BEIJING - Ranking officers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) attended Monday the first of a series of lectures to better understand an overall national plan for the coming five years.

Eleven experts are taking the mission of expounding the proposals of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on the economic and social development plan from 2016 to 2020, which were endorsed recently at the fifth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, to the armed forces nationwide.

At the first lecture, which was heard by most top uniformed leaders, Fan Changlong, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), said, all service people should work for strengthening the defence and contribute to the goal of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society by 2020.

He asked the armed forces to absolutely follow the CPC direction, firmly deepen the reform, push forward deeper integration of defence and civil sectors, ensure highly centralized command and control in the military, and keep up combat preparedness.

Xu Qiliang, also vice chairman of the CMC, asked the lecturers to comprehensively and precisely explain the national development strategy with down-to-earth style.

The central leadership also organized such a publicity endeavor nationwide, besides in the armed forces.

At least 31 senior officials, including head of the National Development and Reform Commission Xu Shaoshi, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei, Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng, Education Minister Yuan Guiren and Environmental Protection Minister Chen Jining, join the publicity task force.