(Bloomberg) -- China plans to expand domestic demand so that it plays a greater role in economic growth as the country recovers from Covid, state media reported, saying external conditions have become “complex and grave.”

The plan’s main goal is to stimulate consumption and investment in the years to 2035, according to a statement published by the official Xinhua News Agency late Wednesday. 

It also seeks to make “major breakthroughs” in core technologies while upgrading industries and growing new sectors. And it aims to expand the number of people making middle income, while closing the income gap and the urban-rural divide.

Among the measures to boost consumption is one to promote a “stable and healthy” long-term mechanism for the real estate market, according to the plan, which was issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council. 

The government will support reasonable demand for homes, it said, while reiterating that “housing is for living, not for speculating.”

“We must unswervingly implement the strategy of expanding domestic demand to effectively deal with external risks and challenges with the stable development of ourselves, as we face a complex and grave foreign environment,” the statement read.

The statement was released just before top leaders including President Xi Jinping are soon to gather at the Central Economic Work Conference to set a policy agenda for 2023. 

The meeting is expected to flesh out objectives after the Politburo, the party’s top decision-making body, last week made a decisive shift toward bolstering growth as the country starts to exit its three-year-old Covid Zero strategy. 

China’s ratio of investment to gross domestic product — among the highest in the world — has been kept in a “reasonable range,” according to the Wednesday statement. Some organizations such as the International Monetary Fund have called for the share to fall.

Earlier Wednesday, Xinhua ran a commentary that said China is projected to “steadily resume economic growth and infuse new vigor into the global economic recovery.” It also said a series of stimulus packages have been introduced that will, among other things, improve consumer expectations and boost the confidence of international investors.

--With assistance from Tom Hancock and Fran Wang.

(Updated with details throughout.)

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