Reasonable growth of about 5.5 percent and creating 11 million jobs set as goals

China will focus on stabilizing its economic fundamentals this year, setting its GDP growth target at around 5.5 percent, as the world's second-largest economy strengthen measures to shore up growth against possible strong headwinds.

Premier Li Keqiang made the announcement in the Government Work Report delivered at the opening of the fifth session of the 13th National People's Congress on Saturday.

As part of broader steps to ensure people's well-being, the government will also strive to create at least 11 million jobs in urban areas and keep the surveyed urban unemployment rate below 5.5 percent.

The government has set the deficit-to-GDP ratio for 2022 at around 2.8 percent, down from last year's target of around 3.2 percent, in a move to boost fiscal sustainability, while the special-purpose bonds for local government will total 3.65 trillion yuan ($580 billion), Li said.

China will maintain the increase of its consumer price index, a key gauge of inflation, at around 3 percent, and keep its annual grain output at over 650 million metric tons for this year, he said.

He pledged that the implementation of the prudent monetary policy will be stepped up, saying that the government will expand the scale of new loans and keep the macro leverage level generally stable.

The exchange rate of the yuan will also be kept generally stable at an adaptive, balanced level, he said.

"A comprehensive analysis of evolving dynamics at home and abroad indicates that this year our country will encounter many more risks and challenges, and we must keep pushing to overcome them," Li said. "The harder things get, the more confident we must be, and the more solid steps we must take to deliver outcomes."

In stabilizing growth, the premier stressed the importance of front-loading policy measures and deploying the policy tools in reserve in a timely manner.

Li announced a new package of tax refunds and cuts totaling 2.5 trillion yuan this year, including a temporary exemption on value-added tax payments to small taxpayers and a measure to halve the corporate income tax for micro and small businesses with an annual taxable income of 1 million to 3 million yuan.

The package also included VAT refunds targeting primarily small and micro businesses and those in the manufacturing sector totaling 1.5 trillion yuan.

According to Lan Qingxin, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies of the University of International Business and Economics and president of UIBE's Yangtze Delta Region Trade Institute, China has already achieved significant progress in expanding high-level opening-up, and in the next stage, it is expected to take more steps to align itself with high-level international economic and trade rules, and work to establish a more market-oriented, law-based and international business environment.

China is also likely to exert more efforts to promote the high-quality and joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as play a bigger and more active role in the formation of international economic and trade rules, especially in the low carbon economy.

Dan Brindle, president of Novartis Group China, expects China to become the company's second-largest market by 2025.

"We have benefited from China's ongoing economic reforms and opening-up policies," he said, adding that he looks forward to expanding Novartis' partnerships with the local healthcare ecosystem to bring the company's latest innovations to Chinese patients.

Hiroshi Hamaguchi, chairman and president of Astellas China, said China's continuous high-level opening-up is expected to boost the development of the country's innovation ecosystem.

"Our confidence in China remains unchanged as we have witnessed the strong resilience of the Chinese economy against the COVID-19 pandemic during the past years," he said.

And Woody Guo, president of Herbalife Nutrition China and senior vice-president of Herbalife Nutrition, said the continuous improvement in China's business climate is impressive, and the company will continue to increase investment in the country, in fields including product innovation and digital transformation.