III. Major Tasks for Economic and Social Development in 2019

 

In 2019, we will continue following the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and fully apply the guiding principles from the 19th CPC National Congress and the second and third plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee. In line with the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the principles of the Central Economic Work Conference, and the requirements of the Report on the Work of the Government, we will focus our work on the following eight areas.

1. Deepening supply-side structural reform

We will follow a policy of consolidating the gains in the five priority tasks, strengthening the dynamism of micro entities, upgrading industrial chains, and ensure unimpeded flows in the economy. On this basis we will work with enterprises to effectively resolve their difficulties and firm up the foundation for developing the real economy.

1) We will pursue high-quality development of manufacturing.

We will formulate an implementation plan for promoting high-quality development of the manufacturing sector, and foster advanced manufacturing clusters. We will continue cutting overcapacity through structural adjustments and improve the mechanisms for sharing among all involved the responsibilities for making cuts and bearing the resulting losses. We will steadily promote competition so that only the fittest enterprises survive, and move faster to deal with “zombie enterprises.” Implementation plans on phasing out overcapacity will be introduced.

We will adopt a joined-up approach to lowering enterprise leverage ratios, merging and reorganizing enterprises, and integrating industries. Appropriate measures will be taken to assist workers displaced due to overcapacity cuts.

2) We will promote integration of advanced manufacturing and modern services.

We will set out the guidelines to more deeply embed next-generation IT into the manufacturing sector, and work for greater levels of integration and mutual reinforcement between industrial internet innovations and intelligent manufacturing and e-commerce. Traditional industries will be encouraged to make a faster shift to digital, internet-based, and smart-tech models; and integrated development of the manufacturing and logistics sectors will be promoted. We will formulate an action plan for high-quality development of the service sector, and move forward with trials on comprehensive service-sector reforms.

3) We will further cut the costs of enterprises.

We will introduce both general-benefit and structural tax cuts, and tax relief will be available for all small and micro businesses and sci-tech startups. We will start revising the catalog of corporate income tax credits for environmental protection, energy and water conservation, and the comprehensive use of resources.

We will overhaul and standardize business service fees. We will make good use of the national financing guaranty fund, and make good use of the rewards and subsidies mechanism to reduce small and micro businesses’ financing guarantee costs. We will press ahead with sharing public credit and financial credit information, and create credit-based financing models for small and micro businesses and for agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents.

In transportation, we will vigorously develop containerization, continue multimodal transportation demonstration projects, and strive to solve the “last-kilometer” problem in combined highway, railway, and water transportation services. These efforts will deliver substantial cuts in logistics costs.

4) We will boost support for private enterprises.

There will be no irresolution about consolidating and developing the public sector and no irresolution about encouraging, supporting, and guiding non-public sector development. The non-public sector will receive all the encouragement, support, and guidance it needs to thrive, and vigorous efforts will be made to create an environment characterized by fair market competition and law-based institutions.

We will continue boosting protection for property rights and strengthen government integrity-building. As part of this, we will take targeted action to address failures to act in good faith on property rights protection in government administration, and local authorities will have assistance in resolving property rights disputes that have elicited a strong reaction from enterprises and the public.

Robust mechanisms will be put in place to include business owners and executives in formulating enterprise-related policies. We will keep working to build a new type of cordial and clean relationship between government and business, and take steps to ensure the full implementation of policies on encouraging and protecting entrepreneurship. We will also issue guidelines on supporting reform and development in private enterprises.

Private enterprises will see their rights and interests being protected in accordance with law, and vigorous steps will be taken to protect the personal safety and property of business owners and executives so they can do business with peace of mind. We will take further action to deal with the problem of defaults on payments to private enterprises and small and medium businesses. We will continue to overhaul and standardize security deposits in the construction industry.

We will harness the advantages of all types of financial institutions, improve the credit rating system for private enterprises, and encourage banks to lend to them on medium- and long-term basis. We will develop new types of bonds, allow more competitive enterprises to issue bonds, support private businesses in accessing bond financing, and make explorations on creating tools to support private businesses in obtaining equity financing. Through these multiple channels, we will help solve the problems of private enterprises finding it tough and costly to obtain financing.

We will develop new incentives for good-faith actors, explore ways to expand the Good Credit Plus services initiative, and ensure more beneficial and easily accessible services for individuals and enterprises with good credit scores. Targeted measures will be adopted to address the problem of excluding and restricting private enterprises from public bidding.

5) We will deepen supply-side structural reform in agriculture.

We will keep a firm focus on grain production. We will ensure full implementation of the food security responsibility system for provincial governors, push forward quality grain programs, and ensure total grain acreage remains steady at 110 million hectares.

We will complete the work of delimiting grain-producing functional zones and protected production areas for major agricultural products, and improve farmland irrigation and water conservancy; and the area of high-quality cropland will be increased by at least 5.33 million hectares. We will improve the crop mix, encouraging farmers to grow crops that are in short supply, are environmentally friendly, and are of high-quality, and promoting a shift in the focus of agriculture from increasing output to raising quality. Trials of crop rotation and fallow land will be carried out steadily. We will implement a strategic plan for quality-driven reinvigoration of agriculture, and put in place supplementary policies and assessment, review, and work systems. Continuing the push toward the green development of agriculture, we will support the building of pilot zones for this express purpose.

We will step up reform and innovation in agricultural science and technology, make a big push to develop the modern seed industry, promote the application of advanced, practical technologies, launch programs to protect agricultural products using geographical indications, and push ahead with complete agricultural mechanization.

We will move faster to build a rural industrial system, further promote the integrated development of rural primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, and strengthen county economies. This will see rural areas being encouraged to take new approaches in developing their distinctive local industries and new types of services. We will support the development of areas growing quality, distinctive local agricultural products, modern agriculture industrial parks, and towns with agricultural strengths. We will cultivate and support national leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization, foster new agribusiness models such as family farms and farmer cooperatives, and accelerate the development of new industries and new forms of business in rural areas.

We will refine policies on minimum purchase prices for rice and wheat and on corn and soybean production subsides, further increase the subsidies for soybeans, and employ a variety of ways to expand the area of land under soybean cultivation. We will expand trial reforms of policy-backed agricultural insurance, and develop new and better rural financial services.

There will be no let-up in our efforts to successfully prevent and control African swine fever and ensure production and supply of livestock and poultry products. The reserve system for important agricultural supplies such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides will be improved.

We will move faster to establish a new type of support and protection policy framework for agriculture in line with international rules.

2. Developing a strong domestic market

  To fulfill the requirement of managing our own affairs well and the task of meeting the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life, we will work to vigorously develop the domestic market, promote beneficial circulation in the economy, and ensure a dynamic equilibrium of supply and demand.

1) We will accelerate transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.

Guidelines on accelerating transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and developing a dynamic domestic market will be formulated, and the catalog of industrial structural adjustments will be revised. Efforts will be made to increase the support of innovation, land, human resources, and other factors of production and to ensure the medium- and long-term funding needed for manufacturing enterprises to upgrade their technologies and transform their business models. We will strongly support the development of major technological equipment to shore up areas of weakness, and promote the demonstration and application of newly-developed equipment. We will support the efforts to improve quality and build brands, attach greater importance to standards, and strive to bolster product quality. We will upgrade major industrial bases, and cultivate modern industrial clusters. We will organize a new round of technology transformation and upgrading projects, and harness new technologies like the internet, big data, and AI and advanced, applicable green methods, technologies, and equipment to transform traditional industries and promote their safe, green, intensive, and efficient development.

2) We will foster emerging industries.

We will optimize the oversight mechanism for new forms and new models of business and promote deeper cooperation between government, banks, and enterprises in developing emerging industries. We will prioritize and strongly develop a number of clusters of strategic emerging industries in key fields such as next-generation IT, high-end equipment, biotechnology, and new materials. We will move faster to set up a policy framework for the digital economy, formulate an Internet Plus action plan for the new era, and carry out major digital economy and Internet Plus projects. We will set up leading zones for new AI applications and continue developing integrated experimental zones for big data.

We will move quickly to launch commercial 5G operations and expand deployment of Internet Protocol version six (IPv6), and strengthen the development and integrated application of new types of infrastructure in AI, the industrial internet, and the Internet of Things. We will commence research and planning on a National Broadband Internet Agenda for the new era and step up construction of next-generation information infrastructure.

Research will be conducted on formulating a bio-economy development strategy and a package of policies for developing the biotech industry. We will take further action to boost growth of the biotech industry and to promote integrated development of biotechnology and information technology. Further steps will be taken to develop the general aviation industry.

3) We will focus on key areas and promote effective investment.

We will draw up an implementation plan for high-quality infrastructure development, and promote the implementation of measures on sustaining efforts to strengthen areas of weakness in infrastructure. A total of 577.6 billion yuan from the central government budget will be allocated for investment this year, 40 billion more than last year. Adjustments will be made to optimize the composition of investments from the central government budget. The bulk of investments will go to support agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents; major infrastructure, innovation-driven development, and structural adjustments; government-subsidized housing, social programs, and social governance; and energy saving, environmental protection, and ecological conservation. We will work harder to ensure funding for ongoing projects; and to avoid projects being only half-finished, local governments will be encouraged to make good use of available fiscal funds, which should be used primarily for infrastructure projects already under way.

We will ensure stronger long-term mechanisms for attracting private investment into key areas, with greater encouragement for private enterprises to get involved in major national strategies and state projects to strengthen areas of weakness. We will encourage the participation of private capital through PPP projects in various forms such as mixed ownership and joint bidding consortiums.

We will press ahead with the planning and development of major projects such as the Chengdu-Lhasa railway, high-speed railway along the Yangtze River, a north-to-south coal line, trans-regional power transmission routes, and hydropower projects in southwest China. We will support major city clusters in moving faster to plan and build intercity, municipal, and suburban rail services—included in this are the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Shandong Peninsula, and the Beibu Bay area. Follow-up projects for the Three Gorges Reservoir area will be advanced. We will speed up preliminary work for major projects such as a new channel for the Three Georges water transportation hub and the project to expand the navigational capacity of the Gezhouba Dam. Plans will be made to build new land-sea transit routes for the western region, and faster progress will be achieved in building a national network of natural gas pipelines.

We will continue projects to build, relocate, rebuild, and expand hub airports, and construct regional airports and general-purpose airports in a well-planned way. We will speed up construction of Beijing Daxing International Airport and operational preparations to ensure its opening at the end of this September. We will advance the construction of comprehensive passenger transportation hubs and logistics hubs, draw up an implementation plan for developing a national network of logistics hubs, support the building of port logistics railways, and solve the “last-kilometer” problem in transportation connectivity.

4) We will foster new growth areas in consumption for the benefit of the people.

We will work on drawing up a three-year action plan for increasing personal income. We will ensure implementation of the policy on raising the personal income tax threshold and introducing six special deductible items, and carry out trials on increasing the incomes of urban and rural residents. We will move forward with plans on providing incentives to increase incomes for key groups such as skilled personnel, new-type professional farmers, and R&D personnel, and improve the performance-based salary system for public institution employees. These actions will help further improve people’s ability to consume.

We will formulate measures for boosting spending on automobiles, home appliances, and other popular products, and keep channels between urban and rural markets free-flowing. We will launch a series of online shopping promotions to boost brand and quality consumption, and unlock the consumption potential of online shopping and tourism in rural areas. To promote improvements in the quality of our products and services, we will implement a strategy to make China strong on quality. We will launch a three-year campaign against counterfeit and substandard goods to ensure a clean market environment for consumers. We will intensify efforts to ensure that products sold domestically are produced on the same production lines, meet the same standards, and are of the same quality as exported ones, and improve the system for quality traceability of important goods. We will upgrade pedestrian malls in major cities, and encourage consumers to purchase high-end goods and services at home instead of overseas. We will support efforts to make applied electronic products smarter, and work on further expanding and upgrading consumption of information goods and services. To encourage green consumption, we will introduce new incentive policies and tighten market oversight.

We will speed up development of specific service sectors, including education, childcare, elderly care, housekeeping, healthcare, culture, and tourism. We will expand the diversity of products and services in culture and tourism, and promote the development of new forms of business and models of consumption. We will formulate an action plan to develop the health industry, and build more facilities to encourage sports-related spending. We will ensure implementation of the paid vacation system. Policies and measures will be introduced to improve care services for the elderly. Pilot and demonstration projects will be carried out to set standards for domestic services, and training will be boosted for domestic-service personnel.

We will continue working to make Hainan an international hotspot for tourism and shopping, to grow Pingtan as an international tourism island, and to develop Hengqin as an international leisure and tourism resort. We will organize the implementation of the Action Plan (2018-2020) for Redeveloping and Upgrading Tourism Infrastructure in the Three Regions and Three Prefectures and Other Areas Affected by Extreme Poverty. We will improve the infrastructure and public service facilities at major tourist attractions, installing rapid transit services, walkways, and parking lots. We will set standards for the sound development of theme parks, and support cruiser liner and recreational vehicle-based spending. Research will be conducted to formulate guidelines on developing the winter economy in northeast China. Joint review and approval of privately-run hospitals will be carried out by related government departments.