Major Points of Zhu's Report on Work of the Government

Home>>China

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Major Points of Zhu's Report on Work of the Government

The First Session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, opened in the Great Hall of the People at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji delivered a report on the work of the government.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

Zhu Reports on Work of the Government

The First Session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, opened in the Great Hall of the People at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Nearly 3,000 deputies from across China attended the opening meeting. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji delivered a report on the work of the government.

Achievements of Chinese Economy

Over the past five years, China's national economy has maintained good growth momentum, and important advances were made in the strategic restructuring of the economy.

China's GDP rose from 7.4 trillion yuan in 1997 to 10.2 trillion yuan in 2002, an average annual increase of 7.7 percent, when calculated in constant prices. Notable results were achieved in the readjustment of the industrial structure.

10th NPC Begins First Session

The supply of grain and other major agricultural products took a historic shift from chronic shortages to an overall balance with surpluses during good years. High and new technology industries, such as the IT industry, expanded rapidly.

The transformation of traditional industries was accelerated. Modern service industries developed rapidly. The quality and efficiency of economic growth improved constantly. National tax revenue grew by a large margin every year.

Total fiscal revenue rose from 0.8651 trillion yuan in 1997 to 1.8914 trillion yuan in 2002, an average annual increase of 205.3 billion yuan. China's foreign exchange reserves climbed from 139.9 billion US dollars to 286.4 billion US dollars.

Investment in fixed assets over the five years totaled 17.2 trillion yuan. In particular, based on the issuance of 660 billion Yuan of long-term construction treasury bonds, 3.28 trillion yuan of bank loans and funds from other sources were generated for investment, allowing us to accomplish many large projects we had been planning for years but unable to undertake for lack of resources.

The productive forces reached a new high, and the country's economic strength and ability to withstand risks and compete internationally grew significantly. --->>>More in Detail

Breakthroughs Made in Reform, Opening

According to the report, during these five years, the ownership structure was further readjusted and improved. The public sector of the economy grew stronger in the course of readjustment and reform, and efforts to diversify ways of realizing public ownership were successful. The state sector of the economy went through accelerated restructuring, and markedly enhanced its dominance and competitiveness.

The objective of turning loss-making state-owned enterprises around within three years was basically attained. Most large and medium-sized key state-owned enterprises attained by and large the goal of establishing the modern corporate system, and a number of dynamic and competitive enterprises have come to the fore.

Further progress was made in opening up and revitalizing small and medium-sized state-owned enterprises. Substantive progress was made in restructuring the management system of monopoly industries. The collective economy in urban and rural areas made new headway. The joint-stock company sector of the economy expanded continuously. --->>>More in Detail

Achievements in Science, Technology, Education

During these five years, significant headway was made in basic research and high-tech and applied technology studies. Significant progress was made in establishing China's innovation system.

According to the report, remarkable achievements were scored in such fields as information technology, life science and aeronautical and space technologies. A detailed map of rice genome was completed, an experimental 10 mw high temperature gas-cooled reactor was built, a super-large parallel processing computer was developed, and the Shenzhou series of spacecraft was successfully tested. All these achievements show that China ranks among the advanced countries in the related fields.

A number of key state laboratories were completed, several major scientific projects were carried out, and work was begun on building a number of national engineering research centers. The process of applying scientific and technological achievements to industrialized and commercial production was noticeably accelerated. More than 140,000 science and technology achievements underwent state registration in these five years, and 520,000 patents were granted. Protection of intellectual property rights improved. --->>>More in Detail

Significant Achievements in Building Democracy

Governments at all levels are ready to accept the supervision by the people's congresses and their standing committees at the same levels, tighten their ties with local committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and lend attentive ears to views presented by personages of non-communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, personages without party affiliation and people's organizations. Grassroots democracy has been expanded, with self-government by villagers and urban residents and the practice of making public the affairs of villages, enterprises and administrative work gradually spreading.

Progress has been accelerated in implementing the basic strategy of governing the country by law, making the governments at all levels perform their official duties in strict compliance with law, and speeding up the building of the legal system.

The State Council has over the past five years advanced 50 legislative proposals and promulgated 150 administrative statutes. In line with the requirements of a socialist market economy and China's WTO membership, the State Council made a sweeping review of 756 administrative statutes promulgated up to the end of 2000, abrogating 71 and nullifying 80 others. The agencies under the State Council went over 2,300 regulations and policies on foreign affairs and abrogated 830 and amended 325 others. --->>>More in Detail

New Strides in National Defense, Army Building

Acting on the military strategies for the new era, the people'sarmy has implemented the strategy of strengthening itself through science and technology. The revolutionization, modernization and standardization of the armed forces have been carried forward, leading to a rise in the country's military capability and the army's defensive combat readiness, says the report.

The task of reducing the armed forces by half a million troops was completed on schedule. Ideological and political work in the army was carried out effectively. Reforms in the army's logistical support system continued to deepen. The army's level of modernization in weapons was improved significantly.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Chinese People's Armed Police, the army reserves and the people's militia have made great contributions to safeguarding the sovereignty and security of the country, supporting its economic development and providing rescue and relief in the wake of natural calamities or emergencies. --->>>More in Detail

Experience on Government Work

Zhu Rongji summed up his experience in nine aspects as follows: -- Maintaining the right direction and intensity of macroeconomic regulation and implementing the proactive fiscal policy and the prudent monetary policy;

-- Unswervingly taking economic restructuring as paramount and working hard to improve the quality and efficiency of economic growth;

-- Steadfastly giving priority to solving the problems facing agriculture, rural areas and farmers and consolidating the position of agriculture as the foundation of the national economy;

-- Steadfastly carrying forward the reform of state-owned enterprises and effectively strengthening reemployment work and development of the social security system;

-- Steadfastly opening wider to the outside world and actively participating in international economic and technological cooperation and competition;

-- Implementing the strategy of invigorating the country through science, technology and education, raising the nation's scientific and technological capability for innovation and improving the overall quality of the population;

-- Continuing to take the path of sustainable development and promoting a coordinated development of the economy, population, resources and the environment;

-- Doing everything possible to maintain social stability and creating a favorable environment for reform and development;

-- Continuing to transform government functions and endeavoring to build a clean, diligent, efficient and pragmatic government.

China's Economic, Social Difficulties

"We are clearly aware that there are still some outstanding difficulties and problems in China's economic and social life," said Zhu. He listed the problems, in main, as follows:

-- Insufficient domestic effective demand and inability of the supply structure to respond to changes in market demand;

-- Slow growth in the income of farmers and some urban residents;

-- Rise in the unemployed and serious difficulties in some people's livelihood;

-- Continued inequities in the distribution of income;

-- Arduous tasks remaining in the reform of state-owned enterprises;

-- The need to continue to rectify and standardize the order of the market economy;

-- Sporadic occurrence of major industrial accidents;

-- Poor public security in some places;

-- Degradation of the ecological environment in some areas;

-- Continued isolation from the people and perpetration of formalism, bureaucracy, falsification, extravagance and waste among some government officials, and certain types of corruption remaining conspicuous.

The report says that some of these problems are the legacy of the past; others are hardly avoidable in the course of institutional transition and structural readjustment, and still others are caused by shortcomings and inadequacies in our work. More steps should be taken conscientiously to solve them, it stresses.

General Requirements for Government in 2003

-- Take Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as our guide;

-- Earnestly carry forward the spirit of the Sixteenth Party Congress;

-- Steadfastly give top priority to development in the Party's governance and rejuvenation of the country;

-- Vigorously respond to difficulties and challenges caused by changing domestic and international environments;

-- Continue to follow the policy of expanding domestic demand as well as the proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy;

-- Further deepen the reform and open still wider to the outside world; accelerate the strategic readjustment of the economic structure; -- promote a sustained, rapid and sound development of the national economy and integrate speed with structure, quality and efficiency;

-- Correctly handle the relationships among reform, development and stability; effectively improve the development of democracy and the legal system and the promotion of spiritual civilization and Party building;

-- And promote a coordinated development of socialist material civilization, political civilization and spiritual civilization.

China to Further Expand Domestic Demands

The Premier called for continuing to expand domestic demand and achieve a steady and rapid economic growth this year, when he delivered the Report on the Work of the Government.

Maintaining the good momentum of economic growth is the basis for success in all fields of our work, the report says, adding, "Based on our overall analysis of the situation at home and abroad, we set the target for 2003 economic growth at around seven percent. This growth rate is both necessary and achievable through hard work."

"It is imperative that we pay adequate attention to raising the quality and efficiency of economic growth by readjusting and optimizing the economic structure. We should adhere to the policy of expanding domestic demand, continue to implement the proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, and ensure a double-pull effect on economic growth from both consumption demand and investment demand," the report says.

First of all, the government should strive to expand consumption demand. Given the current situation, this is more important than greater investment demand. We should continue to increase the income of urban and rural residents, especially those with low income, and work hard to raise the living standards of the population. "We should do everything possible to increase farmers' income and lighten their burden," the report says.

The government should effectively solve the problems the needy face in work and livelihood. The original plan to raise the salaries of government employees as well as retirees' pensions in the second half of last year was postponed in order to first solve the problems of the urban poor and to harmonize relationships among the interests of all quarters. This measure, however, will take effect this year. the government should continue to improve the consumption climate by improving relevant policies and expanding areas of consumer spending, according to the report. --->>>More in Detail

Agriculture, Rural Economy

We should continue to take developing agriculture and the rural economy and increasing farmers' income as the top priority of our economic work. Economic and social development in urban and rural areas must be coordinated, and work relating to agriculture, rural areas and farmers must be done well," the report says.

China should accelerate structural readjustment in agriculture and the rural economy, according to the report.

The government should continue readjusting the distribution of agricultural areas and promoting industrialization of agriculture; vigorously develop animal husbandry, aquatic farming and the processing of agricultural products; while returning more farmland to forests; implement without delay the national plan for the conservation of grasslands.

The government should strengthen the system for quality and safety of agricultural products and the system of commercialized services for agriculture; continue implementing and improving the rural household land contract system and manage well the non-agricultural land.

While continuing to deepen various reforms in rural areas, the government should extend the experiment with rural taxes and administrative charges to all parts of the country on the basis of well summed up experience and improved policies. --->>>More in Detail

Industrial Readjustments, Development of West China

China should speed up the readjustment of the industrial structure according to the need for a new approach to industrialization, the report says, adding vigorous efforts should be made to develop high and new-tech industries that can greatly spur our economic growth.

"We should energetically promote IT application and use IT to propel industrialization. We should make extensive use of advancedadaptive technologies to transform traditional industries and invigorate our equipment manufacturing industry. We should do a good job in planning and readjusting the development of our steel, automobile and building materials industries to prevent blind expansion and disorderly competition. We should eliminate an even bigger slice of our production capacity that has become obsolete. We should vigorously develop modern services and tourism. We should attach great importance to the development of community-based services," the report says.

The development of China's western region requires sound and persistent efforts. "We should focus on key projects, stress practical results and lay a solid foundation," it stresses.

While continuing to strengthen protection of the ecological environment and infrastructure development, China should effectively restore cultivated land to forests, protect natural forests, and prevent further desertification. The program of restoring grazing areas to grasslands should continue, and relevant legal work should be intensified. --->>>More in Detail

Deepening Reform, Wider Opening

While adhering to and improving the basic economic system in which public ownership plays the dominant role and diverse forms of ownership develop by its side, China will unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector of the economy, and unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the individual, private and other non-public sectors of the economy, according to the report.

The government should continue to push reforms turning state-owned enterprises into standard joint-stock companies and improve the mechanisms of supervision over them in accordance with the requirements of establishing a modern corporate system.

"We should actively support eligible large enterprises to become listed on overseas stock markets. We should establish large, internationally competitive companies or enterprise groups that have distinctive main lines of business and possess their own intellectual property rights and name brands," the report says.

The government should do a better job of reorganizing military-industrial and other enterprises in difficulties and help them out of their plight; carry forward the reform of the power, telecommunications and civil aviation industries; reform the state property management system from top to bottom in an orderly way; expand the area in which private capital has market access and create an environment of fair competition for all types of market players; support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, especially technology and labor-intensive ones, regardless of their forms of ownership. --->>>More in Detail

Improvements in Employment, Social Security

Adhering to the policy that calls for "the worker to find a job on his own, the market to regulate employment and the government to promote job creation," the government should do everything possible to expand employment and reemployment, according to the report.

In the course of reform of state-owned enterprises, the government should combine the reduction of staff for higher efficiency with the promotion of reemployment. Policies and measures designed to encourage reemployment of laid-off workers must be conscientiously carried out.

The government should open more avenues for employment, developlabor-intensive industries and make full use of the role of the tertiary industry, small and medium-sized enterprises and the individual and private sectors of the economy in the area of job creation. The labor market should be standardized and developed.

"We should encourage people to look for jobs on their own or become self-employed and promote flexible and diverse types of employment. We should vigorously develop vocational training and employment services and improve our guidance and services to college and vocational school graduates in their search for jobs and career opportunities," the report says.

The government should continue improving the work of ensuring payment on time and in full of the living allowances for workers laid off from state-owned enterprises, the basic pensions for retirees and subsistence allowances for the urban poor. --->>>More in Detail

Early Reunification of Motherland

We are convinced that with the unremitting efforts of all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, the complete reunification of the motherland can be realized at an early date," said Premier Zhu.

The central government should continue to implement the principle of "one country, two systems" and act in strict accordance with the basic laws of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. The central government should give full support to the chief executives and governments of the two regions in their administration according to law, according to the report.

"We will make greater efforts to encourage exchanges and cooperation between the hinterland and Hong Kong and Macao in economic, trade, educational, scientific, technological, cultural and other fields."

The mainland must implement the basic principles of "peaceful reunification" and "one country, two systems" and the eight-point proposal for the settlement of the Taiwan question, strive for an early resumption of dialogue and negotiation between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits on the basis of the one-China principle, and strongly oppose any statements or actions aimed at creating "Taiwan independence," "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan."

The mainland should further expand the scope of personnel visits across the Straits as well as exchanges and cooperation in the economic, cultural and other fields while vigorously promoting the opening of the "three direct links" between the two sides; increase exchange of views with all political parties and prominent people of various circles in Taiwan on developing cross-Straits relations and promoting peaceful reunification; and continue to give support to the activities of overseas Chinese communities to oppose Taiwan independence and promote national reunification.

China's foreign policies

Peace and development remain the themes of the present era. World multipolarization and economic globalization are making headway amid twists and turns.

"Although we face an international environment in which opportunities continue to outweigh challenges, uncertainties have increased in the international situation."

Premier Zhu Rongji reiterated China's foreign policies in the Report on the Work of the Government he delivered at the opening of the First Session of the Tenth National People's Congress Wednesday, saying, "We will unswervingly pursue an independent foreign policy of peace."

China will continue to consolidate and strengthen its solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries and support them in their efforts to defend their legitimate rights and interests, the report says.

China will continue to cultivate friendly ties with its neighbors, increase regional cooperation and bring its exchanges and cooperation with neighboring countries to a new high, the report says.

China will continue to improve and develop its relations with developed countries and, on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, broaden the area of common interests and appropriately iron out differences.

China will continue to take an active part in multilateral diplomacy and promote democracy in international relations and diversity in development models.

"We remain opposed to all forms of hegemonism and power politics and stand against terrorism in all its manifestations. The Chinese people are ready to join the people of all other countries in the lofty cause of promoting world peace and development," the report says.

Questions?Comments? Click here

10th NPC Begins First Session

>> Full Coverage

Interview: Why Does China Start Lunar Exploration Program? ( 5 Messages)

China-ASEAN Economic Cooperation Upgraded ( 19 Messages)

New Type of Nuclear Reactor Put into Use in Beijing ( 3 Messages)

Will Russian Oil Pipeline Lead to China or Japan? ( 23 Messages)

China's GDP Hit 1.23 Trillion US Dollars in 2002: NBS ( 4 Messages)

UAE Appeal on Saddam's Fate Draws Mixed Reactions ( 3 Messages)