The nine major tasks 2014

DEEPER REFORMS

Reform is the top buzzword for China in 2014. China will deepen reforms in a number of fields. Reform will be carried out in the administrative system, such as further streamlining administration and delegating more power to lower-level governments.

China will attach great importance to reform of the fiscal and tax systems, including instituting a comprehensive, well-regulated, open and transparent budget system, increasing the proportion of general transfer payments, and speeding up ways to adjust power and spending responsibilities between central and local governments.

Reforms will also be advanced in the financial sector, including further liberalizing interest rates by granting financial institutions more power to set rates, promoting the establishment of small and medium-sized banks and other financial institutions, and the healthy development of Internet banking.

China will also enhance the vitality of economic entities under all forms of ownership, upholding and improving the basic economic system. It will improve the distribution and structure of the state-owned sector of the economy and deepen the development of mixed-ownership economic entities.

WIDER OPENING

China will conduct wider and deeper opening in all fields, with regard to achieving high performance. China will foster a new open-economy system and advance a new round of opening-up to embrace the global market.

It will strive to make moves to remain a top choice for foreign investment. China will make full use of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone and further open the nation's inland and border areas, and turn these areas into hotspots for opening-up.

China will also give priority to upgrading exports and promoting balanced growth in foreign trade. It will increase its competitiveness by expanding its overseas business presence. A host of measures will be taken in the management of outbound investment, and boosting the export of products, project contracting and labor services.

The nation will also engage in bilateral, multilateral and regional opening-up and cooperation in a coordinated way.

DOMESTIC DEMAND

Boosting domestic demand is both a major force driving economic growth and an important structural adjustment. China needs to fully leverage the basic role of consumption and the key role of investment, stimulate both supply and demand, and establish a permanent mechanism for increasing domestic demand.

In working to increase domestic demand, China will focus on boosting consumption.

China will enhance people's ability to consume by increasing their incomes, improve consumption policies, foster new areas of consumption and increase consumption of services.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Agriculture is a sector vital to ensuring China's stability and maintaining the people's well-being. China must attach the utmost importance to doing a good job in work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers in all the government's endeavors and accelerate agricultural modernization in order to ensure China's food security and increase farmers' incomes.

China will ensure that cultivated land area does not fall below the red line of 120 million hectares and improve the quality of cultivated land, increase overall agricultural production capacity, and guarantee basic self-sufficiency in terms of cereal grains and absolute grain security.

URBANIZATION

China will implement a people-centered urbanization program that integrates the development of industrialization, IT application and agricultural modernization. The household registration system will be reformed so that migrant workers obtain urban residency, and their children will be entitled to go to school where they actually live.

Rebuilding rundown city areas and urban villages is another focus, so that Chinese cities will take on a new look through measures such as using urban construction land more efficiently. Urbanization in central and western regions will also be stepped up, with the government helping to foster new industry clusters, and speeding up infrastructure construction such as water conservancy, energy and municipal services in those regions, to help rural migrant workers find employment in nearby urban areas.

ECONOMIC REFORM

China will reform its science and technology management system to encourage businesses to play a more active role in technological innovation.

Government spending will be increased on cutting-edge and key technologies, as well as improving public science and technology service platforms and mechanisms.

China will also implement a talent development plan to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and link researchers' pay with the market value of their research.

Industrial structural adjustment will rely on supporting growth in developing production-oriented service industries, and encouraging business startups.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

The government will fight pollution by focusing on the following key areas: improving the industrial structure, raising energy efficiency, reducing vehicle exhaust emissions, and preventing and monitoring wind-borne dust. The plans will start by reducing PM10 and PM2.5 emissions, and a clean water action plan will also be implemented.

The government will continue to raise the proportion of electricity generated by non-fossil fuel develop smart grids and promote the balanced distribution of energy resources, encourage the development of wind and solar power.

The government will implement major ecological projects to return grazing land to grassland, protect natural forests, prevent and control sandstorms, conserve water and soil and prevent and reverse the expansion of stony deserts.

EGALITARIAN SOCIETY

The government will dedicate itself to the building of an egalitarian society, by taking active measures to coordinate the country's socioeconomic development. Quality education will be accessible to school-age children in the country's less-developed central and western regions, areas that have been plagued by the lack of good teachers and sound infrastructure. The country's higher education institutions will be required to further open their doors to underprivileged students from poorer regions. Meanwhile, universities will also be given more say on core matters such as enrollment. Vocational education will be further developed and the establishment of private schools encouraged.

Medical reform will remain a priority for the government, which aims to consolidate the national basic medical insurance system by integrating the one for rural residents with that for non-working urban residents. Government subsidies will be increased, and the capacity to prevent and treat major communicable diseases will be strengthened.

In terms of social governance, decision-making at the village and community level will be made more transparent, with government at a higher level exerting effective monitoring.

PEOPLE'S WELL-BEING

Fully realizing that people's well-being is the foundation of social stability and prosperity, the government will work toward a more harmonious society. Topping its agenda is increasing employment opportunities and the provision of adequate housing to those badly in need. Business startups will be given incentives, bearing in mind the expected growth in the number of college graduates. Efforts will also be made to provide employment to laid-off workers and migrant workers from rural areas.

Reform of the income distribution system will be deepened, with collective wage bargaining encouraged. Performance-based salary reform will also be undertaken within government bodies and public institutions, and the gap between urban and rural incomes is expected to be narrowed.

Reform will also extend to help society's most vulnerable feel more secure. Rural residents, elderly people, the disabled and people working in hazardous conditions will be given full consideration.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 03/07/2014 page5)