Full Text: Report on the Work of the Government

We will effectively conserve resources and protect the environment. We will actively respond to climate change. We will strengthen resource conservation and management, become better able to ensure adequate supplies of resources, intensify the protection of farmland and the environment, strengthen ecological development and systems to prevent and mitigate natural disasters, and comprehensively build our capacity for sustainable development. The proportion of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption should reach 11.4 percent; energy consumption and CO2 emissions per unit of GDP should be reduced by 16 percent and 17 percent respectively; the release of major pollutants should be reduced by 8 percent to 10 percent; forest stock should be increased by 600 million m3; and forest cover should be increased to 21.66 percent. We will substantially improve water conservancy facilities; make progress in better controlling important tributaries of large rivers as well as lakes and small and medium-sized rivers; and significantly improve agricultural irrigation, the efficiency of water resources use and resistance to flooding.

We will comprehensively improve the people's wellbeing. We will make increasing employment the foremost objective of economic and social development, create equitable job opportunities for the entire workforce, and create an extra 45 million urban jobs over the next five years. We will uphold and improve the distribution system whereby distribution according to work is dominant and multiple forms of distribution exist side by side, strive to coordinate increases in people's incomes with economic development and increases in workers' pay with improvements in labor productivity, gradually raise the proportion of national income distributed to individuals, increase the proportion of wages in the primary distribution of income, and quickly make the pattern of income distribution more reasonable. The per capita disposable income of urban residents and the per capita net income of rural residents will rise by an annual average of over 7 percent in real terms. We will raise the poverty line and reduce the number of people living in poverty. We will more quickly improve the social security system, and continue to raise social security benefits. The basic pension insurance and basic medical insurance systems will cover all urban and rural residents. Participation in the basic medical insurance system for working and non-working urban residents and the new rural cooperative medical care system will increase and stabilize, and we will increase the proportion of expenses for medical treatment paid out of the medical insurance fund to over 70 percent in accordance with relevant policies. Low-income housing will be made available to around 20 percent of the country’s urban households. We will adhere to the basic state policy on family planning and progressively improve it. We will promote balanced population growth in the long term and raise the average life expectancy by one year to 74.5 years.

We will comprehensively deepen reform and opening up. We will pay greater attention to the top-level design and overall planning of reform, vigorously press ahead with economic restructuring, actively yet prudently advance political restructuring, accelerate reform of the cultural and social management systems, constantly improve the socialist market economy, expand socialist democracy, improve the socialist legal system, make the superstructure more responsive to the development of and changes in the economic base, and provide strong assurances for scientific development. We will uphold and improve the basic economic system, and create an institutional environment under which economic entities under all forms of ownership use factors of production equally in accordance with the law, engage in fair competition in the market, and enjoy equal legal protection. We will accelerate the reform of the fiscal, taxation, and financial systems; make fiscal and taxation systems conducive to transforming the pattern of economic development; and develop a financial system that is comprised of diverse organizations, provides efficient service, exercises prudent oversight, and keeps risks within bounds. We will deepen reform of the prices for resource products and environmental protection charges, and develop a sound, flexible mechanism for setting prices for resource products capable of reflecting supply and demand in the market, resource scarcity, and the cost of environmental damage. We will implement a more positive opening up strategy, cultivate new advantages beneficial to our participation in international cooperation and competition, and bring about a new phase of opening up that emphasizes mutual benefit.

We will constantly strengthen the government's internal reforms and self-improvement. All the government's power is entrusted by the people, and the government must therefore be responsible for the people, work to benefit them, and accept their oversight. We must mobilize and organize as many people as possible to manage state and social affairs as well as economic and cultural undertakings in accordance with the law. We must uphold the rule of law as a basic strategy, strengthen the legal system to safeguard the people's interests, and carry out administration in accordance with the law. We must make decisions scientifically and democratically; establish a sound operational mechanism for decision making, enforcement and oversight to check each other and function in concert; and ensure that power is exercised properly. We must make institutional changes to end the excessive concentration of power and lack of checks on power, and resolutely prevent and punish corruption. We must safeguard the people’s democratic rights and legitimate rights and interests, and safeguard social fairness and justice.

In short, by achieving all the targets set forth in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan through hard work in the coming five years, China's overall strength will further increase, people will live better lives, and our country will undergo more profound changes.

III. Work for 2011

This year, our focus is on doing the following work well.

1. Keeping overall price levels basically stable

Recently, prices have risen fairly quickly and inflation expectations have increased. This problem concerns the people's wellbeing, bears on overall interests and affects social stability. We must therefore make it our top priority in macroeconomic control to keep overall price levels stable. We need to make the most of favorable conditions, such as an ample supply of manufactured goods and our abundant grain reserves and considerable foreign exchange reserves, endeavor to overcome the adverse effects of imported and structural inflation, cushion the upward pressure for costs of factors of production, and correctly guide market expectations to resolutely curb price rises. We need to comprehensively strengthen our work controlling and monitoring prices mainly through economic and legal methods supplemented by administrative means when necessary.

First, we will effectively manage market liquidity and control the monetary conditions for commodity prices rising too rapidly. We will decide proper timing, frequency and intensity of price adjustments for goods and services whose prices are regulated by the government. Second, we will vigorously develop production and ensure the production and supply of major farm products, daily necessities and important means of production. We will effectively implement the system of provincial governors taking responsibility for the "rice bag" (grain supply) program and city mayors taking responsibility for the "vegetable basket" (non-grain food supply) program. Third, we will develop the distribution system for farm products, actively encourage farmers and stores to link up, and guarantee the unimpeded transport of fresh farm products through "green channels," where vehicles carrying such goods are exempt from paying road tolls. We will improve the reserve system for important goods and the system for temporarily purchasing and stockpiling major farm products, seize the opportune moment for the state to manipulate reserves, adjust imports and exports, and strengthen our ability to control the market. Fourth, we will strengthen oversight and supervision of prices and maintain market order. We particularly need to strengthen law enforcement concerning pricing, and strictly investigate and deal with illegal behavior such as driving up prices through price collusion or market speculation. Fifth, we will improve the system of subsidies and institute a sound mechanism to raise social assistance and social security benefits when commodity prices rise. We cannot allow price rises to affect the normal lives of low-income people.

2. Further expanding domestic demand, especially consumer demand

Expanding domestic demand is a long-term strategic principle and basic standpoint of China's economic development as well as a fundamental means and an internal requirement for promoting balanced economic development.