3) We will improve the quality of the environment and ecosystems. We will fully implement the action plans for preventing and controlling air and water pollution, release and implement an action plan for addressing soil pollution, and remain persistent in the fight against smog and water pollution. We will strictly control the expansion of coal production capacity and the capacity of coal-fired power plants, ensure cleaner use of coal in non-industrial sectors, expand the use of electricity to replace less environmentally friendly forms of energy and promote the use of electricity generated from renewable energy sources, and move faster to upgrade coal-fired power plants and the quality of fuel across the board. Third party governance will be introduced in the treatment of environmental pollution. We will launch a new round of efforts to return marginal cultivated land to forest or grassland, and intensify efforts to carry out the national afforestation project. We will move steadily forward with the establishment of a system of national parks. We will continue to advance the comprehensive governance of the water environment in key water basins and the environment in key areas, such as those at the source of dust storms affecting Beijing and Tianjin, areas afflicted by the spread of stony deserts, and areas where grazing land has been returned to grassland. A major biodiversity protection project will be launched. We will step up the ecological conservation of lakes and wetlands and establish ecological red lines for forests, grasslands, wetlands and the ocean. We will improve the mechanisms for compensating ecological conservation efforts. We will ensure the implementation of environmental impact assessment for strategies and plans and enforce stricter environmental standards for project approval. We will carry out ecological rehabilitation in cities to restore and improve their ecological functions. Pilot programs will be launched to place county- and prefecture-level environmental monitoring, inspection, and law enforcement bodies directly under the jurisdiction of provincial-level environmental bodies.
4) We will promote low-carbon development. We will continue to push forward pilot and demonstration programs for low-carbon development, move faster to create a national market for carbon emission rights trading, and formulate a complete set of rules and regulations concerning such trading and its oversight. We will constructively participate in international negotiations, work to ensure the proper design and implementation of follow-up mechanisms for the agreement reached at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, play an active role in guiding the rule-making process for global climate governance, and continue to strengthen South-South cooperation on climate change.
Box 17: Green and Low-Carbon Development
8. Improving the performance of the open economy
In pursuing open development, we will improve the plan for regional opening up, increase outbound investment and international cooperation, work to optimize imports and exports, actively utilize foreign capital, cultivate new strengths to give us a competitive edge internationally, and play an effective role in global economic governance.
1) We will ensure the successful implementation of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative. We will increase the cohesion between the development strategy of China and those of other countries along the routes, steadily carry out signature projects aimed at strengthening connectivity and increasing energy and resource cooperation, build up a reserve of major projects for the Belt and Road Initiative, and set up a number of patterns for bilateral and multilateral cooperation. We will actively advance the development of international economic cooperation corridors, such as the China-Mongolia-Russia corridor and the China-Indochina Peninsula corridor. We will coordinate the development of China-Europe freight train routes, simplify customs clearance procedures along the lines, and expedite the building of international logistics gateways. We will steadily construct strategic maritime hubs and ensure that maritime trade routes are unobstructed. Information platforms will be developed, such as the official website of the Belt and Road Initiative. We will actively encourage Chinese culture and traditional Chinese medicine to extend their reach overseas, further develop and open up border areas, upgrade both border and cross-border economic cooperation zones, and enhance international and regional cooperation with neighboring countries.
2) We will expand international cooperation on industrial capacity and equipment manufacturing. We will create a project reserve for industrial-capacity cooperation based on key industries and countries. We will set up a sound mechanism for connecting our provinces, regions and leading enterprises with key countries, and improve the system for managing major risks. We will move faster to make arrangements for bilateral industrial-capacity cooperation and make full use of multilateral platforms to promote effective cooperation; we will actively engage in cooperation with developed countries on the third market, so as to support Chinese technologies, equipment, standards, and services in "going global" . We will improve related fiscal and financial policies, set up outbound RMB cooperative funds and bilateral and multilateral industrial-capacity cooperation funds, and encourage cooperation between financial institutions and enterprises in this area. In 2016, China' s non-financial outward direct investment is projected to be approximately US$130 billion, an increase of around 10%.
3) We will promote the steady growth and structural adjustment of foreign trade. We will effectively apply the policy of export tax rebates. We will put into action the policies and measures for reviewing and regulating fees related to imports and exports, strictly enforce the system of lists and catalogs of fees related to foreign trade, and accelerate the building of the Single Window System and the integration of customs clearance procedures to enhance trade facilitation. We will encourage processing trade to move to the central and western regions and to extend toward the medium-high end of the industry chain. We will encourage the development of new business models for foreign trade, push forward the development of integrated pilot zones for cross-border E-commerce while also expanding the scope of the pilot scheme, and support the building of overseas storehouses and exhibition centers. We will promote the integrated development of trade in goods and in services and vigorously support the export of services in finance, insurance, logistics, and maintenance. We will adopt a more active import policy to support the import of advanced technology and equipment and important parts and components; increase the reserve of important energy and resources; and appropriately increase the import of consumer goods. We will deepen bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation, build an international network of high-standard free trade areas, step up negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, accelerate negotiations on free trade such as those on the China-Japan-RoK Free Trade Area, and facilitate negotiations on investment agreements with the United States and the European Union.
4) We will use foreign capital more effectively. We will continue to improve the business environment. We will advance reform to introduce a negative list in managing foreign investment. The service sector will be further opened up in areas such as finance, education, elderly care, culture, telecommunications, the Internet, trade, and logistics; the manufacturing sector will also be opened wider and direct foreign investments will be encouraged toward the high end of traditional industries, strategic emerging industries, and modern services. The catalog of industries with local strengths in central and western regions for foreign investment will be updated to support the relocation of foreign-invested industries to these regions. We will complete a timely review of and promote the experiences from pilot free trade zones and continue to expand the pilot scheme to other regions. We will promote the innovation-driven growth of development zones and update the catalog of development zones that have been approved and published by the state. Reforms of the foreign investment management system and foreign debt management will be deepened, and the system for carrying out security reviews of foreign investments will be improved. Non-financial foreign direct investment is expected to be approximately US$128 billion in 2016.
9. Working to safeguard and improve living standards
In pursuing shared development, we will give greater prominence to improving people' s standard of living, take strong and targeted measures to reduce poverty, deepen reform and innovation in key areas concerning public services, and make every effort to ensure the supply of basic public services.
1) We will move forward with targeted measures to fight poverty across the board. We will support development and poverty reduction in contiguous poor areas, launch the action plan for revitalizing the key old revolutionary base areas where poverty is an issue, and speed up the development of all old revolutionary base areas. We will also boost support for alleviating poverty in border areas and areas with concentrations of ethnic minorities. We will work hard to improve infrastructure and basic public services in poor areas, with a priority on roads, water supply, power, and Internet access. A great deal of effort will be devoted to ensuring key poverty alleviation programs are implemented. We will continue to support the development of Xinjiang, Tibet, and the Tibetan ethnic areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and Qinghai provinces, increasing central government support for these areas, and scaling up one-to-one assistance programs.
Box 18: Key Poverty Alleviation Programs
2) We will provide employment support to help meet the people' s basic needs. With a view to providing coordinated support to priority groups, such as college graduates, migrant workers, and those having difficulty finding employment, to help them start a business or find employment, we will work to properly resettle workers laid off due to the phasing-out of excess production capacity, carry out the program for promoting the employment of college graduates and providing them with business start-up guidance, flesh out the public service system for employment and business start-ups, and deepen the implementation of the pilot program for supporting rural migrant workers in starting businesses in their hometowns. We will strengthen community-level employment and start-up service facilities and increase employment assistance to ensure people' s basic needs are met. We will fully leverage the role of strategic emerging industries, new forms of business, and major state projects in encouraging employment and business start-ups, while fostering new sources of job creation. We will also promote flexible employment and non-standard employment.
3) We will strengthen the key links of social security. We will release an overall plan for old-age insurance reform, further raise basic pension benefits for retirees, and work to place the social pooling accounts of workers' old-age insurance under unified national management. We will formulate methods for diverting a portion of state capital into social security funds. We will comprehensively advance the integration of the basic medical insurance schemes for rural and non-working urban residents, raise the annual government subsidy for these two schemes to 420 yuan per person, accelerate our work to enable people to settle medical bills incurred in any locality via their basic medical insurance accounts, and increase the cohesion between basic medical insurance and other schemes, such as major disease insurance, medical assistance, and assistance for emergency disease treatment. We will coordinate the development of social assistance systems for urban and rural residents and improve the system for providing services and insurance to people with disabilities and children living in difficult conditions. We will continue to build government-subsidized housing in urban areas and improve the housing conditions of both low- and middle-income groups and people facing difficulties. In 2016, we will renovate six million units of housing in run-down urban areas and 3.14 million dilapidated rural houses.
4) We will see to it that all sectors of society become more involved in providing public services and more people benefit from them. We will establish a national list of basic public services, carry out the national project to upgrade services for the general population, and improve facilities for compulsory education, medical and health care, public cultural services, elderly care, community sports, care and nursing for people with disabilities, social welfare, and basic funeral and interment services. We will increase the provision of public-interest pre-school education, refine the distribution of schools in rural areas, and move faster to help public schools providing compulsory education in urban and rural areas meet standards and to make senior secondary education universal. Some regular institutions of higher learning in developed regions will be selected to implement the program for setting an enrollment quota for students from central and western regions, and we will carry out the program for regular institutions of higher learning to enroll a set number of students from poor areas with pre-conditions for employment after graduation; these programs will help to ensure students from rural and poor areas are unobstructed in continuing their education. We will improve the modern vocational education system and launch programs to integrate vocational education with industry. We will ensure the quality of teaching and the capacity for innovation within institutions of higher learning are improved, and encourage regular undergraduate colleges to shift their focus toward providing applied education if they are in a position to do so. We will see to it that the education resources of schools and educational institutions of all types and at all levels are made available for the provision of urban and rural community-level education as well as education for the elderly. In 2016, regular institutions of higher learning are projected to enroll 7.05 million undergraduate students and 818,000 graduate students. We will speed up the development of the program to ensure a healthy population, reinforce weak areas in the medical services system, better allocate medical and health care resources, strengthen the training of general practitioners and pediatricians, and accelerate the development of tiered medical diagnosis and treatment. We will fully implement the policy for allowing one couple to have two children, enhance the system for providing maternal and child care and related support policies, and promote balanced growth of the population. We will actively develop traditional Chinese medicine and the medicine of ethnic minorities. We will move forward with the trials for comprehensive reform of the elderly services. We will improve basic public service policies so as to facilitate better integration of the migrant population in cities. To promote socialist cultural and ethical progress, we will accelerate cultural reform and development; encourage philosophy and the social sciences to flourish; and develop literature, art, the press, publishing, radio, television, film, and archives. We will develop new types of Chinese-style think tanks. We will accelerate the development of sports such as soccer and winter sports.
We will deepen cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao in the areas of investment, the economy, and trade; put into practice the agreement on trade in services with Hong Kong and Macao under the framework of Closer Economic Partnership Arrangements (CEPA); open the country' s interior wider to Hong Kong and Macao; and comprehensively upgrade the CEPA. We will support Hong Kong and Macao in participating in the development of the Belt and Road Initiative. We will move faster to develop the platforms in Qianhai, Nansha, and Hengqin among others for cooperation between Guangdong and Hong Kong and Macao, and deepen regional cooperation in the pan-Pearl River Delta. We will provide further support for Macao in its efforts to build a platform to facilitate business and trade cooperation between China and Portuguese language countries and appropriately diversify its economy. We will continue to promote the development of cross-Straits economic and trade cooperation to benefit the people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.
Fellow Deputies,
Accomplishing the work for economic and social development in this first year of the 13th Five-Year Plan is an onerous but important task. We will unite even closer around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as General Secretary, hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, take Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development as our guide, and fully implement the guidelines from General Secretary Xi Jinping's major political addresses. We will willingly accept the oversight of the NPC, and seek comments and suggestions from the CPPCC National Committee with an open mind. Let us pool together our hearts and our energy to overcome the difficulties ahead, and work with creativity to ensure a good start to the 13th Five-Year Plan and sustain steady and sound economic and social development.
Tables and Figures
1. Performance of the Main Targets in the 2015 Plan for National Economic and Social Development
2. The Primary, Secondary, and The Tertiary Industries as a Percentage of GDP
3. Urban Jobs Newly Created
4. Non-Financial Inward and Outward Foreign Direct Investment
5. Grain Output
6. Rate of Decline in Energy Consumption per Unit of GDP
7. Increases in Urban and Rural Incomes and the Ratio of Urban Income to Rural Income
8. Urban Government-subsidized Housing Projects and Renovation of Dilapidated Rural Houses
