What are the priorities for economic work in the new year? Where is fiscal and monetary policy headed? How many aspects of promoting consumption should be exerted? How to protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors, especially small and medium-sized investors? On March 6, the second session of the 14th National People's Congress held a press conference on economic themes, which responded to many hot spots and brought a lot of good news for the people.
At the meeting, Zheng Shajie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, Lan Foan, minister of finance, Wang Wentao, minister of commerce, Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People's Bank of China, and Wu Qing, chairman of the China Supervision and Administration Commission, answered questions from Chinese and foreign reporters on development and reform, fiscal budget, commerce, finance and other related issues.
The Second Session of the 14th National People's Congress held a press conference at 3 p.m. on March 6 in the press conference hall of the Media Center. Photo by China News Service reporter Yang Huafeng.
Achieve a growth target of around 5%.
There is strong support
This year's target of around 5% for China's economic growth is in line with the annual requirements of the 14th Five-Year Plan, and basically matches the potential of economic growth. The first question, Zheng Shajie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, responded to China's economic growth forecast this year.
Zheng Shajie said that the favorable conditions for China's economic development in 2024 will be stronger than the unfavorable factors, and the economic recovery will be further consolidated and strengthened. Whether from the perspective of the short cycle or the long cycle of economic development, we have strong support. We have the confidence, ability, conditions and confidence to promote a sustained economic rebound and long-term improvement, and complete the goals and tasks of economic and social development throughout the year with high quality.
Talking about the issuance of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, Zheng Shajie said that this can not only stimulate current investment and consumption, but also lay the foundation for long-term high-quality development. In the next few years, we will continue to issue ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, which will be earmarked for the implementation of the state's major strategies and the building of security capabilities in key areas.
Private investment accounts for more than 50 percent of the total investment, and it is very important and crucial to give full play to the role of private investment. Zheng Shajie also emphasized the importance of encouraging and supporting the expansion of private investment: "We will do our best to encourage and support private enterprises to participate in the construction of major national engineering projects and projects to make up for shortcomings." We will continue to promote high-quality projects to private capital, help private capital find projects, and help private investment projects find funds. ”
Let the country's fiscal ledger
It becomes a list of people's happiness
Moderate strengthening, improving quality and efficiency are the keynote and characteristics of this year's fiscal policy, and Minister of Finance Lan Foan responded to the concern about the active fiscal policy. He said that the intensity of fiscal expenditure this year has generally expanded, the scale of ** bonds has increased significantly, and the structural tax and fee reduction policies have been continued.
In particular, he mentioned that on the basis of the implementation of the preferential tax policies extended and optimized last year, this year will be targeted to study and introduce structural tax and fee reduction policies, focusing on supporting scientific and technological innovation and manufacturing development, and better serving the construction of a modern industrial system.
The interests of the masses are no trivial matter, and the problems of people's livelihood are greater than the sky. Lan Foan said that people's livelihood spending now accounts for the majority of fiscal expenditure, and the budget arrangements for education, social security and employment in 2024 will exceed 4 trillion yuan. The Ministry of Finance will continue to improve the "people's livelihood content" of funding arrangements, continuously enhance the "people's livelihood temperature" of policy measures, and strive to make the country's financial account book become the "happiness list" of the people.
Lan Foan also mentioned the importance of optimizing fiscal management and strengthening policy coordination. He said that it is necessary to strengthen the management of budget performance, improve the efficiency of the use of financial funds, strictly enforce financial and economic discipline, and resolutely prevent financial funds from "running out and leaking."
If the party and government organs spend less money, they can arrange an extra penny for the people's livelihood undertakings. Lan Foan said that the party and government organs live a tight life, not to hold their wallets tightly and not to spend money, but to spend what they should spend and the province of the province, so that they can be generous with big money and stingy with small money, and concentrate financial resources to do big things.
Promote the trade-in of consumer goods
Adhere to the market-oriented
In 2023, the contribution rate of consumption to China's economic growth will reach 825%。Looking forward to expanding consumption in the new year and stimulating potential consumption, Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, introduced two key points to promote consumption this year: one is to promote the trade-in of consumer goods such as automobiles, home appliances, home decoration, kitchen and bathroom, and the other is to boost service consumption.
Promoting the trade-in of consumer goods is not only a powerful measure to enhance the current economic growth momentum and consolidate the recovery, but also a long-term strategy to promote high-quality development. Of course, trade-ins are based on the consumer's voluntariness. Wang Wentao said that the overall idea is to adhere to the market-oriented, through policy support and guidance, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties, and form an effective mechanism of "easier to go to the old and more willing to replace the new".
In recent years, China's service consumption has developed rapidly. From 2013 to 2023, the per capita consumption expenditure on services accounted for 397% to 452%, an increase of 55 percentage points. Wang Wentao said that in the coming period, the space and potential of service consumption is still huge, and the next step will be to focus on promoting service consumption with relevant departments.
Talking about the foreign trade situation, Wang Wentao bluntly said that the foreign trade situation this year is still in a very grim situation, but there have been some good signs.
Overall, the development of foreign trade relies on our country's industrial base factor endowment, especially the continuous enhancement of innovation ability, our export products are climbing from the middle and low end to the upstream of the industrial chain, and the import market with China's expansion and opening up, opportunities are also increasing, import and export have great potential. Wang Wentao said that he will increase support from financial services, promotion, personnel exchanges, etc.
The Second Session of the 14th National People's Congress held a press conference at 3 p.m. on March 6 in the press conference hall of the Media Center. Photo by China News Service reporter Yang Huafeng.
There is still plenty of room for monetary policy
Since the beginning of this year, the RRR cut and the downward trend in loan interest rates have exceeded market expectations. For the next stage of monetary policy direction, People's Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng said: China's monetary policy toolbox is still rich, and monetary policy still has enough space. For example, in terms of aggregate volume, the current average reserve requirement ratio of China's banking industry is 7%, and there is still room for RRR cuts in the future.
We will take maintaining stability and promoting a moderate rebound as an important consideration of monetary policy. The People's Bank of China will adhere to the fundamental purpose of serving the real economy, increase macroeconomic regulation and control, strengthen the dual adjustment of aggregate and structure, consolidate and enhance the positive trend of economic recovery, and continue to promote high-quality development.
Pan Gongsheng said: In the regulation and control of monetary policy, more attention will be paid to balancing the relationship between short-term and long-term, steady growth and risk prevention, and internal equilibrium and external equilibrium, strengthen counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustment, and strive to boost confidence, stabilize expectations, and stabilize prices, so as to create a good monetary and financial environment for economic operation and development.
Make every effort to keep counterfeiters out of the capital market
Protecting the legitimate rights and interests of investors, especially small and medium-sized investors, is the most important central task of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, stressed that investors are the foundation of the market, listed companies are the foundation of the market, and investors and listed companies are the source of the development of the capital market.
Wu Qing said that it is necessary to treat investors sincerely and kindly, better serve investors, further strengthen the protection of investors in terms of law, system, regulatory law enforcement and justice, enhance investors' confidence and trust in the market, and attract more investors, especially medium and long-term funds, to participate in the market. At the same time, we must also focus on improving the quality of listed companies, so that enterprises can better play their main role and enhance investment value.
Referring to the supervision of listed companies, Wu Qing said that first of all, it is necessary to strictly control the entrance, and the IPO listing of enterprises must not be for the purpose of "collecting money", let alone fake and fraudulent listings, and it is necessary to make every effort to keep counterfeiters out of the capital market.
Secondly, it is necessary to strengthen post-listing supervision: first, to prevent counterfeiting and crack down on counterfeiting, and to seriously rectify and crack down on financial fraud and illegal acts that encroach on the interests of listed companies; The second is to standardize the system, and further plug the loopholes in the system for some detour violations such as "technical" divorce, securities lending and selling, and refinancing; The third is to promote dividends, take hard measures against companies that have not paid dividends for many years, or have a low dividend ratio, and will also promote qualified companies to pay dividends multiple times a year.
Finally, it is necessary to unblock exports and take action to increase delisting. On the one hand, more stringent mandatory delisting standards will be set to ensure that all delistings should be withdrawn; On the other hand, we will further broaden diversified exit channels and encourage some companies to voluntarily delist.