Q&A Transcript: New economy

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks at a press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 16, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Caijing: In this year's Government Work Report, the concept of the new economy was put forward for the first time. I wonder if this concept refers to e-commerce and those micro and small businesses? What does it have to do with the campaign for mass entrepreneurship and innovation? And how helpful could it be for withstanding the downward economic pressure?

Li Keqiang:

To develop the new economy will help us foster new economic drivers and move forward China's economic transformation. The concept of the new economy covers a wide range of areas and has many dimensions. It can be found in the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. It's not just about emerging forms of business and industries such as e-commerce, cloud computing, the Internet of things and Internet. It can also be found in smart manufacturing, large-scale customer-made production in the industrial sector. It's also about the appropriately scaled-up operations in the primary industry, that is agriculture such as family farms and shareholding cooperatives.

We believe that micro and small businesses can do a lot in developing new economy and also large companies can make a big difference. The truth is many large companies in China have established their own makers' spaces. There are many such examples.

When development has come to a certain stage, it is only natural for traditional growth drivers to begin to wane, and that has happened in many developed countries. Hence, we need the boom of new growth drivers to accommodate the need of industrial revolution. And when we combine the new growth drivers and the upgraded traditional growth drivers, we can bring into being a hybrid driving force.

New growth drivers will also help with our efforts to cut industrial overcapacity. In the companies of those sectors with overcapacity, there is a problem of overstaffing, and the growth of new drivers will help generate new jobs to re-employ any possible laid-off people. The campaign of mass entrepreneurship and innovation is to put in place a platform for the development of various types of companies and research institutions, and to create a broad space for crowdfunding, crowd innovation and crowdsourcing.

When we bring into full play the enthusiasm and creativity of all our people, it will generate a powerful momentum. With that momentum and our firm determination, we will be able to withstand the downward economic pressure and achieve faster economic transformation. Ultimately, a country's prosperity and development would not be possible without the full involvement of all its people and that will also be a process for us to boost the all-round human development.