Full Text: Report on the Work of the Government(2)

The following are the main work we accomplished over the past five years and its main features:

1. Effectively responding to the global financial crisis and promoting steady and rapid economic development

In the past five years, we averted the grievous consequences of the global financial crisis, whose abruptness, rapid spread and profound impact were rarely seen in the past century. We responded to the crisis calmly, made timely and decisive adjustments to the focus of macro-control, adopted ten measures to increase domestic demand and promote steady and rapid economic growth, and implemented a comprehensive package plan. In a two-year period, an additional four trillion yuan of government investment was made, with 1.26 trillion yuan from the central government, mainly for building government-subsidized housing, improving rural people's wellbeing, building infrastructure, developing social programs, improving the environment, promoting innovation, and carrying out post-disaster recovery and reconstruction.

Over the past five years:

More than 18 million government-subsidized housing units of various types were built, and over 12 million housing units in run-down areas were upgraded.

A total of 18,000 large and medium-sized and key small reservoirs were reinforced, 24,500 kilometers of key small and medium-length rivers were harnessed, and water-saving irrigated farmland was increased by 7.7 million hectares.

A total of 19,700 kilometers of new rail lines were built, 8,951 kilometers of which are high-speed railways.

The high-speed Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Guangzhou and Harbin-Dalian railways and a number of intercity railways were opened to traffic.

A total of 609,000 kilometers of new roads were built, 42,000 kilometers of which are expressways, increasing the total length of expressways in service to 95,600 kilometers.

Thirty-one airports and 602 shipping berths for 10,000-ton ships were built.

A number of bridges over rivers and bays and linking islands with other islands and the mainland were completed.

Smooth progress was made in major projects such as those for transporting natural gas and electricity from the west to the east and diverting water from the south to the north, and some of the projects have been completed.

Non-fossil energy production developed rapidly, and China now ranks first in the world in the installed capacity of both hydropower and wind power.

Reconstruction of the Wenchuan, Yushu and Zhugqu disaster areas transformed them completely.

These impressive achievements played a vital role in our effective response to the severe impact of the global financial crisis, and laid a solid foundation for sustaining China's economic and social development. They have benefited and will continue to benefit hundreds of millions of people.

We always strove to maintain a balance between ensuring steady and rapid economic development, adjusting the economic structure, and managing inflation expectations. We made government macro policies more forward-looking, scientific and effective and implemented them with proper orientation, force and focus.

When the impact of the global financial crisis was at its worst, we resolutely implemented a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy, employed a full range of financial policy tools, increased government spending and made structural tax reductions. We effectively employed monetary policy instruments such as adjusting required reserve ratios and interest rates to maintain proper growth in the money and credit supply.

In response to changing macroeconomic trends, we promptly adjusted the intensity of policy implementation, reduced the force of stimulus policies at an appropriate time, and implemented a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy.