Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivers 2023 government work report

Beijing, The Gulf Observer: The opening meeting of the first session of China’s 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) took place at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday. Premier Li Keqiang, on behalf of the State Council, delivered a government work report to the national legislature for deliberation.

Here are some highlights of the work report:

Growth target set at around 5 percent

China aims to expand its economy by around 5 percent in 2023, and set its inflation target, or increase in consumer price index (CPI), at around 3 percent.

It stabilized the economy, steadily enhanced development quality and maintained overall social stability in 2022, securing new and hard-won achievements in development, according to the report.

The country aims to create around 12 million urban jobs in 2023 and is targeting a surveyed urban unemployment rate of around 5.5 percent, according to the report, while the overall tariff level fell from 9.8 percent to 7.4 percent over the past five years.

Improvements, upgrades to industrial structure

Over the past five years, China fully implemented the innovation-driven development strategy and improved and upgraded the industrial structure, according to the government work report.

China promoted the development of the real economy through innovation and continued to foster new drivers of growth, it said, the leading role of technological innovation was reinforced, a number of major sci-tech innovation projects were launched and efforts to secure breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields were stepped up.

Industries were encouraged to develop toward the medium- and high-end, and priority was given to manufacturing in the development of the real economy, and the stable performance of the industrial sector was ensured. The share of manufacturing in the economy remained largely unchanged, according to the report.

Chinese products are now of a higher quality and more competitive, the report stated.

Stabilize grain output, boost rural revitalization

China aims to stabilize grain output and advance rural revitalization this year, according to the report.

The country plans to keep total grain acreage at a stable level and launch a new drive to increase grain production capacity by 50 million tonnes, the report said, and will also invigorate the seed industry and support the development of agricultural science, technology and equipment.

The report also called for fostering rural industries with local features to create more channels for increasing rural incomes.

“Our achievements in poverty alleviation should be consolidated and expanded to prevent large-scale relapse into poverty,” it added.

Pursue green and low-carbon development

China strengthened environmental protection and pursued green and low-carbon development over the past five years, according to the report.

The country worked harder to prevent and control pollution, and in cities at and above the prefectural level, air quality was good or excellent on 86.5 percent of the days over the past five years, a 4-percentage-point increase, it said.

China also made steady progress in energy conservation and carbon reduction, the report stated, adding that the country worked toward the targets of peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality with well-conceived and systematic steps.

The energy mix was further improved, with the share of clean energy in total energy consumption up from 20.8 percent to over 25 percent, it added.

Maintain lasting prosperity in HK, Macao

The Chinese central government will support Hong Kong and Macao in growing their economies and improving people’s lives, and maintain long-term prosperity and stability in the two regions, according to the report, which pledged efforts to fully, faithfully and resolutely implement the policy of “One Country, Two Systems,” under which the people of Hong Kong administer Hong Kong and the people of Macao administer Macao, both with a high degree of autonomy.

The report said the central government will remain committed to law-based governance in Hong Kong and Macao, and ensure that constitutional order in the two regions is upheld as stipulated in China’s Constitution and the basic laws of the two regions, and that Hong Kong and Macao are administered by patriots.

Major-country diplomacy

Major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics has been conducted on all fronts over the past five years, according the report.

President Xi Jinping and other Party and state leaders visited many countries and attended, online or offline, many major diplomatic events, and China also hosted a number of major diplomatic events, the report noted.

“With courage and ability to stand our ground, we resolutely safeguarded China’s sovereignty, security and development interests. We actively expanded global partnerships, worked to build an open world economy, safeguarded multilateralism and promoted the building of a human community with a shared future,” the report said.