Firm resolve to advance growth despite challenges: China Daily editorial

The central authorities are well aware of the challenging development environment the country faces this year, due to shrinking demand, disrupted supply and growing uncertainties caused by increasing external volatility.

Delivering the Government Work Report at the opening of the fifth session of the 13th National People's Congress on Saturday, Premier Li Keqiang said it would require strenuous efforts to realize this year's growth target of around 5.5 percent.

With the sluggish inertia of consumption and investment in January and February, and the growth in exports weakening, the focus is on spurring the country's endogenous growth impetus.

That's why the central authorities listed enhanced innovation capacity as the second most important achievement of the past year, after economic growth but ahead of economic restructuring and food security.

That the central authorities are to press ahead with the 10-year action plan on basic research and will implement a three-year action plan for reforming the science and technology management system means that the State will assume a bigger role in pursuing breakthroughs in key technologies to break the potential development bottlenecks.

And the work report indicates that the government will adopt a three-dimensional approach to stabilize the economy, namely cultivating drivers, maintaining the fundamentals and guaranteeing the bottom line.

Along with innovation, the other identified growth drivers include consumption, exports and investment. And the fundamentals include the fiscal balance, international balance, exchange rate and unemployment rate, and inflation. While the bottom lines are job creation, food security and basic public services.

Highlighting the central authorities' determination to maintain the stability of the fundamentals of the economy, aside from issuing 3.65 trillion yuan ($578 billion) in special-purpose bonds for local governments, the central government's transfer payments to local governments will be about 9.8 trillion yuan, representing a growth of 18 percent from last year, which will mainly be spent on infrastructure construction and improving people's livelihoods.

With this support from the central government, local governments will have broader space to implement bigger tax and fee cuts for small enterprises and businesses, and to improve the business environment to help market entities better cope with the external uncertainties created by geopolitical factors.

Notably, as Li said, a total of 100 billion yuan from the unemployment insurance fund will be used to help enterprises maintain stable payrolls and provide training programs. That's an action the central authorities are taking to directly ease the mounting unemployment pressure in the country.

It is good to see green development, rural revitalization, education, housing, medical care and social security are also high on the government agenda, as these are all people's immediate concerns. If well implemented, these policies will not only consolidate the sustainability of development, but also enhance social fairness and justice, effectively boosting people's well-being and sense of gain.

Additionally, the firm resolve Li has reiterated to further open up to the world — China seeks to reach more high-standard free trade agreements with other countries and regions — sends a clear signal to the rest of the world that China's stance on opening-up and integrating into the world remains consistent, despite the strengthening headwinds against economic globalization.

As Li said, it has always been in the course of meeting challenges that China has advanced its development, and it will continue to work tirelessly to build a great modern socialist country.