Full text: Report on China's economic, social development plan (9)

II. Overall Requirements and Major Objectives for Economic and Social Development in 2013

The year 2013 is the first year for fully implementing the guidelines of the Party's Eighteenth National Congress, and is important for continuing to carry out the Twelfth Five-Year Plan and laying a firm foundation for finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. It is therefore very important to do our economic and social development work well this year. We must thoroughly study and fully implement the guidelines of the Eighteenth Party Congress, and follow the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development. We need to keep in mind the underlying guideline of developing in a scientific way and the major task of accelerating the change of the growth model. We need to focus on improving the quality and performance of economic growth, seek progress while maintaining stability, and work diligently in a pioneering and innovative spirit to get off to a solid start. We need to further deepen reform and opening up, make our development more innovation-driven, strengthen and improve macro-control measures, and work to expand domestic demand. We need to work harder to strategically adjust the economic structure, ensure and improve the people's wellbeing, enhance the internal vitality and driving force of economic development, keep overall prices basically stable, and achieve sustained, sound economic development and social harmony and stability.

In view of the above requirements, comprehensive analyses of the environment for international and domestic economic development, and what is needed versus what is possible, we have set the following major objectives for economic and social development in 2013.

- The economy will maintain steady growth. GDP will grow by around 7.5%. In setting this objective, we have mainly taken the following into account:

On the one hand, maintaining a moderate economic growth rate accords with our economic situation and helps keep public expectations stable and enhance consumer and investor confidence. It also provides necessary conditions for creating jobs and improving people's wellbeing and creates a stable environment for changing the growth model, adjusting the economic structure, improving enterprises' performance, and increasing government revenue.

On the other hand, we do so in order to better implement the Scientific Outlook on Development; create an environment favorable for promoting structural adjustment, accelerating the change of the growth model, and deepening reform and opening up; and guide all sectors of society in shifting the focus of their work to changing the growth model, adjusting the economic structure, and improving the quality and performance of economic growth. Moreover, our country still faces many difficulties and challenges in its economic development in 2013, and we need to work hard if we want to attain a growth target of around 7.5%.

- Development will be even more balanced, coordinated, and sustainable. We will accelerate the development of the service sector and improve the quality of its development. Spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP will rise to 2.05%. Regional development will become increasingly coordinated, the quality of urbanization will continue to improve, and solid progress will be made in integrating urban and rural development. We will make greater efforts to conserve energy and resources and protect the environment. We will cut both energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by more than 3.7%, and continue to reduce the discharge of major pollutants. We have set all these targets mainly by considering the following:

In response to the changing nature and conditions of the important period of strategic opportunities for China's development, if we want to achieve quality, efficient, and sustainable development, we must accelerate the change of the growth model; ensure that development is led by scientific and technological advances and driven by innovation; promote harmonized development of industrialization, IT application, urbanization, and agricultural modernization; and establish a new system for developing modern industries. We must thoroughly implement the master strategy for regional development and the functional zoning strategy, make delivery of basic public services more equitable, and promote coordinated development between regions. We must also give higher priority to making ecological progress, incorporate it into all aspects and the entire process of making economic, political, cultural, and social progress, and pursue green, circular, and low-carbon development.

- Overall prices will be basically stable. The CPI will rise by about 3.5%. We have set this target mainly because we have an ample supply of most commodities. In particular, we have abundant grain reserves as grain production increased for the ninth consecutive year in 2012. This provides a good material foundation for keeping overall prices basically stable. However, factors driving prices upward are not easy to overlook. The primary ones include the upward pressure on prices of land, labor, and other factors of production as well as services and agricultural products, and the reassertion of imported inflation all of which is expected to drive prices up about 2 percentage points. The continued impact of last year's CPI increases will contribute 1 percentage point to this year' s price rise. We also need to leave some room for promoting resource conservation and environmental protection and for straightening out price relationships among resource products.

- The people's living standards will continue to improve. More than 9 million new urban jobs will be created, and the registered urban unemployment rate will be kept under 4.6%. Real income of urban and rural residents will increase in step with economic development. The social security system will further improve and the level of social security benefits will improve steadily. Social programs will develop faster. The natural population growth rate will be kept under 6.5 per thousand. We will basically complete work on 4.7 million units of government-subsidized housing in urban areas and begin construction on a further 6.3 million units. We will renovate dilapidated houses for over 3 million rural households while ensuring they are of good quality and up to standard.

We have set all these targets mainly because of the following:

If we want to put the people's wellbeing first and ensure that all the people benefit more from the fruits of development in a fair way, then we must adopt a holistic approach and do all we can to effectively ensure and improve the people's wellbeing. However, our economic growth rate will be slower than previous years, and we have to address the problem of overcapacity. This will affect people's employment and income, and greater pressure on government revenue and expenditures will affect funding to programs that benefit the people. We must therefore stress priorities, do only what we are capable of, and do a good job of ensuring and improving the people's wellbeing.

- China's balance of payments will improve. We will strive to increase our total foreign trade volume by around 8%, lower than last year's target, yet higher than last year's real growth. We will accelerate development of trade in services. The structure of foreign investment utilization will further improve, and China's outward investment will increase steadily.

We have set these targets by mainly considering the following:

World economic growth will continue to be slow. Overall demand of major economies will remain weak. All forms of protectionism are clearly reasserting themselves. China's export prospects remain grim. In addition, the world economic structure will continue to change. We must implement a more active opening up strategy and quickly create new competitive advantages to make better use of international and domestic markets and resources, stabilize and expand our share in the international market, and further improve our open economy.