BEIJING, March 13 (TMTPOST) – China’s newly-elected Premier Li Qiang on Mondaysetout concrete measuresto meetthe economic growth targetin 2023 during his firstpress conference in his new positionafter the closing of the 14th National People’s Congress.
During the just-concluded annual Two Sessions, China set a target for GDP growth of approximately 5%, the lowest in almost thirty years, which came after a year that saw3% economic growth. On how to achieve this goal, Li proposed to leverage multiple factors, including macro policy, demand expansion, reform and innovation, and risk prevention and control. “With a large economy of over 120 trillion yuan and many new challenges, it’s not easy to reach a growth target of about 5%, and we need to double our efforts,”he said.
Li also saidthat a comprehensive plan was made during the Central Economic Work Conference last December. He would stick to the plan by emphasizing stability and progress. Stability refers to “stable economic growth, stable employment rates, and stable consumer prices” while progress means high-qualityadvancement, he told reporters at the press conference.
In response to a question aboutthe new government’s goalsin the next five years, Lisaid the government should turn the grand blueprint drawn by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) into a construction plan, working with the whole nation towards a brighter future. “The 20th National Congress of the CPC held lastOctober made a comprehensive strategic plan for the development of our country in the next five years and beyond, and all our major concerns can be clearly addressedby its report,”he said.
When it comes to specific work of the governmentin the next five years, Li said the focus was on three aspects. Firstly, the people-centered development ideology must be firmly established. All the work of the CPCand the government is aimed at benefiting the people. “Objectively speaking, the vast majority of the people don’t pay attention to GDP growth on a daily basis, what they care more about are housing, employment, income, education, health care, ecological environment and other specific things,” Li explained. The work of the government should be in accordance with the actual well-beingof the people, so as to ensure that the people have something to look forward to, and that the government has something to achieve.
The second focus is promoting high-quality development. “China’s economic and social development has made tremendous strides, with the sizeof theeconomysteadily ranking the second in the world. However, the development is still unbalanced and inadequate, as anything divided by 1.4 billion will be small,” noted Li. According to the new premier, China’s development now is just to solve the “having or not” problem, and the next step is to solve the “good or not” problem, especially to improve scientific and technological innovation capacity, construct a modern market system, and promote green development. “In general, weshould implement the new development concept completely, accurately and comprehensively, accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, and strive to promote high-quality development,“ said Li.
Finally, Li said that it is necessary to unswervingly deepen reform and opening up. He noted thatreform and opening up is the key moveto determine the futureof contemporary China. When promoting Chinese modernization and achieving the second centenary goal, China should stick to the road of reform and opening up. That requiresadherenceto the direction of socialist market economy reform, continuedopeningup at a high level, and constantlyincreasingthe motivation andvitality of development in deepening reform and opening up.
