The 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) opened its fifth plenary session in Beijing Friday to discuss the nation's next five-year development plan.

The four-day meeting will review proposals for the country's 12th five-year program (2011-2015) on national economic and social development.

The period would be critical for building a moderately prosperous society, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee announced last month.

It would be a time of difficult issues for deepening the reform and opening-up process while accelerating the transformation of the nation's economic development pattern, said the announcement.

Analysts say the fifth plenary session, which ends Monday, is of great importance as committee members are expected to analyze domestic and international situations and set the guidelines, goals, tasks and key measures for the next five years.

They will also review China's economic and social development over the past five years.

A draft version of the proposals for the 12th five-year program has been offered to some delegates of the CPC's 17th National Congress and organizations outside the Party.

The document was further revised based on their suggestions.

Sources with the CPC said the proposals, accumulated from throughout the Party and other organizations, would become a guideline document for China's continued reform and opening-up process as well as socialist modernization.

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2010)