BEIJING - China should accelerate the improvement of the socialist market economy and the change of the growth model, said Hu Jintao in his report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Thursday morning.

"In response to changes in both domestic and international economic developments, we should speed up the creation of a new growth model and ensure that development is based on improved quality and performance," he said.

He said taking economic development as the central task is vital to national renewal, and development still holds the key to addressing all the problems China is facing.

Only by promoting sustained and sound economic development can China lay a solid material foundation for enhancing the country's prosperity and strength, improving the people's wellbeing and ensuring social harmony and stability, he said.

In contemporary China, pursuing development in a scientific way best embodies the thinking that only development counts, he said.

"Taking the pursuit of development in a scientific way as the underlying guideline and accelerating the change of the growth model as a major task is a strategic choice we have made for promoting China's overall development," he said.