China can hit major economic targets: premier(2)

HIGHLY RESILIENT

As Premier Li sees it, the positives in China's economy are not just more jobs and higher incomes, but structural upgrading: The government's goal in maintaining stable growth is to ensure employment.

At the forum, Li revealed a new survey of urban unemployment in 31 large cities. The survey, which should be a better indicator of the real job situation than registered data, found unemployment to be around 5 percent in the first eight months of the year, with more than 9.7 million urban jobs created, 100,000 more than during the same period last year.

"Using by the principle of range-based macro-control, we believe real economic growth is within the proper range, even if it is slightly higher or lower than the 7.5 percent target," Li said.

As the economic aggregate continues to expand, Li said, growth will mean more jobs and there will be a greater tolerance of fluctuations.

NEW BUSINESS

Since the beginning of this year, the government has radically altered administrative reviews and approvals, removing or delegating to lower levels administrative approval of more than 200 items.

Business registration has also been overhauled nationwide. The financial threshold for starting a new businesses is considerably lower now, and there are far fewer restrictions; a great boost to business development in the whole country, Li said. In the first eight months, more than eight million new businesses were registered, and reforms in financing, investment, taxation and logistics have increased job opportunities even further.

China will make good use of the "golden key" of innovation to maintain medium-high growth and move towards a medium-high level of development, he added.

Li believes China's economy is highly resilient, with plenty of potential and ample room to grow. A full range of tools for macro-control are at the government's disposal.

"The measures we have taken are good both for now and for longer-term interests. They mean we can prevent major fluctuations and make a hard landing even less likely," he added.

"Instead of adopting a strong economic stimulus or easing monetary policy, we have vigorously promoted reform and economic readjustment," he said.