Full transcript of policy briefing of the State Council on Jan 16, 2015

Second, good progress was made in deepening the reform and opening up. There was significant development in the reform of the economic structure. The government announced a series of important reform plans and measures, including streamlining administrative approval procedures, reforming investment and financing systems, and policies in areas including taxation, financing, the pricing system and rural land management.

For example, under the new investment catalog, the number of projects that require central government approval fell by 76 percent compared with the previous two years.

Another example is price reform. The government lifted restrictions on 50 products and services, including low-price medicines, domestic cargo flights, some passenger flights, telecommunication services. The government lifted its restrictions on the price of railway cargo transportation, made the price government-guided and put a cap on it.

Prices were reformed for utilities, including electricity, water and natural gas.

The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone saw a number of good practices that can be promoted and emulated elsewhere. The government decided to set up three more free trade zones in designated regions in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian.

The government revoked the stipulation that all foreign investment projects need approval. Under new regulations, most foreign investment projects only need registration with only a limited number needing approval. More than 95 percent of the projects need only be registered. Most outbound investment projects only need to register with the government and were no longer asked to wait for approval. A number of important overseas investment projects in high-speed railway and energy picked up pace. Multilateral and bilateral trade cooperation made progress.

Zhu Zhixin:

Third, progress has been made in economic restructuring and transformation of growth modes. The foundation of agriculture was solidified with investment in agriculture and rural areas at more than 50 percent of central budgetary allocation. Annual production of grain exceeded 1.21 trillion jin (0.605 billion tons) and production of meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, vegetables and other agricultural products grew steadily.

The industrial structure was steadily optimized. New technologies, new operations, new formats and new industries kept emerging. The growth of high and new technology as well as equipment manufacturing was faster than that in other industries. Policies for development of the service sector were further improved. The service sector grew by 7.9 percent in the first three quarters of 2014, 0.5 percentage point higher than the secondary industry.

We also made great achievements in energy conservation and emission reduction since the implementation of 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15). During the first three quarters of 2014, energy consumption per unit GDP was reduced by 4.6 percent and nitrogen oxide by 6 percent.

Innovation was further strengthened. The total number of domestic-accredited invention patents reached 147,000 in the first 11 months of 2014, a year-on-year increase of 10.1 percent.

Regional economic development was optimized. We vigorously promoted the overall strategy for regional development. We actively pushed forward cooperation in the (Silk Road) Belt and Road Initiatives, executed the strategy for coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and pushed forward the development of Yangtze River economic belt to push opening up in different regions to a higher level. The integration of urban and rural development deepened and the National Plan for New-type of Urbanization as well as supporting policies were implemented.