|
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.
Box 16: Better Layout of Regional Development
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.
Figure 12. Permanent Urban Residents as a Percentage of Total Population
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. (more)
