1. Promoting substantive progress in the priority tasks of cutting overcapacity, reducing excess inventory, deleveraging, lowering costs, and strengthening points of weakness.

In line with the CPC Central Committee and the State Council's overall arrangements for supply-side structural reform, we will intensify efforts to fulfill the five priority tasks, reduce ineffective and inefficient supply while increasing effective supply, and improve the profit-making ability of enterprises.

1) We will make concrete efforts to scale down overcapacity.

This year, we will cut production capacity by around 50 million metric tons of steel and over 150 million metric tons of coal. At the same, we will shut down, stop, or suspend the construction of coal-fired power plants with a capacity of more than 50 million kilowatts, so as to guard against and defuse overcapacity risks in the coal-fired power industry and enhance its efficiency, while also improving the energy mix and creating space for the development of clean energy. Making full use of market-oriented and law-based means, we will work to strike an overall balance between the efforts to scale down overcapacity, ensure stable supply, improve the industrial structure, and transform and upgrade industries.

Our efforts to address the issue of "zombie enterprises" will constitute a key approach in cutting overcapacity. By strictly enforcing laws, regulations, and standards with regard to environmental protection, energy consumption, quality, and safety, we will intensify efforts to control the expansion of production capacity, shut down outdated production facilities, and crack down on violations of laws and regulations in this regard. Proper conditions will be created for promoting the merging and restructuring of enterprises, and proper arrangements will be put in place to handle debts and resettle laid-off workers. We will continue to make government funds available for rewards and subsidies in this regard.

2) We will continue to cut excess inventory by implementing policies tailored to local conditions.

We will take multiple, locally practicable measures to grant direct monetary housing compensation rather than housing to more people displaced by the redevelopment of run-down urban areas, move faster to implement the plan for granting urban residency to 100 million people without urban household registration living in urban areas, support the demand of urban residents for buying a second home if their first homes are inadequate, and ensure well-regulated development of the housing rental market.

In line with the principle that "houses are for habitation not speculation," we will exercise regulation on a per-category basis, implement place-based policies in different cities, and fully utilize financial, land, fiscal, tax, and investment policies as well as legislation, so as to accelerate efforts to establish a sound permanent mechanism for ensuring the steady and healthy development of the real estate industry and keep housing prices from rising too quickly in popular cities. In working toward establishing policy-backed financial institutions specializing in housing, we will carry out research on reforming the housing provident fund system; and we will support people's demand for housing for personal use.

3) We will lower leverage ratios of enterprises in a proactive yet prudent manner.

By means of merger, restructuring, and bankruptcy, we will promote a clearing out of zombie enterprises. We will encourage banks, relevant institutions, and enterprises to carry out market-based debt-to-equity swaps on the basis of negotiations between themselves. We will develop equity financing, broaden its financing channels, and place tighter constraints on the leveraging activities of enterprises.

4) We will continue to implement a full range of measures for reducing costs in the real economy.

We will further simplify approval procedures, overhaul or abolish irregular fees charged by administrative review intermediaries, and reduce unreasonably high intermediary and evaluation fees so as to lower the transaction costs of enterprises imposed by the government. Efforts will be enhanced to cut taxes, fees, and the costs of factors of production;greatly reduce non-tax burdens; lower financing costs, enterprise energy and land-use costs, and logistics costs; increase the flexibility of the labor market; and encourage enterprises to tap internal potential for reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

We will intensify efforts to review and regulate fees and charges related to enterprises; implement preferential policies to reduce taxes and fees levied on them; cut the number of service fees for which pricing is set by the government; further review and regulate government-managed funds, administrative charges, and business service fees; and work to lower fees and charges related to financial and railway freight services levied on enterprises. In addition, we will create new oversight systems for fees and charges related to enterprises and tighten oversight over those business service fees for which pricing is market-based. We will redouble efforts to review security deposits in the construction industry.

5) We will bolster points of weakness in a more targeted and effective fashion.

We will moderately increase investment from the central government budget and improve its structure, channeling it toward key areas such as poverty alleviation, agriculture, weak links in post-disaster water conservancy recovery and reconstruction, hard and soft infrastructure, and the enhancement of innovation capacity. We will comprehensively advance the 165 major projects set out in the 13th Five-Year Plan.

2. We will intensify supply-side structural reform in the agricultural sector.

We will improve the industrial, production, and operational systems in the agricultural sector, step up efforts to foster new drivers for agricultural and rural development, and take serious measures to facilitate standardized production, brand building, and supervision over the quality and safety of agricultural products, with a view to raising the quality and performance of the agricultural sector and to ensuring its sustainable development. In 2017, total grain output will stand at over 550 million metric tons.

1) We will work toward a sound, smooth, and optimal agricultural structure.

We will facilitate the development of production centers for major agricultural products such as grain, cotton, oilseed, sugar crops, and natural rubber, support standardized, large-scale livestock and aquaculture farming, and step up the construction of national seed cultivation and production centers and the development of projects for breeding superior varieties within crop, livestock, and aquaculture farming.

In addition to comprehensively implementing policies for providing special protection to permanent basic cropland, we will establish and develop functional zones for grain production and protective areas for the production of major agricultural products. We will formulate the plan for boosting the production of local agricultural products in areas with unique advantages, and continue with the trials to replace grain crop cultivation with feed crop cultivation and soybean cultivation. The production of corn kernel in inferior production areas will continue to be reduced and the production of high-quality forage crops, such as corn silage and alfalfa, will be expanded. We will stabilize the production of hogs and push for an optimal layout in this regard, and will increase the quality of dairy products. Production for aquaculture products will be reduced while the efficiency will be increased, and conservation efforts will be made on the Yangtze River and other key water bodies to protect aquatic organism resources.

For agricultural products, we will promote standardized production and brand development and protection, and will work to ensure quality and safety. We will carry forward crop-rotation and fallow-land trials, and promote the adoption of fallow periods for cropland and grassland and fishing moratoriums for rivers and lakes. We will carry out the initiative to achieve zero growth in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and advance safe disposal and recycling of waste from livestock and poultry farming. We will undertake trials for creating a circular economy in the agricultural sector, develop hybrid industry-agriculture circular economy demonstration zones and centers, and establish pilot and demonstration zones for sustainable agricultural development.

2) We will continue to enhance agricultural and rural infrastructure.

We will move ahead with the development of 172 major water conservancy projects, and work to make a start on 15 more. Accelerated efforts will be made to develop high-grade cropland, farmland irrigation and water conservancy, and the modern seed industry, as well as large-scale livestock farms, storage and logistics facilities for grain and edible oil, and public-welfare wholesale markets for agricultural products. We will also work faster to consolidate and build on the achievements made in ensuring safe drinking water in rural areas.

Trials will be launched to apply the PPP model to the farming and forestry industries. We will carry out initiatives to promote the use of new energy in rural areas, support the development of information infrastructure and efficient water-saving irrigation facilities in rural areas with weak infrastructure in the central and western regions, and accelerate efforts to improve logistics networks for counties, townships, and villages.

3) We will step up innovations in agricultural science and technology.

We will promote the raising of better quality, specific, and healthy crop varieties and livestock breeds, strive to develop and apply green and efficient technologies for farming and breeding, and support technological transformation of the food and other processing industries. A number of major agricultural laboratories and national agricultural science research stations will be developed. We will improve incentive mechanisms for innovations in agricultural science and technology, and move ahead with trial reforms for allowing agricultural scientists to receive greater benefits for their scientific achievements. We will further reform the system for applying agricultural technology in villages, explore new mechanisms for allowing public institutions and agricultural technicians to engage in for-profit services, and facilitate the reduction of costs and energy consumption and the enhancement of efficiency to bolster agricultural growth.

We will launch initiatives that ensure intelligent agriculture leads China's agricultural modernization, fully implement the project to bring information technology to villages and rural households, and expand trials and demonstrations for the application of the Internet of Things in the agricultural sector.

4) We will develop new industries and new forms of business in rural areas.

We will advance pilot and demonstration projects for integrating rural industries, channel secondary and tertiary industries toward county seats, key towns and townships, and industrial parks, and begin building modern agricultural industrial parks that integrate production, processing, and science and technology. We will support eligible agricultural enterprises in issuing corporate bonds and launching projects for integrated development of rural industries.

We will implement the three-year action plan for Internet Plus modern agriculture, and establish comprehensive demonstrations for introducing e-commerce into rural areas. We will promote in-depth integration of agriculture with the tourism, cultural, fitness, and elderly-care industries. Development will be pursued in a host of towns and villages that brings together industry, culture, and tourism, secures simultaneous improvements in working, living, and ecological conditions, and fully integrates the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries.

5) We will press ahead with agricultural and rural reform.

A proactive yet prudent approach will be adopted in promoting reforms of the price-setting mechanism for grain and other important agricultural products as well as the system for their purchase and storage. We will continue to implement and improve the policy for setting minimum state-purchase prices for rice and wheat, and make appropriate adjustments to minimum purchase prices, so as to ensure a rational ratio of minimum purchase prices to market prices. We will enhance the price-setting mechanism for corn in the northeast that combines market-based purchase prices and supplementary government subsidies, and reduce excess stockpiles of policy-supported grain in a steady and orderly manner. We will improve the policy for guaranteeing base prices for cotton and adjust the pricing policy for soybeans. Improvements will be made to the system of agricultural subsidies, ensuring that relevant reforms are oriented toward green development and ecological progress. Comprehensive reform of pricing for water used in agriculture will be advanced across the board.

Reform of the rural collective property-rights system will be deepened to clearly identify rural collective property rights and to grant rural residents more adequate property rights. We will reform the mechanism for ensuring budgetary support for agriculture and work to merge rural-development funds. We will implement measures for separating land ownership rights, contract rights, and management rights for contracted rural land. We will make overall arrangements to carry out trial reforms with regard to rural land requisition, the marketization of rural collective land designated for commercial construction, and the system for rural residential land. We will cultivate new types of agribusiness and agricultural service providers, and promote the development of suitably scaled-up operations of land in diversified forms.

A catastrophe insurance scheme will be introduced in some regions for farmers whose operations are suitably scaled-up. We will improve the agricultural reinsurance system and ensure sustainable and sound agricultural insurance schemes provide strong support for the development of modern agriculture.

3. We will continue to tap the potential of domestic demand.

We will lay emphasis on tapping demand through innovative forms of supply and consolidating the foundation of domestic demand.

On the one hand, we will work to expand and upgrade consumer spending.

We will continue to advance the Ten Initiatives for Boosting Consumer Spending; respond to new trends in consumer demand; promote reform and innovation so as to increase effective supply to consumers, especially in service and green industries; and keep consumption growing steadily. Total retail sales of consumer goods are expected to increase by around 10% in 2017.

Restrictions on entry into service industries will be loosened and regulation over investment in the social domain will be relaxed. We will work to develop emerging areas of consumption such as combined medical and care services for the elderly, cultural & creative industries, and all-for-one tourism, and support nongovernmental participants in providing educational,cultural, elderly care, and medical services. Efforts will be made to promote consumption of information goods and services in areas such as digital homes, online education, and virtual reality. We will launch campaigns to speed up innovations in domestic commodity distribution, promote supply-side structural reform, and boost consumer spending. We will promote the integrated development of brick-and-mortar stores and online shopping.

China time-honored brands will be protected and carried forward. We will ensure that more domestically sold products come off the same production lines, meet the same standards, and are of the same quality as export products. We will work to achieve robust development in cold-chain logistics. Sound systems will be established to ensure the quality and safety standards of food and medicine and to allow for product traceability. Pricing oversight will be intensified and law enforcement will be stepped up to tackle monopolistic pricing so as to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

We will enhance incentive-based income distribution reform, implement incentive plans for key groups, and carry out trials for comprehensive and coordinated policies on increasing urban and rural incomes.

專欄14：促進居民消費升級 新華社發

On the other hand, we will make targeted efforts to increase effective investment.

We will enhance efforts to bolster weaknesses in key areas and links in need of attention, so as to increase effective investment and effective supply. Total fixed-asset investment is projected to increase by around 9.0% in 2017. Investment from the central government budget is expected to be 507.6 billion yuan for the year; these funds will be channeled toward major strategic initiatives, major projects, and key construction tasks.

We will also work to stimulate private investment, earnestly implementing policies to provide encouragement and support, and further relaxing restrictions on the entry of private capital into competitive operations of basic telecommunications, exploration and exploitation of oil and gas, and defense-related science and technology. New modes of investment and financing will be created. In addition, we will continue to standardize and apply the PPP model, selecting and going ahead with projects that have adequate cash flow and expectations of steady returns. With a view to enhancing regulation over investment, we will develop new inspection and regulation methods, carry out comprehensive online monitoring, and intensify field inspections.

4. Continuing to deepen reforms in major areas and key sectors

We will work to ensure that reform measures which have been already issued are fully implemented so as to give better expression to the leading role of reform.

1) We will press ahead with reforms to streamline administration, delegate more powers, improve regulation, and provide better services.

We will cancel the requirement for government review for another group of matters, and thoroughly review and accordingly adjust manufacturing and operating permits. We will target related or similar matters and simultaneously delegate the power or cancel the government-review requirement for all of them. We will draw up a pre-business registration list for items requiring government approval and a post-business registration list for permitted operations, roll all licenses and certificates which must not be cancelled into one unified business license, and expand trial reforms to separate operating permits and business licenses.

The oversight model drawing on inspections of randomly selected entities by randomly selected inspectors and the public release of inspection results will be implemented across the board, and the reform for coordinated law enforcement will be advanced. We will strive to implement the Internet Plus government services model, and carry out a campaign to cut down on requirements for administrative certification so as to ensure greater convenience for the people. In line with the requirements for unified registration agencies, register books, bases for registration, and information platforms, we will expand the scope of the unified system for determining and registering immovable property rights, and will work to put in place a corresponding nationwide information platform.

2) We will deepen reform of SOEs, state capital, and key industries.

The reform to introduce corporate system in SOEs will be basically completed. A corporate governance structure that ensures effective checks and balances and a market operation mechanism that is highly efficient and flexible will be put in place. We will quicken the pace of trials to establish state capital investment and management companies, advance the pilot reforms to introduce a mixed ownership structure in electricity, petroleum, natural gas, railway, civil aviation, telecommunications, defense, and other sectors, and support private enterprises in participating in the reform of SOEs.

We will step up efforts to advance structural reforms in the electricity, petroleum,and natural gas sectors, adopting a methodical approach to lifting restrictions on the generation and industrial consumption of electricity and increasing the level of market-based transactions. We will proceed in an orderly manner with appropriately relaxing controls over competitive operations such as petroleum and natural-gas exploration and exploitation, and improve the petroleum and natural-gas import and export management system. Mechanisms regarding the reserve and oversight of salt will be improved.

3) We will deepen reform of the investment and financing systems.

We will implement the guidelines on deepening reform of the investment and financing systems, the regulations for managing the approval and recording of enterprise-funded projects, and the catalog of investment projects requiring government review (2016). The regulations on government investment and the measures for managing the approval and recording of enterprise-funded projects will be issued.

We will support certain localities and sectors in piloting mechanisms which allow investment projects to proceed on the basis of an undertaking submitted by enterprises to government. We will carry out trials for financial institutions to become enterprise shareholders, and improve the mechanisms whereby institutional funds, such as insurance funds, invest in projects.

4) We will deepen price reform.

We will basically complete nationwide reform of electricity-transmission and -distribution prices on provincial-level grids, with all prices being made available to the public. We will initiate trial price reforms for electricity transmission and distribution through regional power grids in the northeast and northwest, set prices for electricity distribution through local and newly-built power grids, and promote market-based pricing for the generation and supply of electricity where conditions allow. Improvements will be made to the pricing mechanisms and subsidy measures for new energy. We will set prices for natural gas transmission through trans-provincial pipelines. We will press ahead with price reform of medical services, advancing across the board price reforms of medical care and medicine in urban public hospitals and charging for medical treatment according to illness type.

5) We will develop a market based on fair competition.

In implementing the guidelines on improving the property rights protection system and ensuring law-based protection of property rights, we will redouble efforts to strengthen systems in this regard. We will enhance the vitality of the private sector, and work to develop a new relationship between government and business. We will issue and implement guidelines on nurturing and protecting entrepreneurialism. We will fully implement the review system to ensure fair competition, and resolutely prevent the promulgation of any policies and measures that eliminate or stifle competition. We will strictly investigate and prosecute major and typical antitrust cases, and work to prevent and curb monopolistic practices. Work on establishing the social credit system will be moved forward. We will put in place a nationally unified system for sharing information on credit, and extend to more areas the mechanism to provide joint incentives to those who act in good faith and to take joint punitive actions against those who act in bad faith.

專欄15：產權保護與企業家精神 新華社發

6) We will steadily advance reform of the fiscal, tax, and financial systems.

We will work faster to carry forward the reform to appropriately divide fiscal authority and spending responsibilities between the central and local governments. We will also draw up an overall plan for revenue sharing between the central and local governments. We will improve local tax systems and regulate the debt financing activities of local governments.

We will prudently advance reform of the financial oversight system, and improve the macro-prudential regulation system for the financial sector. The market-based mechanism for setting the RMB exchange rate will be further improved. We will refine the governance structure of state-owned commercial banks, deepen reform of the multilevel capital market system, move ahead with revising the Securities Law, and improve reform of the stock issuance system. We will accelerate development of modern insurance services.

5. Focusing on revitalizing the real economy

We will remain committed to ensuring innovation drives development forward, prioritize improving quality and core competitiveness, and ensure brand development leads the way in industrial upgrading. We will enhance overall capacity for making innovations and accelerate the development of new drivers of growth, the growth of new industries, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and the replacement of old drivers of growth with new ones.

1) We will work faster to foster and develop new drivers for economic growth.

We will work to deliver decisive progress in pilot reforms for all-around innovation in eight areas. Policies will be introduced to foster and develop new drivers of growth and regulate internet market access. We will support and guide the development of the sharing economy to enable greater efficiency in the use of resources. We will establish a consultation system for national decisions on science and technology, reform the evaluation systems for science and technology, coordinate efforts to advance reform of the management of central government-funded science and technology initiatives and their funding, and pilot profit distribution policies oriented toward strengthening the value ascribed to knowledge.

We will increase investment for the construction of information, civil-space, and major science-and-technology infrastructure; support the establishment of comprehensive national science centers in Huairou in Beijing, Zhangjiang in Shanghai, and Hefei in Anhui; finish building a group of industrial innovation centers; and promote the establishment of a nationally unified system of big data centers. We will continue developing national innovation demonstration areas, intensify efforts to promote collaborative innovation, expand regional trials and demonstrations for the commercialization and application of scientific and technological advances, and build innovation demonstration zones for the National Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Major national science and technology projects will continue, and major projects of the Sci-Tech Innovation 2030 Agenda will be launched. National laboratories for major fields of innovation and a group of national technological innovation centers will be built. We will support the establishment of science and technology innovation centers in Beijing and Shanghai. Additional demonstration centers for entrepreneurship and innovation as well as maker spaces for specialized crowd innovation will also be opened.

We will undertake activities to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation among research institutes, enterprises, and social organizations, and will roll out a range of strong measures that focus on tackling those bottlenecks that are stifling the market-based operation of platforms for entrepreneurship and innovation and that are hindering the cultivation of entrepreneurial personnel. We will make good use of government funds for guiding venture capital to promote its sustained and sound development. We will work to further strengthen the brands of the National Week for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Innovating China Tour so as to build a sustainable, positive environment for entrepreneurship and innovation.

2) We will work to promote the continued and sound development of emerging industries.

In order to strengthen strategic emerging industries, we will set up the National Strategic Industry Development Fund, and utilize market-based means to carry out a group of systemic projects that give full play to the principal role of enterprises in cutting-edge and strategically important fields, such as new materials, new energy, artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, biomedicine, and 5G mobile networks. We will press ahead with the "Internet Plus" and big data initiatives, and integrate the development of the internet, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing with economic and social development. We will further boost broadband speeds and lower rates for internet services so as to reduce the costs of innovation and business startup and support industrial upgrading. We will strengthen the innovation-driven, integrated development of the military and civilian sectors by advancing the development of major demonstration programs for military-civilian integration in space, marine, cyberspace, and other fields.

3) We will help accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.

The Made in China 2025 initiative will be further implemented. We will launch campaigns to improve product quality and branding within the equipment manufacturing industry, to enhance product variety and quality and create name brands in the consumer goods industry, to strengthen service-embedded manufacturing, and to further integrate the internet into the manufacturing industry. We will work to ensure quality standards for manufacturing improve, carrying out extensive quality improvement activities and ensuring stronger all-around quality management.

We will consolidate the technological foundations for ensuring product quality and tighten quality supervision. We will promote workmanship, foster a culture of workmanship, and refine related incentive mechanisms. We will strive to see Chinese workers exemplify workmanship and Chinese brands enjoy international recognition.

We will press ahead with development of national demonstration zones for smart manufacturing as well as manufacturing innovation centers. We will continue to implement projects to promote green manufacturing, strengthen the foundations of industry, and spur innovation in high-end equipment manufacturing. We will strengthen the foundations of industry and continue to help implement the packages of major projects aimed at promoting transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, with a focus on supporting 10 major projects, including those to promote smart-technology upgrades by enterprises, improve basic capacity, advance green manufacturing, and develop high-end equipment. We will work to promote transformation and upgrading of the automobile industry. The plan to upgrade national demonstration centers for new industrialization will be put into action. We will promote the transformation and upgrading of raw materials, transportation, energy, and other basic industries with a view to expediting the development of modern comprehensive transportation systems, and implementing the strategy for revolutionizing energy generation and consumption.

4) We will advance innovation-driven development of the service economy.

Guidelines on the innovation-driven development of the service economy will be worked out, and a new round of comprehensive trial reforms will be undertaken to accelerate the development of new types and models of business in the service sector. We will carry out dedicated campaigns to bolster points of weakness in the service sector with a focus on improving quality, promoting standardized development, and providing better IPR services. We will continue to implement projects to promote innovation in high-tech services.

6. Utilizing the Three Initiatives to pursue coordinated and integrated development between regions.

Making full use of the comparative strengths of each region, we will adopt differentiated policies to promote their development, and accelerate efforts to cultivate new growth axes and growth belts.

1) We will effectively carry out the Three Initiatives.

We will put into practice the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the conference on developing the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Focusing on key areas, pivotal countries, and signature projects, we will proactively engage in practical collaboration and implement cooperation agreements and plans.

A combination of relocations and restrictions will be used in working to relieve Beijing of functions non-essential to its role as capital. We will work to coordinate and accelerate the planning and building of Beijing's sub-administrative center as well as other platforms for accommodating relocated functions. We will continue to strive for breakthroughs in the three key areas of transportation, ecological conservation, and industry, while also strengthening the three key pillars of innovation, reform, and pilot projects. We will promote the joint development and sharing of basic public services, and support comprehensive trials for deeper reform and greater opening up of Beijing's service sector.

With a continued focus on ecological conservation and green development, we will move ahead with projects to improve the water environment, restore water ecosystems, and conserve water resources in building the Yangtze Economic Belt. We will work to ensure ease of navigation on waterways, connectivity between transportation hubs, integrated river-ocean transportation, and simplified customs clearance procedures. We will advance major projects for the Yangtze golden watercourse initiative and establish a negative-list management system.

2) We will work to improve the layout of regional development.

We will fully carry out the plan for the large-scale development of the western region during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, shoring up weak links in infrastructure, promoting ecological conservation, and accelerating the transformation and upgrading of competitive industries that draw on local strengths.

We will fully implement a new round of major policies and plans aimed at revitalizing the northeast and other old industrial bases. We will also put into action the plan for the revitalization of the northeast during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, establish cooperative partnerships between provinces and municipalities in the northeast and in the eastern region, and step up support for the relocation or rebuilding of old industrial areas within cities and independent industrial and mining areas as well as for comprehensive efforts to improve the conditions of areas affected by mining-induced subsidence.

We will ensure full implementation of the plan for the rise of the central region during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, accelerate the development of the eco-economic belts along the Han and Huai rivers, and ensure smooth operation of the experimental zone for comprehensive reform to promote sustainable development in Shanxi.

We will support the eastern region in increasing the pace as it spearheads economic transformation and development, and work to further leverage its role as a model and leader of reform and innovation.

We will enhance domestic and international regional cooperation in a coordinated way, support the development of major function platforms, and work hard to coordinate land and marine development.

We will accelerate the building of infrastructure and public service facilities in old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas, and contiguous poor areas; all these efforts will be incorporated into major national development strategies. We will continue to support the development of Tibet and Xinjiang, and the Tibetan ethnic areas in the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and Qinghai, providing greater central government support as well as paired assistance.

專欄16：優化區域發展格局 新華社發

3) We will steadily drive forward New Urbanization.

With a focus on increasing the number of urban residents, we will deepen reform of the household registration system, work to achieve full coverage of the residence certification system, and bring people with rural household registration living in cities under the housing provident scheme in a well-ordered way, so as to raise the overall quality of urbanization. We will move faster to formulate city-cluster development plans for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao greater bay area, the western shore of the Taiwan Straits, the Guanzhong Plains region, and the Hohhot-Baotou-Ordos-Yulin region. In addition, we will launch the national initiative to develop principal cities and elevate eligible counties and very large towns into cities in an orderly manner. Efforts will be made to integrate various types of local urban plans into a single master plan to ensure better urban planning and design. We will accelerate the upgrading and building of municipal infrastructure, step up work relating to urban geological surveys, steadily move ahead with the construction of urban utility tunnels and the comprehensive management of underground pipelines and cables, and take effective measures to deal with traffic congestion and other urban maladies.

We will do more to see that beautiful small towns and cities with unique features and beautiful villages are developed. We will leverage the leading role of New Urbanization to spur on the building of a new countryside and the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas and will coordinate efforts to relocate people from inhospitable areas with the advancement of New Urbanization.

圖表12：常住人口城鎮化率 新華社發

7. Promoting deeper, higher-level bidirectional opening up

We will enhance overall coordination and planning, particularly between efforts at home and abroad; integrate efforts to further open up, improve services, and enhance regulation; and strive to carve out new competitive edges in international markets.

1) We will deliver more concrete results in developing the Belt and Road.

We will accelerate the development of the six major international economic cooperation corridors, ensure the smooth construction and operation of important ports such as Gwadar, Piraeus, and Hambantota, steadily push ahead with the high-speed railway projects to connect Jakarta and Bandung in Indonesia and Moscow and Kazan in Russia, as well as the railway projects to connect China and Laos, China and Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, and Hungary and Serbia, and further strengthen the brand of China-Europe freight train services. We will strive to make a great success of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

We will actively advance concrete international cooperation on industrial capacity, build up a reserve of projects, and establish demonstration zones, so as to promote Chinese equipment, technology, standards, and services in going global. Efforts will be stepped up to develop the China-Belarus Industrial Park, the China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park, and other overseas economic-trade and industrial parks. We will continue to build cross-border (border-area) economic cooperation zones and promote cooperation on developing the Online Silk Road. We will increase personal and cultural exchange and cooperation in education, science and technology, culture, health, and tourism.

2) We will work to sustain the steady recovery and growth of foreign trade.

We will implement and improve policies for promoting foreign trade, give full play to the role of export-credit insurance, and ensure export financing insurance is provided for all complete sets of equipment that are insurable. A seed fund will be set up to encourage innovation in the development of services trade. We will proceed with trials in market purchases trade and in the development of enterprises that provide comprehensive foreign trade services, and promote the export of competitive agricultural products. We will work faster to build demonstration centers for transformation and upgrading of foreign trade. We will encourage the processing trade to extend toward the high end of the industrial chain and to gradually relocate to the central and western regions.

We will increase trade facilitation by ensuring that both the Single Window System for international trade is implemented and customs clearance procedures are integrated nationwide. The import of advanced technology and equipment and key spare parts and components will be increased. We will advance negotiations on establishing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and continue to advance the building of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. We will properly handle trade frictions and safeguard China's legitimate rights and interests.

3) We will further improve the business environment for foreign investment.

We will issue and implement the measures for greater opening up to and dynamic use of foreign capital, the revised Catalog of Industries for Foreign Investment, and the Catalog of Industries with Local Strengths in the Central and Western Regions for Foreign Investment, so as to ensure more areas are opened up and procedures are streamlined. We will take a more proactive approach to building pilot free trade zones; focusing on priority tasks and weak links, we will continue to explore ways to deepen reform and work to produce more institutional innovations that can be replicated. We will improve the system for managing the foreign debt of foreign-funded enterprises. China's non-financial foreign direct investment for 2017 is projected to be similar to that of last year.

4) We will guide healthy and orderly development of outbound investment.

We will make the reviews for verifying the authenticity of outbound investment more stringent, draw up a blacklist in this regard, introduce a system of capital contribution requirements for SOEs' outward investment, and work to prevent outward investment from rising excessively fast. We will refine the service system and policies for promoting outward investment, and provide guidance to ensure Chinese businesses go global in a well-regulated and orderly manner. China's non-financial outward direct investment in 2017 is projected to be roughly the same as last year.

圖表13：非金融類外商直接投資和境外直接投資 新華社發

8. Working faster to advance green development

We will intensify efforts to deliver ecological progress, take comprehensive measures to promote resource conservation, increase the supply of green products, and bring about an all-around improvement in the quality of the environment, so as to ensure the building of a Beautiful China proceeds at a faster pace.

1) We will deepen structural reform for promoting ecological progress.

We will work proactively to establish national pilot zones for ecological progress. Trials will be carried out to improve the national natural resource asset management system. All-around efforts will be made to establish and strictly enforce red lines for ecological conservation. We will push ahead with reform of the system for payment-based use of state-owned natural resource assets, and formulate provisional measures for auditing outgoing officials' management of these assets.

Evaluations will be conducted to assess performance in relation to ecological conservation targets, and provincial-level green growth indicators for 2016 will be published. We will strive to achieve nationwide coverage of central government environmental inspections, and advance trials for reforming the system that places the monitoring, supervision, and law enforcement activities of environmental bodies below the provincial level directly under the leadership of provincial-level environmental bodies. We will move forward with the efforts to reform the compensation system for ecological and environmental damage, improve the green finance system, and issue more bonds for launching eco-friendly initiatives.

2) We will improve the functional zoning system.

Guidelines will be formulated to improve the functional zoning strategy and system. Work will begin on revising both the national plan for functional zoning and the corresponding plans of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government. We will move faster to promote trials on provincial-level spatial planning, and also issue guidelines on the formulation of prefecture- and county-level spatial plans. We will draw up technical standards for enforcing red lines for ecological conservation, setting the threshold for environmental quality, imposing a ceiling on resource utilization, and implementing a negative list of environmental standards for market access, and will see that environmental impact assessments for strategies and plans are put in place.

We will draw up an overall plan for establishing a national park system. We will work out guidelines on creating long-term monitoring and early-warning mechanisms for environmental and resource carrying capacity, and begin monitoring and early-warning work along the Yangtze Economic Belt. Negative lists of industries will be strictly implemented for key ecosystem service zones. Supporting policies for establishing marine functional zones will be produced. We will also begin work on formulating provincial-level land plans.

3) We will ensure more effective use of resources.

The overall work plan for energy conservation and emissions reduction during the 13th Five-Year Plan period will be put into effect. We will work to curb the total amount and intensity of energy, water, and land consumption; launch the Nation of Energy Savers Initiative, the "100-1,000-10,000" energy conservation program*, and the Frontrunner Program for Energy Conservation; drive forward trials on paying for and trading energy-use rights; and implement the project to promote the integration and optimization of the energy mix, so as to ensure less water, wind, and solar power lies idle.

We will get everyone saving water, put in place a water efficiency labeling scheme, and redouble our efforts to utilize alternative water resources. We will launch an initiative to guide circular development, formulate the Internet Plus Resource Recycling Action Plan, promote circular operations within industrial parks, and support the establishment of demonstration centers for the resource recycling industry and centers for the comprehensive use of waste.

* The 100-1,000-10,000 energy conservation program aims to put the top 100 energy consuming enterprises in China under regulation of the central government, the top 1,000 energy consuming enterprises under the regulation of their respective provincial-level governments, and a further 10,000 plus high-energy consuming enterprises under the regulation of lower-level governments.

4) We will strengthen environmental governance and ecological conservation.

We will fully implement the major action plans for addressing air, water, and soil pollution. Every effort will be made to tackle air pollution; we will strengthen early-warning mechanisms for severe air pollution and ensure that tougher measures are implemented to prevent and control air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, that efforts to cut coal consumption, replace it with alternative energy, and prevent and control its pollution are made in key areas and cities - including in and around the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta - that more clean energy sources are used for winter heating across northern China, and that comprehensive measures are taken to ensure cleaner use of coal in non-industrial sectors and to substitute coal with electricity or natural gas in more than 3 million households.

We will put in place an early-warning and integrated-oversight system for the prevention and control of water pollution, formulate the plan for the prevention and control of water pollution in key water basins during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, and implement the program to advance ecological conservation and environmental protection along the Yangtze Economic Belt. New systems and mechanisms to manage and protect rivers and lakes will be established and the river chief system will be implemented across the board.

Pilot and demonstration projects will be carried out to move ahead with all-around ecological restoration in cities. We will make greater efforts to improve black, malodorous water bodies in cities, and increase the overall effectiveness of urban sewage treatment and recycling facilities. We will encourage key cities to carry out mandatory household waste classification and to move faster in building facilities for sorting, collecting, transporting, and disposing of waste. We will steadily advance the emissions permit system, and carry out demonstrations for sorting and recycling rural household waste in about 100 counties. We will establish an environmental management system for fixed pollution sources which is based on emissions permits, and strictly control the total amount of sewage dumped into rivers.

We will actively promote third-party participation in pollution control. An in-depth survey will be carried out throughout the country to assess the situation in relation to soil contamination, legislative work on the Law on Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution will be sped up, and standards for the quality of soil environments on agricultural land and construction land will be formulated or revised. We will ensure that emissions of all industrial polluters stay within emissions standards.

We will build national ecological security shields, push ahead with large-scale afforestation, and implement projects for ecological conservation and restoration in mountains, water bodies, and forests, and on farmland as well as major biodiversity protection projects. We will move ahead with the projects to return marginal farmland to forest or grassland and return grazing land to grassland, develop forest shelterbelts, protect natural forests, and comprehensively tackle soil erosion.

We will put in place pilot and demonstration programs to advance the comprehensive governance and sustainable development of the water environment in water basins, and will promote the return of cultivated land to wetland and the reduction of mudflat aquaculture so as to restore mudflat ecosystems. Strict control and oversight will be imposed over coastal reclamation activities. Remote sensing systems will be established in nature reserves to strengthen oversight.

5) We will proactively respond to climate change.

A national market for carbon emissions rights will be put into operation. We will move quicker to carry out the low-carbon pilot and demonstration programs as well as the trials for developing climate resilient cities. We will actively participate and play a guiding role in the follow-up negotiations of the Paris Agreement, make every effort to promote climate diplomacy, and ensure efforts are carried out at home to fulfill our promises in the Agreement. We will continue to promote international dialogue and effective cooperation, and strengthen South-South cooperation on climate change.

9. Doing more to safeguard and improve people's wellbeing

Better coordination will be achieved between the efforts to improve people's wellbeing and those to develop the economy. We will strive to make the social safety net tighter and sturdier, and to improve the standard and quality of public services, so that our people's sense of benefit continues to grow.

1) We will put every effort into fighting poverty.

We will consolidate and build on our achievements made in the fight against poverty so far and speed up implementation of key poverty alleviation projects, such as relocating people from inhospitable areas, supporting the development of local industries, and providing job-seeking assistance. We will boost efforts to carry out work-relief programs, and will support the development in poor areas of infrastructure and basic public services, such as transportation, water conservancy, education, health care and family planning, cultural services, and social security.

We will work on policies and measures to help people in border regions eliminate poverty and achieve moderate prosperity with a view to stabilizing and consolidating our frontier. We will support development and poverty relief work in old revolutionary base areas, such as the Sichuan-Shaanxi region and the former Central Soviet areas in southern Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong. We will prudently carry out the pilot poverty-relief reform which enables people in poor areas to share in the proceeds from the exploitation of local hydropower and mineral resources. We will make further efforts to fight poverty by providing access to and improving financial services, health care, education, transportation, and e-commerce, and by developing the tourism industry in local areas; in addition, we will provide support and assistance to people who have been driven into, or have fallen back into, poverty because of medical expenses. Provincial-level trials to use internet-based initiatives to alleviate poverty will be carried out.

2) We will fully implement the strategy of prioritizing employment.

Priority groups will continue to receive support in starting businesses and finding jobs. Initiatives will be implemented to promote employment for college graduates, to guide them in starting businesses, and to encourage them to work at community level; and efforts will be made to see that demobilized military personnel are resettled in new jobs. We will further expand trials to provide support for migrant workers and others who return to their hometown to set up businesses, with a focus on creating industrial clusters in local areas for these returnees, promoting rural e-commerce, and reducing overcapacity and developing alternative industries. We will properly resettle and provide reemployment services for people laid off due to the scaling down of overcapacity in the coal and steel industries. We will develop and improve community-based employment service facilities and public vocational training centers, and strengthen employment assistance, thereby boosting the capacity of public employment services.

3) We will strengthen social security so as to better meet people's basic needs.

We will work to reform and improve the basic old-age insurance system. Integration of the medical insurance schemes for rural and non-working urban residents will be stepped up. Pilot programs on long-term care insurance and the integration of maternity insurance with the basic medical insurance for urban workers will come into operation. We will coordinate the development of social assistance systems.

The housing system will be improved to encourage both buying and renting and to ensure the continuous improvement of housing conditions for both low- and middle-income groups and people facing difficulties. In 2017, we will begin renovations on six million units of housing in run-down urban areas and continue to rebuild dilapidated houses in rural areas, with a focus on supporting subsistence allowance beneficiaries; rural residents who receive assistance because of extreme poverty and do not live in a nursing home; families of people with disabilities living in poverty; and registered poor households. We will continue to develop government-subsidized housing including public rental housing.

4) We will improve the system of basic public services.

We will implement the plan for ensuring equitable access to basic public services during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. The system for a list of basic public services will be established. We will reform the management of the higher education admission scheme. In 2017, regular institutions of higher learning are projected to enroll 7.35 million undergraduate students and 844,000 graduate students. We will strengthen efforts to develop more world-class universities and first-class fields of discipline.

We will press ahead with the comprehensive reform of public hospitals nationwide, fully launch the trials to establish diverse forms of medical consortiums, and set up assessment and incentive mechanisms for ensuring quality medical resources are shared between different levels of medical institutions. We will ensure governments' responsibility of ensuring basic health care is fulfilled. We will implement the program to ensure a healthy population, and boost the capacity of counties in the central and western regions to offer comprehensive medical and health care services, as well as the capacity of institutions for disease prevention and control and for maternal and child care. As the policy of allowing couples to have two children has come into effect, we will provide better medical and health services related to childbirth. We will support the law-based development of traditional Chinese medicine.

We will introduce and implement the plan for developing elderly services and building the elderly care system during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. We will improve the system for elderly services, and implement the plan to train elderly-care workers. We will introduce and carry out the national population development plan, and work to ensure the implementation of the policy of allowing couples to have two children. We will, more effectively, safeguard the rights and interests of women, minors, people with disabilities, and other social groups.

We will ensure more equitable access to basic public cultural services and help localities to implement the national standards for guiding the provision of basic public cultural services. We will encourage innovation in the ways of delivering public cultural services as well as private-sector participation in developing the system of public cultural services. We will ensure that philosophy and the social sciences flourish.

We will promote public fitness programs, and boost the popularity of community sports. We will move ahead with the plan for the long- and medium-term development of soccer in China as well as the plan for the construction of soccer fields and facilities.

Esteemed Deputies,

Accomplishing the work for economic and social development in 2017 is both a demanding and important task. We will unite even closer around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, take Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development as our guide, and fully implement the guidelines from General Secretary Xi Jinping's major political addresses as well as his new concepts, thoughts, and strategies on the governance of China. We will willingly accept the oversight of the NPC, and seek comments and suggestions from the CPPCC National Committee with an open mind. Let us pool our will and strength to promote reform and innovation, work hard to deliver a sound performance to overcome the difficulties ahead, and foster steady and sound economic and social development, so as to welcome the convocation of the 19th CPC National Congress with outstanding achievements.

Notes:

1. The 2016 Plan for National Economic and Social Development deliberated and passed at the Fourth Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress lists a total of 62 targets, of which 43 are anticipatory and 19 are obligatory. The 15 targets marked with a star mark are obligatory targets set forth in the Thirteenth Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China.

2. Anticipatory targets are development objectives that the government hopes to achieve and figures it expects to reach; however they are not compulsory targets, nor are they predicted figures. The actual figures may be higher or lower than projected. Obligatory targets are mandatory and binding; they represent the government's macro regulatory intentions, and must be achieved.

3. The performance of obligatory targets is assessed on the basis of whether or not they have been accomplished. A deviation of 10% from the projected figure is the standard used to assess the performance of anticipatory targets: if the actual figure exceeds the anticipatory figure by 10% or more, it is assessed as better than projected; if the actual figure falls short of the anticipatory figure by 10% or more, it is assessed as lower than projected; if the actual figure is higher or lower than the anticipatory figure by less than 10%, it is deemed to be as projected. However, these assessment standards are not applicable to targets that have a minimum or maximum limit. For example, the actual registered urban unemployment rate in 2016 was 4.02%, which falls short of the anticipatory target by more than 10%, but the assessment is still deemed to be as projected.

4. The figures marked with # are estimated figures for 2016; the actual figures will be confirmed following the final review and adjustments by relevant departments. Influenced by the adjustment of the base figures for 2015, the actual performance of some targets in 2016 may change somewhat.

(Source: Xinhua)