BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The seven percent GDP growth target set for this year is not low for China and it does not meanChina has changed its macroeconomic control policies, said Ma Kai, minister in charge of the State Development and Reform Commission Monday.

    If China could maintain a seven percent growth in the years to come, without drastic ups and downs, the country can well attain its goal of building a well-off society in all aspects by 2020, Ma said.

    The seven percent growth target is proposed by Premier Wen Jiabao in his Government Work Report to the legislature.

    The Premier pledged to continue the incentive package for domestic demand, the activist fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, Ma said.

    China hit 9.1 percent in GDP growth in 2003, despite the impactof SARS epidemic, a record since the Asian Financial Crisis in thelate 1990s.

    But Ma admitted that China has achieved the fast GDP growth at the expense of resources and environment.

    China contributed to about four percent of the world's total GDP in 2003 by consuming 7.4 percent of the oil, 31 percent of the coal, 27 percent of steel, 25 percent of alumina and 40 percent ofthe cement, consumed worldwide.

    China has to develop at a moderate rate in order to ease economic and social conflicts, meet the growing demand of the people and realize a well-off society in all aspects by 2020.

    Such a moderate growth may help ease the pressure on resources and environment that have already much been strained after years of hectic growth, put an end to the single-minded pursuit for growth, leaving space for improving the quality of the economy andadjusting the economic structure, Ma said. Enditem