III. Major Tasks and Measures for Economic and Social Development in 2009
This year is the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China. It is also a crucial year for dealing with the impact of the global financial crisis, sustaining the country's steady and fairly rapid economic growth, maintaining social harmony and stability, and achieving the goals set forth in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. We will concentrate on ensuring economic growth. Our basic approach will be to increase domestic demand; our main orientation will be to change the pattern of economic development and adjust the structure of the economy more quickly; we will make deepening reforms in key areas and crucial links and raising the level of the country's open economy into a strong driving force; we will take improving people's lives as our starting point and final goal. We will confront challenges head-on, ease serious conflicts, and promote sound and rapid economic and social development.
1. We will adopt a proactive fiscal policy and an appropriately easy monetary policy and further improve macro control.
We will take reversing the decline in economic growth as the most important goal of macro control. We will make our control more foresighted, responsive and effective to fully encourage economic growth.
We will increase government spending while carrying out structural tax reductions.
1) The central budget deficit and the volume of treasury bonds issued will be increased. The proposed central budget deficit for 2009 is 750 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 570 billion yuan, and more treasury bonds will be issued to finance this increase.
2) Tax burden on businesses and individuals will be lowered. We will implement existing preferential tax policies on real estate transactions and on small and medium-sized enterprises and policies on export tax rebates. A total of 100 administrative fees will be either suspended or rescinded.
3) The structure of government expenditures will be improved. More fiscal support will be given to improvement in people's lives, infrastructure development and post-earthquake reconstruction; general expenditures will be strictly controlled, and expenditures on official cars, meetings, receptions for official business and official visits overseas will be reduced. Construction of office buildings for Party and government organs will be strictly controlled.
We will make better use of monetary policy to stimulate economic growth.
1) The total supply of money and credit will be increased by an appropriate amount. A wide range of monetary policy tools will be employed to maintain sufficient liquidity of the banking system. Commercial banks will be guided to appropriately increase their lending, and informal finance will be guided to ensure their healthy development.
2) The credit structure will be improved. Following the policy of encouraging growth in some sectors and discouraging it in others, we will increase credit support for improvement in people's lives, agriculture, rural areas and farmers, major infrastructure development, small and medium-sized enterprises, independent innovation, technological transformation, mergers and reorganizations, energy conservation, pollution reduction, balanced regional development, consumption expansion and post-earthquake reconstruction. In addition, reasonable request of real estate developers for financing will be met.
3) Steady and healthy development of the capital market will be maintained. Capital market infrastructure will be improved to boost investor confidence.
4) Financial regulation and oversight will be strengthened. We will improve financial institutions' ability to manage risks, make progress in developing a security network for the financial system, and guard against systemic risks.
5) The RMB exchange rates will be kept basically stable. The broad money supply (M2) in 2009 will be increased by about 17 percent.
Fairly rapid growth in investment in fixed assets will be maintained.
1) Government investment will be increased. The central government plans for 1.18 trillion yuan of investment from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the end of 2010, which, with the addition of investment from local governments and nongovernmental sources, will provide funds of about four trillion yuan. The money will be used primarily to speed up development of housing for low- to moderate-income families, projects to improve the wellbeing of rural residents, infrastructure, social programs, environmental protection, economic restructuring and technological upgrading, as well as on post-earthquake reconstruction. In addition to the increased public investment of 104 billion yuan it made at the end of last year to develop housing for low- to moderate-income families and support post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction, the central government is allocating 908 billion yuan for public investment in 2009, an increase of 487.5 billion yuan over last year. In order to make local governments better able to finance related expenditures and increase investment, the State Council approved the issuance of 200 billion yuan of treasury bonds by the Ministry of Finance on their behalf, which will be listed in provincial government budgets.
2) Government investment will be used to guide other types of investment to desirable areas. New channels and areas for nongovernmental investment will be opened. More corporate bonds will be issued. Investment of nongovernmental capital in areas that accord with the state's industrial policy will be encouraged. More non-state funds will be attracted to projects encouraged by the government, especially infrastructure projects for post-earthquake reconstruction.
3) Supervision of investment projects and investment funds will be tightened. Construction procedures will be strictly followed to firmly block a new round of energy-intensive, highly polluting, low-level and redundant projects. Oversight and inspection of the entire construction process on projects funded by the government will be intensified to ensure project quality. Nobody will be allowed to misappropriate, hold back or waste development funds, and all funds will be used effectively. China's total investment in fixed assets will grow by 20 percent in 2009.
We will work hard to expand consumption, particularly consumer spending.
1) We will do everything possible to increase personal incomes and boost consumption. We will continue to raise general direct subsidies for agricultural supplies, subsidies for superior varieties of crops, and subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery and tools, and expand coverage of the subsidies. We will raise basic old-age pensions for enterprise retirees and cost of living allowances for urban and rural residents. We will increase the subsidies and living allowances for members of entitled groups and other eligible people. Personal income from property will also be increased.
2) New growth areas of consumption will be fostered and developed. Purchase of ordinary commodity housing will be encouraged. Purchase of homes for non-investment purpose will be supported. The used home market and the market for rental housing will be standardized and developed. We will implement policies to reduce the vehicle purchase tax and subsidize rural residents' vehicle purchases to stabilize and increase consumer spending on cars and motorcycles. Consumption for community-based services such as retail outlets, property management and domestic service will be strongly developed. Consumption in the areas of tourism, culture, sports and fitness as well as animation and the Internet will be vigorously promoted to meet consumer needs arising from the revision of the schedule of national legal holidays. Development of e-commerce will be accelerated.
3) We will improve the consumption environment and consumption-related policies. We will increase consumer credit, strengthen urban and rural consumption infrastructure, and improve the system of consumer services. The policy to promote the purchase of domestic appliances by rural residents will be carried out throughout the country, and more appliances such as water heaters, computers, air-conditioners, microwave ovens and induction cookers will be available at subsidized prices. We will speed up efforts to encourage retailers to open stores in more townships and towns and expand chain operations in rural areas. Community services and facilities for the convenience of urban residents will be improved. We will tighten oversight and review of prices and charges related to agriculture, enterprises, transportation, education, medical care, drugs and real estate to protect consumers' legitimate rights and interests.
4) Consumer expectations will be improved to increase people's willingness to spend. Regulations and policies restricting consumption will be eliminated. We will increase subsidies for poor people and students from poor families as needed. We will stimulate immediate consumption by allaying people's concerns that increasing consumption will make them unable to meet basic living needs later on. China's retail sales of consumer goods will rise by 14 percent in 2009. This figure is based on the fact that retail sales of consumer goods have experienced sustained rapid growth in recent years, that we have adopted more, effective policies for stimulating consumption and they are gradually achieving noticeable results, and that prices are projected to rise much less this year, as well as other factors that will influence consumer demand such as greater difficulty in creating jobs and increasing personal income.
We need to do a good job regulating economic activities. We will make full use of the mechanism for coordinating distribution of coal, electricity, petroleum, gas and transport services to ensure their sufficient supplies. We will promptly solve problems relating to the supply and transportation of coal for key areas such as home use, power generation and heating supply. We will effectively allocate electricity, facilitate cross-province trade in power generating capacity and optimize electricity distribution. We will balance supply and demand for refined petroleum products and coordinate their production and transportation with demand. All these measures will enable us to meet the demand for energy in people's lives, public transportation, public utilities and other key areas. We will ensure that sufficient supplies of coal, electricity, petroleum, gas and transport capacity reach disaster-stricken areas and other key areas at crucial times. We will improve emergency response plans and mechanisms, increase reserves of goods and materials for possible emergencies, and work effectively to strengthen the emergency response system.
2. We will consolidate and develop our achievements in agriculture and rural areas, ensure an effective supply of farm products and help bring about a steady increase in rural incomes.
Conscientiously following the guiding principles set out at the Third Plenary Session of the Seventeenth CPC Central Committee, we will ensure that our work relating to agriculture, rural areas and farmers continues to be a top priority, and we will increase rural incomes and shore up the agricultural foundation as an important means of expanding domestic demand.
1) We will increase investment. We will greatly increase government investment in rural infrastructure and social programs, considerably increase the proportion of government land transfer income and the proportion of increased tax revenue from the non-agricultural use of farmland that is spent on agriculture, and substantially increase investment in rural public works projects in the central and western regions. Also, funds from the issuance of new treasury bonds will go disproportionately to rural areas. The central government will allocate a total of 716.1 billion yuan this year to support agriculture, rural areas and farmers, an annual increase of 120.6 billion yuan. In addition, we will make innovations in investment incentives and encourage and guide nongovernmental capital of all kinds to invest in agriculture and rural areas. Several large and medium-sized key water conservancy projects will be completed. A number of dangerous large and medium-sized reservoirs will be reinforced. We will accelerate development of key projects such as upgrading water-saving devices and building auxiliary facilities in large irrigated areas and building drought-relief water projects. We will do our work effectively in the five areas of water, electricity, roads, gas and housing. Work will continue on the project to provide safe drinking water for rural residents to solve the drinking water problems of another 60 million people. We will provide methane gas to an additional five million rural households and accelerate upgrading of rural power grids. Expansion and upgrading of rural roads will continue. Trials to build settlements for nomadic herdsmen and renovate dangerous rural houses will be extended to more areas. We will set up a system to compensate the major grain producing areas for the effects that growing grain has on their interests, increase general transfer payment and fiscal rewards to major grain producing counties and give them more support for their projects to develop the grain industry. We will improve the policy on grain risk funds.
2) We will maintain and increase grain and agricultural production. We will adhere to the strictest possible systems for protecting farmland and for using land economically and make sure that the total grain acreage is no less than last year. The plan to increase China's grain production capacity by 50 million tons will be implemented, and development of national bases for commercial grain production will be accelerated. We will carry out the project to industrialize production of high-quality grain crops. We will give support to demonstration projects of integrated technologies that produce high yields of grain and oilseed in large areas. Policies to support the production of grain, oilseed and hogs will be strengthened. Work will continue to rectify and revitalize the dairy industry. Oversight of fertilizer prices will be intensified. Large-scale, standardized practices for healthy production in animal husbandry and aquaculture will be developed. Development of the system for prevention and control of animal and plant epidemics, the system for quality and safety inspection and testing of farm products, and the system for cultivating superior varieties and breeds will be accelerated. Development of wholesale markets for farm products, grain and oil storage facilities, and modern logistics facilities will be stepped up. We will strive to keep the country's grain output stable at 500 million tons in 2009.
3) We will increase rural incomes. We will vigorously develop modern agriculture with distinctive features and rural secondary and tertiary industries, particularly the processing of farm products. Development of rural enterprises and small cities and towns will be accelerated. We will continue to run projects to develop model towns to demonstrate comprehensive economic development. We will strengthen local economies of counties. We will increase vocational education and technical training in rural areas to make it easier for rural residents to find non-farm jobs. State policies will be implemented to protect the legitimate rights and interests of rural migrant workers in cities, and those who return home will be encouraged to find jobs or start their own businesses in their hometowns.
4) We will keep farm product prices stable. We will stabilize the prices of major agricultural products such as grain, edible vegetable oil, cotton, sugar and hogs through a combination of control policies, including raising purchase price floors, manipulating reserves, temporary purchasing and stockpiling, shipping to other regions, and exporting and importing. The minimum purchase prices of wheat and rice in 2009 will be raised by 0.22 yuan and 0.26 yuan per kilogram respectively.
5) We will deepen overall rural reform. We will make township and town governments better able to provide social management and deliver public services. We will set up a sound government reward and subsidy system for village-level public works projects, the launching of which will be determined by the villagers through deliberation. We will comprehensively implement reform of collective forest rights. We will strengthen supervision of and services for trade in contracted land-use rights. We will make overall arrangements to reform the system of state-owned farms and carry out other rural reforms.
3. We will accelerate independent innovation and industrial upgrading and further strengthen the competitive advantages of the economy.
1) We will implement plans to restructure and reinvigorate key industries. Following the principles of addressing both the symptoms and root causes of problems and taking into account both long-term and short-term needs, we will adopt a combination of well-coordinated measures, including intensifying technological transformation of enterprises, promoting mergers and reorganizations, shutting down backward production facilities, developing major products, innovating major technologies, and apportioning key development projects, to protect and develop key industries, such as the steel, automobile, shipbuilding, petrochemical, textile, non-ferrous metals, equipment manufacturing, electronic information and light industries, as well as leading enterprises and name brands and their market shares.
2) We will improve the country's capacity for independent innovation. Industrial policies concerning biotechnology, software and integrated circuits will be formulated. More investment from the budget for state capital operations and from the central government budget will be given to enterprises to carry out R&D on technologies for biomedicine, third generation mobile communications, and energy-efficient, environmentally friendly automobiles, and to apply these technologies in production. We will quickly organize the implementation of major state science and technology projects to make breakthroughs in the key, generic technologies that have wide application and can foster the development of other technologies. We will accelerate development of the national science and technology infrastructure program, develop large astronomical telescopes and oceanographic research vessels and make further progress in the third phase of the Knowledge Innovation Program. We will continue to develop a group of engineering research centers, national engineering laboratories and enterprise technology centers. We will allocate a fund of 20 billion yuan to promote technological transformation of enterprises. We will set up a number of service platforms for technological innovation and accelerate extensive application of domestically developed technologies and products. We will strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights. We will strive to raise government spending on R&D up to 1.58 percent of GDP in 2009.
3) We will accelerate development of high-tech industries and equipment manufacturing. We will carry out projects to promote industrial application of high technologies such as information, biotechnology, new materials, new energy sources, civil aviation and civil aerospace, focusing on major high-tech industrial projects such as the next-generation Internet and digital television. We will increase efforts to develop national high-tech industrial bases and industry chains. We will explore ways to set up venture capital guidance funds for high-tech industries. We will help the advanced equipment manufacturing industry become bigger and stronger. We will carry out projects to support domestic development and production of major technical equipment, and implement policies for giving preferential treatment for the purchase and use of key equipment that is newly developed and manufactured domestically. We will strengthen the country's capacity for independent design and mass production of regional airplanes and promote domestic development and manufacturing of large equipment such as large-capacity nuclear power generators, wind power facilities and high-speed trains.
4) We will promote reform and development of the service sector. We will give more support to modern services while standardizing and upgrading traditional services. We will promote the integration of service industries, such as modern logistics, information technology, finance and consultancy, with modern manufacturing industries so that they can help each other develop. We will encourage the development of consumer services that can create more jobs and are urgently needed in the market.
5) We will vigorously promote reorganization of enterprises. We will encourage leading and superior enterprises to acquire those that are backward or financial strapped, encourage well-established enterprises to consolidate, and encourage affiliated enterprises and upstream and downstream enterprises to integrate in order to form a group of strong, competitive large enterprises and conglomerates.
6) We will take more effective measures to support development of small and medium-sized enterprises. We will provide them with finance guarantees and interest subsidies, and increase the amount of government funds earmarked for them, with the central government funding for supporting their development to be raised from 3.9 billion yuan to 9.6 billion yuan. We will also improve the system under which various sectors of society provide services for them, and offer them better market access.
7) We will work hard to resolve transportation bottlenecks and continue to upgrade energy structure. We will strengthen the capacity for transporting coal from the west to eastern ports and for transporting coal out of Xinjiang, improve passenger rail lines, and build more railways connecting to northeast China and more railways that directly connect coalmining bases in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces and western Inner Mongolia with railways in central China. We will accelerate development of the national network of expressways and construction of airports in the central and western regions. In addition, we will promote development of large coalmining bases and carry out projects to send electricity and gas from the west to the east, and upgrade urban power grids.
4. We will promote balanced economic development among regions, reduce the gap in their development and improve distribution of the production forces among them.
1) We will continue to implement the strategy of large-scale development of the western region, start construction on a number of key infrastructure projects, and consolidate progress in key ecological projects, such as returning farmland to forests and grazing land to grassland. We will encourage coastal areas to increase their one-to-one assistance to designated areas in the western region, eastern and western regions to jointly establish industrial zones, and the east to relocate industries to the west. We will effectively implement policies and measures to support economic and social development of Chongqing, Tibet, Ningxia, Xinjiang and Tibetan ethnic areas in some provinces including Qinghai. Key areas will be encouraged to accelerate economic development. We will speedily open up border areas wider.
2) Northeast China and other old industrial bases will be encouraged to deepen reform and make their economies more open. They need to accelerate technological transformation and upgrading in traditional industries, promote development of grain-producing bases and farming and ranching centers, invigorate equipment manufacturing, develop industries with local advantages, and improve transportation infrastructure. We will complete specification of a second group of cities dependent on now-depleted resources, and launch projects to help resource-dependent cities create employment opportunities, comprehensively utilize resources and develop alternative industries.
3) We will give stronger support to the central region to help it upgrade industrial structure and deepen reform. While effectively implementing current policies designed for the region, we will accelerate development of bases for grain production, energy resources, raw materials, modern equipment manufacturing and high technologies, plus a system of integrated transportation hubs.
4) The eastern region will be encouraged to accelerate economic transformation, industrial upgrading and institutional innovation. It should give priority to developing modern services, the advanced equipment manufacturing and new- and high-tech industries, and vigorously develop the marine economy to create new competitive advantages.
5) We will give more support to old revolutionary areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas and poor areas to help them develop so that people there can share in the fruits of reform and development.
6) We will promote rational and progressive movement of factors of production between regions and accelerate cross-region economic integration. We will support local governments in responding to the impact of external events in light of their conditions, developing distinctive industries with local advantages and fostering new areas of economic growth.
7) We will formulate and implement a plan for national development priority zones, and lay out a policy for regulating them differently and a procedure for using different criteria to assess their performance.
5. We will unswervingly deepen reform and expand opening up, and improve systems and mechanisms conducive to scientific development.
1) Reform of the pricing system will progress steadily. We will implement policies for reforming prices of refined petroleum products and related taxes and fees, improve supporting measures, and establish a mechanism for setting prices and related taxes for them that is conducive to scientific development. We will deepen reform of electricity prices, and gradually improve the mechanism for setting the price of electricity supplied to power grids, the price for its transmission and distribution, and the price for its sale to end-users. Prices for coal, electricity and natural gas will be adjusted when necessary. We will carry out water price reform, continue to impose progressive surcharges on non-household consumers that exceed water use quotas, and gradually increase prices for water supplied from water conservancy projects for non-agricultural use.
2) Reform of the investment system will be deepened. We will improve the system for managing government investment, and accelerate implementation of the contractor system for construction projects. We will create and implement a system for assessing finished investment projects, a public notice system for major investment projects and an accountability system for decisions made on investment projects. We will continue to reform the system of project examination and approval, standardize the methods for approving and recording investment projects, reduce the range of approval, define approval authority scientifically and enforce approval procedures strictly.
3) Reform the fiscal and taxation systems will be intensified. We will enforce the newly revised interim regulations on value-added tax, business tax and excise tax, and comprehensively implement VAT reform. We will accelerate reform of resource taxes and fees, and make both domestic and overseas-funded enterprises and Chinese and foreign nationals pay the same urban construction and maintenance tax and education surcharge. We will also deepen reform of the budgetary system and accelerate the reform to put county public finance directly under the supervision of provincial governments.
4) Reform of the financial system will progress steadily. We will accelerate the introduction of a stockholding system in the Agriculture Bank of China, vigorously develop new types of financial institutions in rural areas and continue to reform policy banks. We will develop a multi-level system for capital markets, vigorously yet prudently introduce a growth enterprise market, further improve the market systems and environment for venture capital, equity investment and debt financing, and strengthen the market-based system for issuance of securities and the mechanism to get issuers to exercise self-restraint.
5) Reform of the pharmaceutical and health care system will continue. We will accelerate establishment of a system of basic medical insurance, set up a national system for basic drugs, further improve the community-based medical and health service system, improve the policy for subsidizing public health institutions, and reform public hospitals on a trial basis in order to guarantee equal access to basic public health services.
In addition, we will promptly deliberate and formulate long- and medium-term plans for reforms and coordinate national and provincial-level pilot reforms to promote comprehensive and sustainable development. We will continue to deepen reforms of state-owned enterprises, monopoly industries and the government administrative system and also help the non-public sector adapt to market changes and overcome difficulties presently hindering its development.
We will do everything possible to promote steady development of an outwardly oriented economy.
1) We will work hard to maintain steady export growth by competing on quality and efficiency and diversifying export markets. We will promptly improve policies and measures to ease major difficulties of export-oriented enterprises. We will speed up efforts to open up emerging markets that have strong demand while strengthening traditional markets. We will take an active part in setting up free trade zones with prospective countries and regions. We will steadily promote transformation and upgrading of processing trade and encourage enterprises engaging in it to extend their chains of production and relocate their production to the central and western regions. We will vigorously develop trade in services, promptly implement policies and measures to encourage contracting of services outsourced on the international market and effectively ease trade frictions. We will increase imports of advanced technical equipment, key spare parts and components, and important energy resources and raw materials to build up the country's reserves of strategic goods and emergency supplies.
2) We will utilize foreign capital actively and effectively. We will further improve the investment environment, utilize foreign funds in an innovative way, and guide them toward industries such as high technology, advanced manufacturing, energy conserving and environmental protection industries and modern services. The central and western regions will be supported in taking full advantage of their low costs and rich resources to attract foreign funds. We will severely restrict foreign investment in energy-intensive and highly polluting industries. Management of foreign loans will be improved. Foreign loans and foreign direct investment in 2009 are expected to reach $25.8 billion and $92.4 billion respectively.
3) We will strengthen planning and policy guidance for China's investment overseas and encourage Chinese enterprises to energetically yet steadily expand investment and cooperation overseas. We will improve the mechanisms for investing in and cooperating with key countries and strengthen mutually beneficial international cooperation on energy and resources. We will effectively guard against and reduce risks to the country's overseas capital. Considering the favorable conditions for expanding investment abroad, China's overseas direct investment is expected to grow by 13.2 percent in 2009 despite the negative impact of the global financial crisis on direct investment and the increasing difficulties domestic enterprises face in their production and operation.
6. We will make every effort to save energy and reduce pollution and make substantial progress in building a resource-conserving and environmentally friendly society.
1) Development of key energy conservation and pollution reduction projects will be strengthened. Support to the ten major energy conservation projects, the campaign to save energy in the 1,000 energy-intensive enterprises, and the development of the circular economy will be strengthened. We will intensify efforts to prevent and control pollution in key water basins and regions, including the Huai, Hai, Liao and Songhua rivers, Tai, Chao and Dianchi lakes, the Bohai Sea, the Danjiangkou Reservoir area and its upper reaches, the Three Gorges Reservoir area and its upper reaches, and the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River. We will support the construction of facilities for urban sewage treatment and garbage disposal and for comprehensive ecological improvement of water basins. We will also support demonstrations of major environmental protection technologies. In 2009 the percentage of treated urban sewage is expected to reach 69 percent and percentage of urban household waste safely handled should reach 67 percent. We will accelerate the reform of heating supply by installing heat meters and temperature regulators in the north, vigorously develop green buildings and strongly promote energy efficiency in buildings. We will strengthen ecological improvement and environmental protection, and steadily press ahead with key ecological conservation projects such as those to build key shelterbelts, protect virgin forests, bring the sources of dust storms affecting Beijing and Tianjin under control, return grazing land to grassland and prevent karst regions from becoming stony deserts.
2) We will speed up efforts to shut down backward production facilities. We will strictly implement industrial policies, improve the mechanism for closing down backward production facilities, create a public notice system announcing enterprises that have been ordered to shut down, and implement the policy making enterprises whose production is classified as backward or restricted pay higher electricity rates. We will support the central and western regions in shutting down such facilities. In 2009 we will shut down backward iron foundries with a total capacity of ten million tons, backward steel mills with a total capacity of six million tons, backward paper mills with a total capacity of half a million tons and backward power plants with a total capacity of 15 million kilowatts.
3) We will work energetically to develop the circular economy. Improvements will be made to regulations for implementing the Law on Promoting the Circular Economy, and a plan for developing the circular economy will be formulated. We will work out economic policies to encourage the recovery of by-product heat and pressure to generate electricity to be supplied to the power grid. We will explore ways to set up a special fund for developing the circular economy and establish a sound, scientific statistics system for it. We will move forward with the second group of national pilot demonstration projects for developing a circular economy and trials for remanufacturing auto parts, and support a number of key projects for the circular economy. We will promote recovery of useful materials from damaged buildings in earthquake-hit areas. We will give more importance to comprehensive utilization of resources and promote cleaner production in all sectors. Water consumption per 10,000 yuan of value-added by industry is expected to drop by 5.6 percent, while the percentage of industrial solid wastes that are comprehensively utilized will reach 65.9 percent.
4) Laws, regulations and policies on energy conservation and pollution reduction will be improved. We will introduce the Regulations on Assessing and Examining Energy Savings in Fixed Asset Investment Projects, and will quickly establish or revise China's mandatory energy consumption quotas for products whose production is energy intensive and mandatory energy efficiency standards for major energy consuming products. Economic policies will be worked out to encourage use of more efficient air-conditioners, energy-saving electric motors and energy-efficient, environmentally friendly automobiles, and the development of the energy conservation services. We will expand the scope of energy efficiency labeling and the list of energy- and water-saving products for government procurement. We will implement the policies for giving income tax credit to enterprises for the purchase of equipment for saving energy and water and reducing pollution and giving excise tax credit to manufacturers for the production of small-displacement cars that conserve energy and are environmentally friendly. Pilot programs will be carried out to train energy conservation managers. We will tighten oversight of electricity rates charged by power plants with desulfurizing devices and improve the system for demand-side management of electricity. We will continue to experiment with the cap-and-trade emissions trading system.
5) We will tighten performance assessment and oversight of energy conservation and pollution reduction efforts. We will further improve methods for assessing performance in meeting energy conservation and pollution reduction targets. The performance of provincial-level governments and the 1,000 energy-intensive enterprises in fulfilling energy conservation targets and implementing energy conservation measures in 2008 will be assessed. We will strengthen energy conservation oversight. We will intensify efforts to protect and improve the environment. We will investigate and punish all kinds of illegal activities detrimental to the environment in accordance with the law, with the focus on ensuring the safety of the people's drinking-water supply. We will ensure that pollution control apparatus, such as urban sewage treatment facilities and desulfurizing devices in coal-fired power plants, are operating properly. We will continue the campaign to encourage the general public to conserve energy and reduce emissions.
6) We will fully carry out China's National Climate Change Program. We will strive to improve the country's ability to respond to climate change at both national and provincial levels, set up and improve supervisory bodies at all levels. We will formulate and implement provincial climate change programs. We will carry out pilot projects for developing a low-carbon economy and promote international cooperation on projects concerning clean development mechanisms. We will increase R&D on technologies for slowing down and responding to climate change.
7. We will intensify efforts to improve people's lives and strive to resolve sensitive and thorny issues affecting their interests.
1) We will carry out a more vigorous employment policy. We will make full use of the important role of the service sector, labor-intensive industries, small and medium-sized enterprises and the non-public sector of the economy in creating jobs. We will integrate efforts to promote development and boost domestic demand with those to increase employment by all possible means. When allocating investment or deciding on major construction projects, we will emphasize their role in stimulating employment. We will encourage more people to start their own businesses or find jobs for themselves, and promote job creation through the creation of new businesses. We will introduce flexible employment mechanisms to relieve the employment pressure created by college graduates entering the workforce, encourage institutions of higher education to hire their graduates to participate in research projects, and encourage college graduates to take jobs in community-level public administration or public service organizations in urban and rural areas, to enlist in the army, and to work in private or small and medium-sized enterprises. We will create more public service positions, with the emphasis on assisting people who have difficulty finding employment, people from zero-employment families and workers in disaster areas. We will effectively handle the problem of reemployment for workers laid off due to efforts to conserve energy, reduce pollution and eliminate backward production facilities. We will strengthen the development of the human resources service system, the vocational training system and the service system for business start-ups, and continue to carry out pilot projects to develop the service infrastructure for rural workers seeking nonagricultural jobs. Rural migrant workers will be given vigorous support to start their own businesses in their hometowns. We will pay attention to the impact of macroeconomic changes on employment and improve dynamic monitoring of major developments in unemployment.
2) We will accelerate improvement of the social safety net for urban and rural residents. We will expand the coverage of urban basic old-age insurance and basic medical insurance, as well as unemployment insurance, workers' compensation and maternity insurance. We will make progress in overall planning concerning old-age pensions at the provincial level, speedily expand trials to fully fund personal accounts for basic old-age insurance, and draw up unified nationwide rules for transferring old-age pension accounts from one region to another and procedures for covering rural migrant workers by basic old-age insurance. We will consolidate and improve the new type of rural cooperative medical care system. We will improve development of public service facilities for social security. We will raise the level of the cost of living allowances for urban and rural residents, increase the subsidies and living allowances for members of entitled groups and other eligible people, and work to establish a dynamic mechanism to adjust the cost of living allowances for urban and rural residents when prices change. The number of urban residents participating in the basic old-age insurance program is expected to grow by 4.2 percent in 2009.
3) We will accelerate implementation of the project to supply housing for low- and moderate-income families in urban and rural areas. We will undertake construction of low-rent housing on a large scale and make sure such construction projects get the funds and land they need. This year, the central government will allocate 43 billion yuan to support development of government low-rent housing for cost of living allowances recipients with housing difficulties. We will vigorously develop public rental housing. We will speed up the project to improve conditions in urban shantytowns and shantytowns in state-owned forest regions, land reclamation zones and coalmining areas, and complete the work of relocating families and repairing houses in coalmining areas plagued by sinkholes. We will improve the living conditions of rural residents by extending the pilot projects to renovate dangerous rural houses in the central and western regions and accelerating the project to build settlements for nomadic herdsmen.
4) We will strengthen regulation of income distribution. We will establish a sound mechanism to regularly increase the pay of enterprise employees and ensure that they are paid in full and on time, carry out reform of the income distribution system in state-owned enterprises, strengthen control of income distribution in monopoly industries, and accelerate development of a system for monitoring income distribution.
5) We will rectify and standardize the market order. We will exercise rigorous oversight and control on prices and charges directly affecting people's lives and crack down severely on all kinds of production and business activities that violate laws and regulations. We will launch extensive campaigns to ensure food safety, and improve and strictly enforce the standards for product quality and safety. We will establish a system of legal accountability and punishment in which powers, responsibilities and interests are in close correspondence.
6) We will do all we can to maintain social stability. We will intensify our work concerning social management and production safety. We will stress social management during the course of urban and rural integration. We will improve the contingency plans and the policies and measures for responding to great natural disasters and public emergencies, and strengthen services for and supervision of the floating population. We will implement the accountability system for workplace safety and resolutely prevent serious and major accidents. We will raise the overall level of law and order in society.
7) We will continue to intensify our work to relieve poverty through development, relocate more people from inhospitable areas as a poverty relief measure and give more people work in place of relief subsidies. A new poverty line will be adopted and all low-income rural residents will be covered by the poverty relief policy.
8. We will strengthen the development of social programs and strive to better balance economic and social development.
1) We will continue to place a high priority on education. We will implement the national program to ensure the safety of primary and secondary school buildings and make progress in the standardization of rural primary and secondary schools. We will continue the project to renovate buildings at rural junior secondary schools in the central and western regions, strengthen training of primary and secondary school teachers in the two regions, and improve policies and measures to help migrant workers in cities send their children to school and promote balanced development of compulsory education. We will accelerate development of secondary vocational education, particularly in rural areas. Beginning in 2009, secondary vocational education will be free for students from poor rural families and for all students enrolled in agriculture-related programs. We will continue to improve the infrastructure of county-level vocational education centers and secondary vocational schools and build more special education schools in the central and western regions. The third phase of the 211 Project and the May 1998 Project for higher education will be implemented. The secondary gross enrollment ratio is expected to reach 77 percent, and plans call for enrolling 6.29 million undergraduate students and 475,000 graduate students in regular institutions of higher learning in 2009.
2) We will energetically strengthen public medical and health care services. We will further improve the system of public health services, and improve our ability to prevent and control serious diseases and to forecast, give early warning against and deal with public health emergencies. We will improve the urban and rural systems of community-level medical and health care services, continue to support development of the county, township, village three-tier rural health service network and community-level family planning service system, and develop community-based health service agencies in cities. We will intensify development of key traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospitals and bases for TCM clinical research. We will increase the reward to rural women at or above the age of 60 who have complied with family planning regulations from 600 yuan to 720 yuan per person. We will fully implement the "lower birthrate equals faster prosperity" pilot project, implement the policy of granting subsidies to rural women giving birth in hospitals, carry out measures to prevent birth defects in all rural areas, and provide routine gynecological examinations for rural women.
3) We will vigorously develop culture, radio, television, film, the press and publishing, sports and tourism. We will strengthen the system of public cultural services, especially the building of community public cultural facilities. We will carry forward development of multipurpose cultural centers in towns and townships, and continue the projects to extend radio and television coverage to all villages and show movies in the countryside, and the Tibet-Xinjiang Project to extend radio coverage in the western region. We will promote the flourishing of philosophy and the social sciences. We will strengthen protection of cultural and natural heritage sites, do a good job ensuring that people can visit public museums and memorial halls free of charge, and improve relevant mechanisms. We will energetically develop emerging cultural industries. We will continue to carry out the sports and fitness program for rural residents and promote the sound development of sports at the community level. We will intensify development of tourism infrastructure and complete the task of developing key tourist sites concerning the early history of the CPC.
9. We will effectively carry out post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction work and lay a solid foundation for disaster victims to live and work in peace and contentment.
1) We will comprehensively carry out post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction to ensure people's wellbeing. In accordance with the principle of putting people's wellbeing first, making overall plans and guaranteeing priorities, we will accelerate the restoration and reconstruction of housing, education and health to improve people's lives in urban and rural areas. We will give priority to rebuilding housing in quake-hit areas, basically complete the construction of rural houses by the end of this year and comprehensively carry out the work of rebuilding housing in urban areas. We will make proper arrangements to rebuild schools, hospitals and other public service facilities and ensure that more than 95 percent of students in quake-hit areas will move into permanent school buildings by the end of this year. We will strictly abide by mandatory construction standards and specifications, to ensure that we make safe, solid and reassuring buildings while avoiding the extravagance and waste involved in exceeding standards.
2) We will accelerate restoration and reconstruction of infrastructure, including transportation, communications, energy, water conservancy and distribution. We will do everything possible to ensure that roads in quake areas are unimpeded, giving priority to rebuilding trunk highways and roads connecting county seats while also improving rural roads. Restoration and reconstruction of power grids and electricity supply facilities will be sped up. We will intensify efforts to prevent and control geological disasters and restore the ecosystem, and do a good job reinforcing affected levees and reservoirs and draining quake lakes.
3) We will combine industry reconstruction with efforts to create jobs for disaster victims. We will absorb as many workers in quake areas as possible into the reconstruction work. Support will be focused on helping enterprises with large workforces to rebuild themselves and resume production.
4) We will strengthen organization and coordination to smoothly implement the plan for post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction. We will continue to do a good job providing one-to-one assistance, optimize the plan for giving this assistance, and promptly study and solve major problems arising during the recovery and reconstruction efforts.
We will continue to increase exchanges and cooperation between the mainland and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions in economic and trade affairs, science and technology, education, culture, health and sports, accelerate the pilot program for the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao to use RMB as the settlement currency for trade in goods, and adopt effective measures to help the two regions withstand the impact of the global financial crisis and promote economic development. We will firmly seize the historical opportunity for improving cross-Straits relations, set up a mechanism with cross-Straits characteristics to promote economic cooperation, expand the direct mail, transport and trade links between the two sides, and support economic and social development on the west coast of the Straits in Fujian Province and in other areas where Taiwan investment is concentrated.
Fellow Deputies,
Successfully completing all the work for economic and social development in 2009 will be an arduous but important task. We will unite even closer around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary, hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, follow the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents, thoroughly apply the Scientific Outlook on Development, conscientiously accept the guidance and oversight of the NPC, and listen to comments and suggestions from the members of the CPPCC National Committee with an open mind. Let us forge ahead in a pioneering spirit, work in a down-to-earth manner, and strive to achieve the targets for economic and social development and promote sound and rapid development!
(China.org.cn March 13, 2009)
