Premier Li Keqiang stressed firm efforts to promote steady economic recovery and push economic performance back into a reasonable range at a symposium with officials from local governments via video link on Nov 20.
Thanks to the central governments' macro policies and measures to help enterprises out of difficulties, major local indicators in the economy and employment have steadily recovered quarter by quarter, said officials from the provinces of Heilongjiang, Shandong, Hunan, Guangdong and Yunnan. They also talked about local economic trends and put forward policy suggestions.
Facing the great challenges this year, China has made great achievements in epidemic control and reached positive economic growth soon under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, said Premier Li, adding that these more-than-expected results came from concerted efforts across the country and timely and effective macro policies.
The Premier said local governments have made concrete efforts in policy implementation, and that more than 100 million market entities have shown great strength and resilience.
Hard work is still needed to promote steady recovery of the economy and bring it back to a reasonable range, Premier Li said.
He stressed efforts to promote high-quality development and ensure that the major targets for this year's development must be met, with steady economic growth and continuous improvement in people's livelihoods.
The Premier pointed out the current domestic and international situation is still complex and full of uncertainties, thus the government must be practical and keep in mind a long-term vision in planning for next-step development and maintain the policy with continuity, effectiveness and sustainability.
He also stressed using policy tools properly, and pressing ahead with existing experiences and reform measures, such as the effective mechanism of funneling funds directly to the grassroots level implemented this year.
Policies should continue to focus on market entities and people's livelihoods, stabilizing employment and expanding domestic demand, the Premier said.
Consumption comes from employment and income. Policies should be taken with priority given to employment and more jobs, he said.
The government should remove barriers to bring back normal growth of consumption and improve weak points to better meet multi-layer consumption demands, the Premier said.
He urged enhancing guidance of government funds and encouraging social capital's participation to expand effective investment.
He said government must run on a tight budget, optimize policies in light of market entities' needs and changing situations, and stabilize market expectations, calling on local governments to take targeted measures based on local conditions to help market entities tackle difficulties and improve people's livelihoods.
Adhering to reform and opening-up, the vitality of market entities and creativity of society must be further stimulated. Hundreds of millions of market entities are the foundation for stabilizing growth and maintaining employment, Premier Li said.
He called for more practical measures to tackle problems in pressing ahead reform, and deepening the reform of streamlining administration and improving regulation and services to build a market-oriented, rule-based and international business environment.
Local authorities were encouraged to break the unreasonable pattern of interests and continuously promote reforms based on their own situations to build a better environment for growing market entities with greater dynamism. They also were urged to cultivate new driving forces by pooling collective wisdom and strength.
The Premier called for efforts to promote high-level opening-up and stabilize foreign trade and investment, as well as industrial and supply chains.
He also stressed expanding new international cooperation with utilization of relevant rules and facilitation measures, taking the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement as an opportunity.
Vice-premiers Han Zheng, Sun Chunlan, Hu Chunhua and Lie He, state councilors Wang Yong, Wang Yi, Xiao Jie and Zhao Kezhi, and He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, also attended the symposium.
