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Premier Wen Jiabao
delivers gov't work report |
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Special: NPC & CPPCC annual sessions
BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China will gear down its
high-octane economy to a level lower than the stunning 9.5 percent registered in
2004, as Premier Wen Jiabao announced Saturday that the government targets an
"appropriate" 8-percent GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate this year.
It would be a "key job" for the government to keep
the world's fastest-growing economy developing on a "fast and stable" track, Wen
stressed in his government work report delivered at the opening of the annual
session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliament.
"Neither a big up nor down in the economy is
conducive to economic growth, reform and opening-up drive and social stability."
The premier reiterated governments at all levels
should engineer economic growth and social progress with a scientific outlook on
development, shifting the government's development philosophy from
growth-centered to people-centered.
"The interests of the broad masses should be put in
the first place," Wen Jiabao said through nationwide TV live broadcasting.
Twenty-six out of China's 31 provinces,
municipalities and autonomous regions have so far posted the abolishment of
agro-tax,a policy Wen set forth at last NPC session that benefits farmers at the
cost of the central government's fiscal revenues.
The NPC deputies burst into applause when the premier
announcedagro-tax will be exempted across the country by 2006, two years earlier
than the original timetable.
Farmers' earnings now lag behind city residents not
only in amount, but in growth rate -- being 7.7 percent for city dwellers and
6.8 percent for rural people last year.
"So what for a high GDP if the ordinary people's
wallets are 'shrunken' and the environment is poor?" Liang Tiecheng, a deputy
from the economically less-advantaged Inner Mongolia, told Xinhua on the
sidelines of the convention.
For urban residents, Wen vowed to create 9 million
new jobs this year after the country saw its registered urban unemployment rate
fall by an annualized one tenth of a percentage point to 4.2 percent by the end
of last year, a minor but first decrease in nearly a decade.
The central government will step up support for
building of a nationwide disease control and medical treatment system to cope
with emergency events like the SARS outbreak that killed hundreds in the
spring-summer of 2003.
Wen said in 2005 the government would typically set
aside 3 billion yuan (362.3 million US dollars) to aid the technical upgrading
work at state-owned coal mines. The premier called for local governments and
enterprises to shovel more money into the field.
A vice provincial governor was suspended following a
gas explosion at the Sunjiawan colliery near Fuxin, in northeast China's
Liaoning Province, that claimed 214 lives last month -- the country's worst
mining accident in decades.
TO AVERT A ROLLER-COASTER
China began 2004 amid serious worries that the
economy was dangerously overheated, with easy credit fueling production of
factory-gate goods and soaring investment in government infrastructure products.
Inflation rose at an alarming rate, hitting a peak of
5.3 percent last July and August.
Fixed asset investment, an indication of how much the
government is spending on major infrastructure projects, hit ten-year highs in
the January and March period, growing by 43 percent.
This prompted the central government to order
energy-saving measures and tell local officials to cut spending on pointless
prestige projects and unneeded factories, roads and other facilities.
A raft of market-based macro-control measures
including the first bank interest rate hike in nearly a decade were taken
beforered-hot investment growth was effectively curbed and the consumer price
index, a key barometer of inflation, slowed sharply to 1.9 percent last January
from an average 3.9 percent in 2004.
Macro-control should be "consolidated and upgraded"
as the outstanding problems in economic activities have yet to be "fundamentally
solved", though they have been "somewhat alleviated",Wen told the 2,904 deputies
present at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China's NPC Standing
Committee.
The premier reaffirmed the fiscal policy would swing
from "proactive" to "prudent", resulting in a 19.8 billion yuan (2.4 billion
dollars) reduction in fiscal deficit in 2005, dropping to 300 billion yuan (36.2
billion dollars).
Long-term treasury bonds to be issued will be 30
billion yuan (3.6 billion dollars) less than last year, continuing a dropping
streak to stand at just 80 billion yuan (9.7 billion dollars) in 2005.
The country began issuing such bonds in 1998 in a bid
to expandinvestment to stimulate the then slowing economic growth. But Wen said
that the current investment scale was already big and privatefunds had started
to flourish.
The parallel monetary policy would remain "prudent",
the premier said. The word "prudent" is interpreted by many economistsas being
more adaptable to economic environment -- neither solely expansive nor
contractive.
According to central bank sources earlier, new loans
from banksin China should not exceed a combined 2.5 trillion yuan (301.9 billion
dollars) this year.
Paired with strict approval for land use by
enterprises, creditcurbs would continue to a key measure to cool down the
economy. Wen Jiabao noted on Saturday.
Noting that China would keep the yuan "basically
stable" and maintain "basic balance" in international payments, Wen indicated
that in 2005 China would not revalue the yuan, which is tightly regulated and
trades only within a narrow range of around 8.28 yuan per US dollar.
Regulators, however, have been gradually lifting
restrictions on foreign exchange dealings by individuals and companies on the
back of booming economic and trade activities in the country.
Stepping out of the Great Hall, Xiao Zhuoji, a
prestigious economist with Beijing University, said to the reporters, "The
target for slower but still fast growth can definitely be achieved." He predicts
that an even higher 8.5-9 percent GDP increase couldbe materialized this year.
Xiao noted brisk consumer spending would be a key
engine to boost the economy after total retail sales hit a record high of more
than 5 trillion yuan (604 billion dollars) last year. Increasingly affluent
Chinese are spending more than ever on tourism, food, clothing and
entertainment. Enditem | 
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