Economic growth is not a sprint but rather long-distance running that will never end. It demands certain speed. More importantly, it demands perseverance and staying power. The quality and efficiency of China's economic growth is improving, something that we hope to see. With the continued rise of the proportion of the service industry, the rapid development of emerging industries such as e-commerce, logistics and express delivery, and the growth of high-tech industries and equipment manufacturing faster than the entire secondary industry, the adjustment and improvement of industrial structure has progressed by leaps and bounds. We have also seen encouraging results in energy conservation and emissions reduction. Energy consumption per unit of GDP was down by 4.2 percent, and carbon intensity down by about 5 percent in the first half of this year, the biggest cuts in years. With growing household income, consumer demand is also rising steadily. In particular, consumption by the general public is increasing rapidly. People have enjoyed tangible benefits in the course of economic development.

The Chinese economy has made these achievements thanks mainly to reform and innovation. Despite downward pressure on the economy, we have not adopted indiscriminate strong economic stimulus; nor have we ever eased monetary policy or expanded deficit. Instead, we have vigorously promoted reform in administrative, fiscal, financial, investment and other key areas and, at the same time, reformed and innovated the approaches of macro-control by promoting structural adjustment, namely targeted macro-control on the basis of range-based macro-control. Reform is also a stimulus on the economy, as it helps to improve both the micro-foundations and the macro-environment for economic growth, and could generate huge market vitality and social creativity. We have put in place a number of reform measures to incentivize market entities, strengthen weak links and boost the real economy, with an aim to release the massive dividend of reform for development.

Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese government has continued to spearhead a "self-targeted revolution" by substantially streamlining administration and delegating powers and promoting market-based reforms so as to boost the vigor of creation and innovation for more individuals and businesses. Since the adoption of reform on the business registration system last March, we have seen an over 60 percent year-on-year growth, a massive upsurge, in other words, on the number of newly registered market entities over the past six months and more. These new businesses, mostly small and micro-enterprises or players in the service sector, have generated more than 10 million jobs, and have become a new pillar of China's economic growth thanks to their strong growth prospect. We have not only lowered the threshold of market access by offering much-needed policy support to these newly-established businesses, but also enhanced on-going and ex-post oversight, created a market environment featuring fair competition, and improved the social security network, so that those involved in entrepreneurship and innovation will have no additional worries and will grow healthily on the land we have fostered for them.

Speaking as I am, I think of a line from Goethe, which reads "If you want to love your own value, you must create value for the world." Innovation and creation is the common ideal and pursuit of mankind. We have adopted these measures of reform and innovation so that the newly-born market forces will grow steadily, and that more people will see the hope and follow suit. In this way, we will see a massive wave of entrepreneurship and innovation by the people on the Chinese land. This wave will help everyone to grasp the opportunity of realizing the dream of greater accomplishments and a colorful life. It will enable us to turn our "demographic dividend" into "talent dividend" and improve income distribution and promote social equity, so that we could achieve sustained economic growth and all-round development of the people.