BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for coordinated functioning of the market and government in resource allocation to promote sustainable economic and social development.

Calling the relationship between the government and market the core issue in economic reforms during a collective study on Monday, Xi stressed that the roles of the two are not contradictory and should not be pitted against each other.

To give the market a more prominent role, China has pledged to deepen economic reform to ensure the market plays a "decisive" role, instead of the previous "basic" role, and allow government to play a "better" role in allocating resources during a key reform meeting last year.

Xi stressed that the decisive role of the market cannot replace or negate the role of the government, and vice versa.

China sets economic reform priorities for 2014

Government-enterprise relations and economic reforms

2014 key to China's economic reform