Full Text: Report on the Work of the Government

8. Deepening reforms in key areas

We will continue to advance the strategic adjustment of the state sector of the economy and improve the mechanisms for redirecting investments of state capital to ensure its rational flow. We will improve the system for overseeing state-owned financial assets, non-operational state-owned assets and natural resource assets, and strengthen oversight of state-owned assets overseas. We will continue to encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector of the economy. We will improve the fiscal and taxation systems so that the financial resources of governments are in line with their respective responsibilities, clear up and amalgamate special transfer payments, increase general transfer payments, and improve the mechanism for ensuring basic funding for county-level governments. We will carry out a pilot project to institute VAT reform on some producer services, and carry forward the reform of resource taxes. We will deepen the reform of the budget management system, formulate budgets for all government funds, compile budgets for more state capital operations, and compile budgets for social security funds on a trial basis. We will continue to deepen the reform of financial enterprises and quicken the establishment of a modern financial enterprise system. We will accelerate the cultivation of new rural financial institutions. We will continue to energetically develop financial markets and encourage financial innovation. We will push forward the market-based reform of interest rates. We will expand the use of the RMB in cross-border trade and investment and press ahead with making the RMB convertible under capital accounts. We will strengthen and improve financial oversight, and establish a sound early warning system and a risk response mechanism to prevent systemic financial risks. We will improve the mechanism for setting prices on refined petroleum products and natural gas and pricing mechanisms for all kinds of electricity. We will proceed with the reform of water prices. We will carry out studies and formulate guidelines to launch a pilot project for paying for the use and trading of pollution emission rights. We need to fully consider the ability of the people, particularly low-income people, to bear price reforms. We will actively yet prudently push forward the reform of institutions by type and in accordance with the requirements that institutions stop performing government and business functions, that supervision be separated from day-to-day operations and that for-profit institutions be separated from non-profit ones.

9. Further improving our work of opening to the outside world

China cannot develop without interacting with the rest of the world. We need to develop mutually beneficial multilateral and bilateral trade and economic relations and constantly expand our opening up into new fields and spaces. We will continue to give impetus to the Doha round of trade talks, oppose protectionism in all forms, and work to make the international economic order more just, equitable and mutually beneficial.

We will effectively change the way foreign trade develops. We need to ensure its steady growth on the basis of putting great effort into optimizing the trade mix and increasing profitability. In both general trade and processing-trade exports, it is essential we continue to make the most of our advantages in labor resources; reduce the consumption of energy and resources; move higher up the industrial chain; and raise quality, grade and value-added. We will actively expand exports of Chinese brand goods. We will energetically develop trade in services and service outsourcing and constantly raise the proportion of trade in services in our foreign trade. We will attach equal importance to exports and imports; increase imports of advanced technical equipment, key parts and components, and energy and raw materials; and promote increases in imports from the least developed countries and from countries with which China has a large trade surplus to gradually correct trade imbalances and properly handle trade frictions.

We will promote the coordinated development of overseas Chinese investment and the utilization of foreign capital in China. We will accelerate the implementation of the “go global” strategy, improve relevant support policies, simplify examination and approval procedures, and provide assistance for qualified enterprises and individuals to invest overseas. We will encourage enterprises to operate internationally in an active yet orderly manner. We will strengthen macro guidance over overseas investments, improve the mechanisms for stimulating and protecting them, and guard against investment risks. We will adhere to the policy of using foreign capital actively and effectively, focus on introducing advanced technology and skilled personnel as well as intellectual resources, encourage multinational corporations to set up R&D centers in China, and effectively raise the overall level and benefits of utilizing foreign capital. We will promptly revise the List of Industries for Foreign Investment, and encourage more foreign investment in new and high technologies, energy conservation and environmental protection, modern service industries, and the central and western regions.