Full Text: Report on the Work of the Government

We are keenly aware that we still have a serious problem in that our development is not yet well balanced, coordinated or sustainable. This manifests itself mainly in the following: growing resource and environmental constraints hindering economic growth, imbalance between investment and consumption, large income gap, insufficient scientific and technological innovation capabilities, an irrational industrial structure, continued weakness in the agricultural foundation, uneven development between urban and rural areas and between regions, the coexistence of overall pressure to expand employment and structural shortage of qualified personnel in some industries, defects in systems and mechanisms that hinder scientific development, and our failure to meet three targets set in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan - the value-added of the service sector, its share in total employment, and spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP. Moreover, we have not yet fundamentally solved a number of issues that the masses feel strongly about, namely the lack of high-quality educational and medical resources, and their uneven distribution; increasing upward pressure on prices, and exorbitant housing price increases in some cities; increasing social problems resulting from illegal land expropriations and housing demolitions; significant problems concerning food safety; and rampant corruption in some areas. We must therefore have a strong sense of responsibility toward the country and the people and work tirelessly and painstakingly to solve these problems more quickly to the satisfaction of the people.

Looking back at the government’s work during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, we have deepened our understanding and awareness in several areas. First, we must steadfastly undertake scientific development. We have relied on development to overcome all types of severe challenges, and all our achievements and progress in every area come from development. We must therefore continue to rely on development to resolve the difficulties and problems on the road ahead. China is still in the primary stage of socialism and will remain so for a long time to come, so we must continue to take economic development as our central task and pursue scientific development. We need to put people first, make ensuring and improving their wellbeing the starting point and goal of all our work, unwaveringly work for prosperity for all and ensure that everyone shares in the fruits of development. We need to steadfastly take all factors into consideration, and coordinate urban and rural development, regional development, and economic and social development. We need to accelerate the transformation of the pattern of economic development; strongly promote innovation; conserve resources and protect the environment; ensure that economic and social development is coordinated with our population, resources and environment; and make development more comprehensive, balanced and sustainable.

Second, we must continue to closely integrate government control with market forces. Sound market forces and effective macro-control are both indispensable parts of the socialist market economy. We must be guided by realities in deciding when market forces are to play the greater role and when government control is to play the greater role. In responding to the impact of the global financial crisis, we tightened and improved macro-control, quickly corrected market distortions, remedied market failures and prevented serious economic fluctuations. All the measures we took have proven to be entirely correct. We must constantly improve the socialist market economy, and make full use of the basic role of the market in allocating resources to stimulate the internal vitality of the economy while using macro-control tools scientifically to promote long-term, steady and rapid economic development.

Third, we must consider the overall domestic and international situations. As economic globalization intensifies and China’s opening up constantly deepens, our economy is becoming linked ever more closely to the world economy and the two are constantly interacting and becoming more interdependent. We must adopt a global perspective, strengthen our strategic thinking, be proficient at recognizing development opportunities presented by changes in the international situation, respond prudently to risks and challenges, make good use of both domestic and international markets and resources, correctly balance domestic development and our degree of openness to the outside world, and truly take into consideration both domestic and external demand to achieve balanced development.

Fourth, we must steadfastly use reform and opening up to provide the basic driving force for economic and social development. The only way to make the country strong and prosperous and to ensure the people's happiness is through reform and opening up, and we must implement them throughout the course of socialist modernization. We need to be more resolute and courageous in carrying out reform, and make reform decisions more scientific and reform measures better coordinated. We need to comprehensively carry out economic, political, cultural and social reforms and innovations; eradicate obstacles embedded in systems and mechanisms; fully liberate and develop the productive forces; and promote social fairness and justice. We must make improving the people's lives a pivot linking reform, development and stability; consider the intensity of reforms and the speed of development in light of the ability of society to accept changes; promote harmony and stability through reform; and make sure that people are content with their lives and jobs, society is tranquil and orderly, and the country enjoys long-term peace and stability.