Full Text: Report on the Work of the Government(7)

We will take systematic steps to implement the reform of introducing mixed ownership to SOEs, and both encourage and regulate equity investment made by non-state capital in SOE investment projects. We will accelerate structural reform of the electricity, oil, and natural gas industries. We will work, through multiple channels, to relieve SOEs of their obligation to operate social programs and help them solve longstanding problems, while at the same time ensuring that the legitimate rights and interests of workers are protected. We will ensure that SOEs improve their modern corporate structure, and incentive and restraint mechanisms for their executives are reformed and strengthened. We will strengthen regulation of state-owned assets and guard against their loss, and ensure that SOEs improve their performance.

The non-public sector is an important component of China' s economy. We will remain firmly committed to encouraging, supporting, and guiding the development of this sector, work to enable entrepreneurs to give full expression to their talent, put into effect all policies and measures encouraging the development of the private sector, strengthen the vitality of enterprises under all types of ownership, and protect the property rights of all types of enterprise-legal persons in accordance with the law.

We will continue to push ahead with reforms in science, technology, education, culture, medical and health care, pensions, public institutions, and the housing provident fund. Development needs to be driven by reform, and the people are expecting the real benefits reform delivers. We must work hard to make sure that reform boosts development and benefits our people.

Opening up is itself a reform. We must carry out a new round of high-quality opening up, move more swiftly in building a new open economy, and maintain momentum in development and in international competition by pressing ahead with opening up.

We will transform and upgrade China' s foreign trade.

We will improve the mechanism for sharing the cost of export tax rebates between the central and local governments, with the central government paying all the increase for the benefit of local governments and exporting enterprises beginning in 2015. We will overhaul and regulate charges for imports and exports, and establish and release a complete list of such charges. We will implement policies and measures to enable China' s foreign trade to develop new competitive edges, facilitate the transformation of processing trade, develop market purchase trade and a comprehensive service platform for foreign trade, expand comprehensive trials in cross-border e-commerce, turn more cities into trendsetters in undertaking services outsourced by other countries, and increase the share of service trade in China' s foreign trade. We will adopt a more active import policy to increase the import of advanced technology, key equipment, and important parts and components.

We will take a more active, more effective approach to making use of foreign capital.

We will revise the Catalogue for the Guidance of Industries for Foreign Investment. We will focus on making the service and manufacturing sectors even more open by halving the number of industries in which foreign investment is restricted. We will introduce, across the board, the management system under which foreign investment projects generally need only to be placed on record, with government review required in only a limited number of cases. We will delegate to lower-level governments the power of review for a large number of projects that are encouraged by the state; and work actively to explore the management model of pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list. We will work to improve the foreign investment regulatory system, revise laws concerning foreign investment, and create a stable, fair, transparent, and predictable business environment.

We will speed up the implementation of the "go global" strategy.

We will encourage Chinese companies to participate in overseas infrastructure development projects and engage in cooperation with their foreign counterparts in building up production capacity. We will work to increase the international market share of Chinese railway, electric power, communications, engineering machinery, automobile, aircraft, electronics, and other equipment, and encourage the metallurgical, building materials, and other industries to invest overseas. Outbound investment will be mainly managed on a record-keeping basis. We will scale up export credit insurance to provide export financing insurance for all insurable complete sets of large equipment.

We will broaden the channels for using foreign exchange reserves, provide better financial services, information services, legal services, and consulate protection to Chinese firms investing abroad, guard against risk, and strengthen our capacity to protect the rights and interests of Chinese enterprises overseas. We are confident that these steps will enable Chinese companies to go global and go steadily, emerging stronger in international competition.

We will foster a new environment in all-round opening up.

We will work with the relevant countries in developing the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. We will move faster to strengthen infrastructure connectivity with China' s neighbors, simplify customs clearance procedures, and build international logistics gateways. We will work to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor. We will make China' s interior and border areas more open to the outside world, promote the innovation-driven development of economic and technological development zones, and upgrade both border and cross-border economic cooperation areas. We will work actively to develop pilot free trade zones in Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin, and Fujian, and extend good practices developed in these zones to the rest of the country so that such zones become leading reform and opening up areas, each with its own distinctive features.

We will promote multilateral, bilateral, and regional opening up and cooperation.

We will uphold multilateral trade systems, work to promote expansion of the Information Technology Agreement, and take an active part in international talks in areas such as environmental products and government procurement. We will move faster to implement the strategy of developing free trade zones, ensuring that agreements on free trade zones with the Republic of Korea and Australia are signed as soon as possible; stepping up negotiations on the China-Japan-RoK Free Trade Zone; working for progress in talks on free trade zones with the Gulf Cooperation Council and Israel; endeavoring to complete the talks on upgrading the China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone and on establishing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership; and working to build the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Zone. We will continue negotiations on investment agreements with the United States and the European Union. As a responsible and enterprising nation, China champions the vision of promoting mutually beneficial development, boosting the global economy, and encouraging economic globalization.