Premier Li Keqiang's last "Government Work Report" has been released. As an important document for the outside world to observe China's economic development and trend, this "Government Work Report" can be said to be a report that seeks truth from facts.
It is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
One is to set the GDP growth rate for 2023 at around 5%, which is not only lower than outside expectations, but also lower than the average of the economic growth targets announced by China's 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities).
Why set the target at around 5%?
The National Development and Reform Commission gave three considerations in the "Report on the Implementation of the 2022 National Economic and Social Development Plan and the 2023 National Economic and Social Development Plan Draft":
Li Keqiang delivering a government work report (video screenshot)
The first is "to reach the level of moderately developed countries in 2035, we must maintain reasonable economic growth for a long time on the basis of improving quality and efficiency"; the second is "reflects the requirements of stable growth, stable employment, and stable prices, and is conducive to sending positive signals to the market. Boost confidence, guide expectations, expand employment, improve people's livelihood, and prevent and resolve risks and hidden dangers in development"; the third is "commensurate with my country's economic growth potential at the current stage, and resource factors can support it."
In the past 2022, China's economy grew by only 3% for the whole year, far below the official target of 5.5%.
Next, the challenges and pressures of China's economic development will continue unabated.
The second is that the three-year description of the epidemic did not continue the "miracle" narrative.
Li Keqiang's last government work report spent a lot of space summarizing the work of the past five years, and the epidemic undoubtedly played a huge role in the past five years.
When Li Keqiang talked about the epidemic, he focused more on how to increase relief and support for the production and operation difficulties of enterprises, and how to strengthen the basic livelihood protection for some people's living difficulties. All regions, departments and units have done a lot of work. All walks of life have overcome the difficulties together. The vast number of medical personnel are not afraid of hardships. In particular, it is not easy for hundreds of millions of people to overcome multiple difficulties. For the epidemic that has not yet ended, we are still consolidating the results of coordinating epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development.”
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has lasted for three years, has had a major impact on the Chinese economy, and people's confidence is low.
(Reuters)
On February 16, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting to hear a report on the prevention and control of the new crown epidemic.
At the meeting, the expression of the epidemic situation in the past three years was "a major and decisive victory in epidemic prevention and control, creating a miracle in the history of human civilization that a country with a large population successfully emerged from the pandemic."
The third is to make a realistic summary of the shortcomings of the government's work in the past five years.
Following the practice of annual government work reports, Li Keqiang also mentioned the existing problems and deficiencies after summarizing the development achievements of the past five years.
Li Keqiang said, "China is a large developing country, still in the primary stage of socialism, and the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development is still prominent. The current development is facing many difficulties and challenges." Prominent contradictions, private investment and private enterprises have unstable expectations, small, medium and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households have many difficulties, the task of stabilizing employment is arduous, and some grassroots fiscal revenue and expenditure contradictions are relatively large. There are many hidden risks in the real estate market, and some small and medium-sized financial institutions have risks. Exposed." "Some cadres do not act, act indiscriminately, and single-handedly. There are problems such as being divorced from reality, going against the wishes of the masses, and ignoring the legitimate rights and interests of the masses."
Li Keqiang delivering a government work report (video screenshot)
In addition, Li Keqiang also mentioned in the report the general principles of the government's governance - "take the expectations of the people as the direction of governance, always put the people at the top of the mind, put the people's interests first, listen carefully to the voices of the masses, and deeply understand the well-being of the masses. , and strive to solve the people's urgent, difficult and anxious problems; adhere to seeking truth from facts, respect objective laws, and resolutely oppose empty talk, exaggeration, superficial articles, image projects, and even blind and reckless; solve problems with reform methods and perseverance. Hold the mediocre and the lazy to account.”
On February 23, Li Keqiang inspected the Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, repeatedly emphasizing the importance of "reform". "The Development and Reform Commission is responsible for development and reform. Practical doers and reformers." At the same time, he also made a "forecast" for the upcoming "Government Work Report"-"Seek truth from facts to summarize work, scientifically arrange key tasks, and accept people's supervision in accordance with the law." From the actual results, Li Keqiang Obviously fulfilled the promise, because this is indeed a realistic "Government Work Report".
Two sessions | GDP growth target of 5%?
National Development and Reform Commission: Adapt to China's current economic growth potential Two sessions｜Government Work Report Tang Yingnian: Stimulate Hong Kong Lin Jianyue: Point out the direction Two sessions｜Li Keqiang: GDP will increase by 3% in 2022, RMB exchange rate will be stable and prices will remain low NPC-Two sessions｜Li Keqiang "Government The simplified version of the work report comes with an article to grasp the key points of the National People's Congress.
