Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered a report on the work of his cabinet at
the opening meeting of the annual full session of the National People's Congress
(NPC), China's top legislature Monday morning.
Following are the highlights of Wen's 35-page Report on the Work of the
Government, which was distributed to journalists prior to the opening of the NPC
session:
GROWTH TARGET
-- In 2007, China's GDP is projected to grow by about 8 percent.
-- The most important task is to promote sound and fast economic development.
MACROECONOMIC REGULATION
-- Macroeconomic regulation must be strengthened and improved. The focus of
this work is to keep the scale of fixed asset investment and credit under
control and to promote overall balance between total supply and total demand
while improving the structure.
SOCIAL HARMONY
-- Social harmony and stability as well as a better life are the aspirations
of all the people and an important goal for the work of the government. This
year the government will adopt more effective measures and make major strides in
building a harmonious socialist society.
NEW SOCIALIST COUNTRYSIDE
-- This year's work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers will
focus on accelerating the development of modern agriculture and effectively
promoting the building of a new socialist countryside.
-- Allocations from the central government budget for resolving issues
related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers will total 391.7 billion yuan,
an increase of 52 billion yuan over last year.
-- China will set up a nationwide basic minimum cost of living allowance
system this year for rural residents.
-- The trial area of the new type of rural cooperative medical care system
will be expanded this year to cover over 80 percent of all counties,
county-level cities and city districts in China.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND LAND
-- The country fell short of the targets set at the beginning of 2006 for
cutting energy consumption per unit of GDP by about 4 percent and total
discharge of major pollutants by 2 percent.
-- This year China will take strong measures to save energy, lower energy
consumption, protect the environment and use land intensively.
FOREIGN TRADE
-- China must optimize the mix of imports and exports, change the pattern of
its foreign trade growth and strive to reduce its excessively large trade
surplus.
-- Promoting economic development and increasing employment through the
growth of foreign trade is a principle China must follow for a long time to
come.
RMB EXCHANGE RATE AND FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES
-- China will further improve the mechanism for setting the RMB exchange
rate, strengthen and improve foreign exchange administration, and actively
explore and develop channels and means for appropriately using state foreign
exchange reserves.
EDUCATION
-- Education is the bedrock of China's development, and fairness in education
is an important form of social fairness. China needs to make education a
strategic priority and accelerate the development of all types of education at
all levels.
-- A system of national scholarship and tuition assistance will go into
operation this school year for regular undergraduate institutions, vocational
colleges and secondary vocational schools. The government will further implement
the state student loan policy to enable children from families with financial
difficulties to attend college or receive vocational education.
-- China will institute free education for students majoring in education in
teacher colleges directly under the Ministry of Education and set up a
corresponding system.
INCOME GAP
-- China will deepen reform of the income distribution system to narrow the
increasing gaps in income levels and expand consumer demand. The government will
take a variety of measures to increase the incomes of both urban and rural
residents, especially low- and middle-income persons.
CORPORATE INCOME TAX
-- The timing and conditions are now ripe for unifying the enterprise income
tax rates for domestic and overseas-funded enterprises in order to level the
playing field.
REAL ESTATE SECTOR
-- The real estate industry should focus on developing reasonably priced
commercial housing for ordinary people. The government will pay particular
attention to addressing the housing problems of low-income families.
-- The government will strengthen oversight and regulation of housing prices,
prevent overheating in housing prices and keep prices at a reasonable
level.
