Report on the Work of the Government (II)
II. Achievements in the 13th Five-Year Plan Period and Major Targets and Tasks for the 14th Five-Year Plan Period
Over the past five years, China has scored historic new achievements in economic and social development.
The economy performed stably overall, and its structure was continuously improved. GDP increased from less than 70 trillion yuan to over 100 trillion yuan. Much was accomplished toward making China a country of innovators, with major advances in manned spaceflight, lunar exploration, deep-sea engineering, supercomputing, quantum information, and other areas.
China’s success in poverty alleviation has been recognized by the international community. Its entire rural poor population, 55.75 million in number, was lifted out of poverty, including more than 9.6 million registered poor people who were relocated from inhospitable areas; and regional poverty was successfully eradicated. The daunting task we set ourselves to eliminate absolute poverty has thus been successfully accomplished.
Agricultural modernization was steadily advanced, and good harvests were recorded for five years running. The goal of granting urban residency to 100 million people from rural areas and other permanent residents without local household registration was met. More than 21 million housing units in run-down urban areas were rebuilt.
Solid steps were taken to implement major regional development strategies. Pollution prevention and control efforts were intensified, resources and energy were used more efficiently, and there was a notable improvement in the environment.
Important progress was made in addressing financial risks in this period. Major breakthroughs were achieved in deepening reform across the board. Supply-side structural reform was steadily advanced, as were reforms to streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services. Thanks to these efforts, the business environment kept improving.
China continued to open its door wider to the world; the joint pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative yielded solid outcomes.
The living standards of our people rose significantly. Over 60 million urban jobs were added, and the world’s largest social security system was established. The system for granting living allowances to people with disabilities in financial difficulty and nursing care subsidies to people with serious disabilities was set up and implemented across the country.
New achievements were made in education, healthcare, culture and other sectors. Education became much more equitable, and its quality was markedly improved. The healthcare sector registered accelerated development. The cultural sector flourished. Notable advances were made in the development of national defense and the armed forces. China’s national security was enhanced on all fronts, and social harmony and stability were maintained across the country.
Thanks to our hard work in these five years, we accomplished the major goals and tasks of the 13th Five-Year Plan, and made a giant stride toward the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The period covered by the 14th Five-Year Plan will be the first five years in which we embark on a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects. China remains in an important period of strategic opportunity for development. Yet, there are changes in both the opportunities and challenges we face. We should have an accurate understanding of this new stage of development, fully apply the new development philosophy, and accelerate our efforts to create a new development pattern to promote high-quality development. By doing so, we will set the stage for building a modern socialist country in all respects.
The State Council, acting in accordance with the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development and Long-Range Objectives through the Year 2035, has drawn up the draft Outline for the 14th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development and Long-Range Objectives through the Year 2035.
The draft Outline, which was formulated under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, sets major quantified objectives and tasks for economic and social development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The full draft has been submitted to this session for your deliberation and approval.
The highlights of the draft Outline are as follows:
— Improving the quality and effectiveness of development and maintaining sustained and healthy economic growth
Development is the foundation, and it holds the key, for addressing all the issues our country faces. We must stay true to the new development philosophy, and ensure it is applied in full, in both letter and spirit, in every stage and aspect of development. We should encourage people working in all sectors to give high priority to improving the quality and effectiveness of development to fully tap China’s growth potential. We will keep major economic indicators within an appropriate range, set annual targets for economic growth in light of actual conditions, ensure that overall labor productivity grows faster than GDP, keep the surveyed urban unemployment rate within 5.5 percent, and keep prices generally stable. Doing so will enable us to achieve higher-quality development that is more efficient, equitable, sustainable, and secure.
— Pursuing innovation-driven development and accelerating modernization of the industrial system
Innovation remains at the heart of China’s modernization drive. We will strengthen our science and technology to provide strategic support for China’s development. To improve China’s innovation system, we will work faster to enhance our strategic scientific and technological capability underpinned by the development of national laboratories, strive to make major breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields, and formulate and implement a ten-year action plan for basic research. We will enhance the capacity of enterprises to make technological innovation, unlock the creativity of talent, and improve the systems and mechanisms for making scientific and technological innovation. China’s R&D spending will increase by more than seven percent per year, which is expected to account for a higher percentage of GDP than that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Extensive activities will be conducted to help people learn more about science.
In pursuing economic growth, we will continue to prioritize the development of the real economy, upgrade the industrial base, modernize industrial chains, and keep the share of manufacturing in the economy basically stable. We will transform and upgrade traditional industries, strengthen strategic emerging industries, and promote the vigorous development of the service sector. Coordinated development of traditional and new forms of infrastructure will be promoted.
Digitalization will be sped up to create new strengths for the digital economy. We will both develop digital industry and transform traditional industries with digital technologies. We will work faster to develop a digital society, digital government, and healthy digital ecosystem as we pursue the Digital China initiative.
— Creating a robust domestic market and fostering a new development pattern
We will pursue the strategy of expanding domestic demand and intensify supply-side structural reform, and generate new demand with innovation-driven development and high-quality supply. We will remove impediments to the rational flow of production factors along all links of production, allocation, distribution, and consumption to facilitate favorable circulation in our economy.
We will give priority to domestic circulation, and work to build a strong domestic market and turn China into a trader of quality. We will leverage the flows of the domestic economy to make China a major magnet for global production factors and resources, thereby promoting positive interplay between domestic circulation and international circulation.
We will put in place frameworks to effectively expand domestic demand, boost consumer spending across the board, and unlock the potential for investment, thus accelerating the establishment of a complete system of domestic demand.
— Advancing rural revitalization across the board and improving the new urbanization strategy
The development of agriculture and rural areas remains at the top of our work agenda. The total area of China’s farmland must stay above the red line of 120 million hectares. We will carry out projects to develop high-quality farmland and conserve chernozem soils, and ensure the security of our germplasm resources. We will carry out rural development initiatives, and improve systems and mechanisms for promoting integrated urban-rural development. We will set up a robust long-term mechanism for consolidating and expanding the achievements of the battle against poverty, and raise the overall performance of development in areas that have cast off poverty.
The strategy of new, people-centered urbanization will continue to be pursued. We will move faster to grant permanent urban residency to people who move to cities from rural areas, and raise the percentage of permanent urban residents to 65 percent of the population. We will expand city clusters and metropolitan areas, promote urbanization with a focus on county towns, implement an action plan for urban renewal, and improve the housing market and housing support system. These moves will enable us to achieve higher quality urbanization.
— Improving regional economic structures and promoting coordinated regional development
We will continue to implement the major regional development strategies as well as the strategies for coordinated regional development and functional zoning, so as to create regional economic structures and a territorial space system that will sustain high-quality development.
We will take solid steps to promote the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta, and ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin. We will build Xiongan New Area to a high standard.
We will usher in a new stage in large-scale development in the western region, promote breakthroughs in the revitalization of northeast China, accelerate the rise of the central region, and encourage the eastern region to accelerate modernization. We will promote the development of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone. We will support old revolutionary base areas and ethnic minority areas in speeding up development, and strengthen the development of border areas.
We will work to unlock the development potential of the maritime economy.
— Advancing reform and opening up across the board and bolstering the momentum and vitality of development
To develop a high-standard socialist market economy, we will energize all market entities, improve the layout and structure of the state-owned sector at a faster pace, and create a better development environment for private businesses. We will build a high-standard market system, effect an all-round improvement in the property rights system, carry out reforms to promote the market-based allocation of production factors, reinforce the foundational role of competition policies, and refine the competition policy framework.
We will modernize fiscal, taxation, and financial systems, and improve government capacity to conduct economic governance. We will deepen reforms to streamline administration and delegate powers, improve regulation, and upgrade services to foster a world-class business environment.
We will develop new systems for a higher-standard open economy, promote the high-quality development of the BRI, and build a globally oriented network of high-standard free trade zones.
— Promoting green development and ensuring harmony between humanity and nature
We will stay true to the principle that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets and strengthen the conservation of mountain, river, forest, farmland, lake, and grassland ecosystems. We will move faster to build major ecological shields, develop a national park-based nature reserve system, and expand forest coverage to 24.1 percent of China’s total land area.
We will continue to improve the quality of the environment, and generally eliminate heavy air pollution and black, malodorous water bodies in cities. We will ensure that China meets the targets for its intended nationally determined contributions in response to climate change by 2030. We will expedite the transition of China’s growth model to one of green development, and promote both high-quality economic growth and high-standard environmental protection. Energy consumption per unit of GDP and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will be reduced by 13.5 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
— Improving people’s wellbeing and striving for common prosperity
We will do everything within our capacity to improve the wellbeing of our people, and ensure that public services are inclusive, meet essential needs, and ensure basic living standards for people in difficulty. An action plan will be adopted to promote common prosperity to see that our people share more fully and fairly in the gains of development.
We will implement the employment-first strategy and increase employment opportunities. We will work to raise the income of the low-income group and expand the size of the middle-income group. Per capita disposable income will generally grow in step with GDP growth.
We will build a high-quality education system and foster a contingent of top-performing teachers with strong professional expertise by deepening educational reforms. We will carry out an initiative to raise the quality of education and expand its capacity. We expect that the average number of years of schooling among the working-age population will rise to 11.3.
We will make all-round efforts to build a Healthy China. We will develop a strong public health system, refine medical service networks in both urban and rural areas, carry out extensive public fitness activities, and raise the average life expectancy by one year. We will implement the national strategy for addressing population aging, and improve the population services system with a focus on elderly care and child care. We will refine the childbirth policy, work to achieve an appropriate birth rate, and develop the systems for public-interest child care and basic elderly care services. The statutory retirement age will be raised in a phased manner. The multi-tiered social security system will be improved, with coverage of basic old-age insurance reaching 95 percent of the population. Social assistance and charity systems will also be improved.
We will develop advanced socialist culture, raise standards of public civility, promote integrity and trustworthiness throughout society, improve public cultural services, and improve modern systems for cultural industries.
— Ensuring both development and security and ushering in a new stage in building a Peaceful China
We will pursue a holistic approach to national security and strengthen our national security system and capacity. To ensure national economic security, we will carry out strategies for safeguarding food, energy and resource, and financial security. We will keep overall grain output above 650 million metric tons, and enhance our overall energy production capacity. We will increase our public security capacity across the board to maintain social stability and public safety.
Looking to the future, we have the confidence and the ability to overcome all difficulties and obstacles on our road ahead and fulfill the goals and tasks in the 14th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2021-2025), thus opening a new page in the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
