Full Text: Report on the Work of the Government

This year we will focus on the following eight areas.

1. Exercising better macro-control and maintaining steady and rapid economic development

We need to continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy. We need to maintain continuity and stability in our policies while constantly making them better-targeted and more flexible as circumstances and conditions change, and keep a good grasp of the intensity, pace and focus of their implementation. We need to skillfully handle the relationship between maintaining steady and rapid economic development, restructuring the economy and managing inflation expectations. We not only need to maintain sufficient policy intensity and consolidate the momentum of the economic turnaround, but we also need to accelerate economic restructuring and make substantive progress in transforming the pattern of economic development. In addition, we need to manage inflation expectations well and keep the overall level of prices stable.

We will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy.

First, we will keep the deficit and government bonds at appropriate levels. This year, we have projected a deficit of 1.05 trillion yuan, which consists of 850 billion yuan in central government deficit and 200 billion yuan in local government bonds, which will be included in local government budgets. These arrangements are based mainly on the consideration that this year revenue will fall significantly short of expenditures. Regarding revenue, last year's one-off measures to increase revenue will either not be repeated or will be decreased. We also need to continue to implement the policy of structural tax reductions; consequently, revenue will not increase very quickly. Regarding expenditures, we will continue to implement the package plan for dealing with the global financial crisis, and increase spending to complete work on projects now under construction, strengthen weak links, carry forward reform, improve people's wellbeing and maintain stability.

Second, we will continue to implement the structural tax reduction policy to expand domestic demand and promote economic restructuring.

Third, we will improve the structure of expenditures, maintain expenditures in some areas while reducing them in others, and spend our money where it counts the most. We will continue to give preference to agriculture, farmers, and rural areas, and to improving people's wellbeing and developing social programs. We will support energy conservation, environmental protection, independent innovation, and development in underdeveloped areas. We will strictly control regular expenditures, and do all we can to reduce public spending.

Fourth, we will effectively improve government debt management, strengthen internal and external restraints, and effectively guard against and fend off latent public finance risks. In addition, we need to strengthen tax collection and supervision as well as supervision of non-tax revenue in accordance with the law, strictly crack down on tax fraud, and collect all due taxes.

We will continue to implement a moderately easy monetary policy.

First, we will ensure that there are proper and sufficient supplies of money and credit. This year's target for expanding the broad money supply (M2) is around 17%, and we will increase the total quantity of renminbi loans by approximately 7.5 trillion yuan. Although both of these increases are less than the actual increases last year, they are still moderately easy policy goals, and they can satisfy reasonable financial demands of economic and social development. In addition, these goals are beneficial for managing inflation expectations and making financial support for economic development more sustainable.

Second, we will improve the credit structure. We will implement a credit policy that guarantees credit in some areas and limits it in others; increase support for important areas and weak links; effectively alleviate the difficulties farmers and small businesses have in obtaining financing; and strictly control loans to industries that are energy-intensive, highly polluting or saddled with overcapacity. We will strengthen post-loan supervision and ensure that loans are used to support the real economy.

Third, we will actively expand direct financing. We will improve the system of multilevel capital markets, increase financing by selling equities and issuing bonds, and better satisfy the diverse demand for investment and financing.

Fourth, we will strengthen risk management and make financial oversight and supervision more effective. We will explore ways to establish a system of prudent macro management, strengthen the monitoring of the cross-border flow of capital, and guard against all kinds of financial risks. We will continue to improve the mechanism for setting the renminbi exchange rate and keep it basically stable at an appropriate and balanced level.

We will energetically expand consumer demand. We will continue to increase farmers' incomes, basic pensions of enterprise retirees, allowances to some entitled groups, subsistence allowances for urban and rural residents, and people's purchasing power, especially low- and middle-income earners. We will strengthen and expand traditional consumption, and promote the upgrading of the consumption structure by actively cultivating areas of high consumption, such as information, tourism, culture, fitness, training, services for the elderly and household services. We will increase consumer credit. We will strengthen infrastructure, such as the logistics system, and vigorously develop e-commerce. We will overhaul and standardize markets to create a convenient, safe and worry-free environment for consumers. We will continue to implement and improve all of our policies and measures for encouraging consumption. We will considerably raise the maximum price limits for home appliances sold in the countryside, increase types of appliances and models eligible for subsidies, expand the scope of subsidies, improve the criteria for qualifying for subsidies and the way subsidies are granted, strengthen supervision and evaluation of enterprises that win bids for contracts, and raise the quality of products and services. We will improve the policies for getting consumers to trade-in old motor vehicles and home appliances for new ones and getting rural residents to buy motor vehicles, and set the purchase tax for small-displacement automobiles at 7.5%. We must implement these policies and measures, do meaningful work and do it well, and make sure the benefits reach the people.

We will strive to improve the investment structure. Government investment at all levels needs to be concentrated in the most important areas, and the launching of new projects must be strictly controlled. It should be used mainly for carrying on and completing projects, and we need to ensure that projects are not stopped midway. We will steadily move forward with the recovery and reconstruction of quake-hit areas, and make sure quality and quantity targets are met. We will encourage greater non-government investment, and improve and implement policies to achieve this goal. We will strengthen and improve the supervision of investment; strictly enforce market entry standards and industrial policies concerning land use, energy conservation, environmental protection, and safety; and effectively prevent redundant construction. For projects financed through the public treasury, relevant departments need to exercise oversight of the entire course of the project, and we must prevent the construction of image and vanity projects that waste manpower and money in the name of boosting domestic demand. We will adhere to scientific and democratic decision making, and ensure that public funds are spent on projects that promote economic and social development and improve people's lives and that will stand the test of practice and history.