating consumption and expanding production direction, said Wu Chaoming, chief economist of Chasing Financial Holdings.

Moreover, the meeting emphasized the necessity to rationally arrange the pace of project construction and fund disbursement, and encouraged more private capital to participate.

On the same day of the State Council executive meeting, the National Bureau of Statistics released major economic data for October, which generally grew slower than in the previous month, mainly because of factors such as shrinking external demand, weakening driving forces for domestic demand, and a high base a year earlier.

China's added value of industrial enterprises with an annual turnover of over CNY20 million (USD2.8 million) rose 4.9 percent last month from a year earlier, compared with a 6.5 percent growth in September. Total retail sales of consumer goods increased 2.9 percent in the period, versus a 3 percent jump the month before.

Fixed-asset investment fell 1.7 percent to CNY40.89 trillion (USD5.76 trillion) in the first 10 months of the year from a year earlier, compared with a 0.5 percent decline in the first nine months.

Despite these figures, the long-term positive trend of China's economy remains unchanged, and new quality productive forces are growing, creating favorable conditions for achieving the annual goals, said Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the NBS, adding that the slowdown in investment is influenced by multiple factors, such as cautious investment by companies and adjustments in the real estate sector.

The decline in fixed-asset investment is rare in history, and was caused by a deceleration in China's three major investment sectors, said Wang Qing, chief macro analyst with Golden Credit Rating International. However, after excluding the price factor, fixed-asset investment showed positive growth, which has a positive pull on the economy.

There is still ample room for implementing policies, especially those to stabilize growth, which will be intensified before the end of the year, Wang noted, adding that a new round of RRR cuts and interest rate cuts is likely by Dec. 31.

Editor: Futura Costaglione