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3. Taking advantage of opportunities to move forward with economic restructuring and open wider to the outside world. We deepened reform of the grain distribution system and lifted all controls on the grain market. The reform of rural taxes and administrative charges entered a new stage of gradually phasing out the agricultural tax. Further progress was made in the reform of state-owned enterprises. A basic framework for the oversight and management system for state assets was established. The reform to turn state-owned commercial banks into stock companies progressed smoothly. The reform of rural credit cooperatives was extended to 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government. A plan for reforming the investment system was formulated and implemented. We comprehensively implemented measures to reform the export tax rebate mechanism, and we cleared up all old outstanding accounts and did not allow any new ones to emerge. The VAT reform was begun in the old industrial base of Northeast China on a trial basis. We intensified efforts to rectify and standardize the market order, strengthened the supervision of food and drug safety and the protection of intellectual property rights, and resolutely cracked down on the manufacture and sale of counterfeit and substandard goods, tax evasion and fraud, smuggling and other illegal and criminal activities.
To
fulfill the commitments we made when we joined the World Trade Organization
(WTO), we continued to lower tariffs and opened more areas to foreign
competition. We put into effect a revised Foreign Trade Law, lifted all controls
over the right to engage in foreign trade, instituted a "go global" strategy and
participated in regional economic cooperation. We smoothly implemented the
Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between the mainland and Hong Kong and
between the mainland and Macao. China utilized 60.6 billion US dollars in
foreign direct investment in 2004.
4.
Increasing policy support and government spending to stimulate the development
of all social undertakings. Governments at all levels increased their support
for science and technology, education, culture, health and sports. Spending for
these items amounted to 98.7 billion yuan from the central budget and 14.7
billion yuan from the sale of treasury bonds.
We
strengthened the national innovation system and infrastructure development for
basic research and for science and technology, as well as primary-level
scientific and technological work. Continued progress was made on a group of
major scientific and technological projects and the industrialization of new and
high technologies. We organized over 2,000 experts to study and discuss a number
of strategic issues bearing on the formulation of a national medium- and
long-term program for scientific and technological development.
A
new round of measures to implement the Action Plan for Invigorating Education
was smoothly introduced, and we started to implement the plan to make nine-year
compulsory education basically universal and to basically eliminate illiteracy
among young and middle-aged adults in the western region. We increased support
for compulsory education in poor rural areas, continued to renovate dangerous
primary and secondary school buildings in rural areas, and provided free
textbooks for more than 24 million students from poor rural families receiving
compulsory education in the central and western regions. The development of
vocational education was accelerated. Work in higher education was centered on
improving quality. The financial aid system for college students from poor
families was improved.
We accelerated the development of public health undertakings, focusing on building a national disease prevention and control system and a medical response system for public health emergencies. Construction on 1,410 county-level and 250 provincial- and city- (prefectural-) level disease prevention and control centers was basically completed, and construction on 290 emergency medical centers is underway. We intensified our work to prevent and control serious diseases. We put a lot of effort into building health facilities in rural areas. Pilot projects for a new system of rural cooperative medical and health care services progressed steadily. We adopted resolute measures to promptly halt the spread of highly pathogenic avian flu.
We
promoted reform of the cultural system and development of cultural undertakings
and strengthened supervision over the cultural market. Funds were appropriated
in the central budget to support the construction of 533 county-level libraries
and community centers, and radio and TV facilities in 40,000 villages. The
development of major state cultural projects and the protection of natural,
historical and cultural heritage sites were intensified. We had more cultural
exchanges with foreign countries. Recreational sports activities flourished. The
performances of Chinese athletes were outstanding at the 28th Olympics and the
12th Special Olympics.
We intensified our work relating to land and resources, environmental protection and ecological conservation. We strengthened protection of our arable land. Further progress was made in preventing and controlling pollution in key river valleys and regions. Positive results were obtained from trials of new ways of carrying out family planning work in rural areas.
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