Full text: Report on China's economic, social development plan (8)

- Keeping micro policies flexible

We will improve the market environment, invigorate businesses, and unlock the potential of consumers. First, with a focus on addressing the issue of the unsynchronized, uncoordinated, and incomplete delegation of powers to lower level governments, we will deepen reform of the government review and approval system, further relax restrictions on market access, and impose stronger and more effective oversight, thereby ensuring more efficient and convenient services for entrepreneurship and innovation, business investment and operations, and the general public. Second, in order to protect the property rights and legitimate interests of enterprises under all types of ownership, we will implement a review system to ensure fair competition, remove market barriers and local protectionism, and lift restrictions to ensure the free flow of commodities and factors of production, thus creating a relaxed investment and operating environment in which enterprises under all types of ownership can develop themselves through innovation. We will ensure that nongovernmental investments and investments by governments and SOEs are treated equally in terms of project review, financing services, fiscal and tax policies, and the use of land. Third, we will enhance our ability to provide effective supply and ensure it better corresponds to demand by creating new supply and improving the quality and efficiency of supply, which will ensure that the diversified and personalized demand of different consumer groups is fully satisfied.

- Keeping reform policies practicable

We will continue to raise the quality of our reform plans, improve reform implementation mechanisms, and make good use of pilot reforms, so that the results of reform are tangible and our people gain an increasingly greater sense of benefit. First, we will adhere to a problem-oriented approach. With a focus on resolving the main problems, we will channel our energy into carrying out important reforms that have a bearing on the overall situation, and we will rely on reforms to resolve the serious issues and problems that are hindering development. We will accelerate reform related to government review and approval; investment and financing; prices; SOEs; fiscal, tax, and financial systems; and social management. Second, we will strengthen coordination. In making reform more systemic, comprehensive, and balanced, we will ensure that major and critical reforms are guided by effective top-level planning, while also coordinating work on related reforms so as to create synergy. Third, we will spare no effort to ensure that reforms are fully implemented. We will work hard to address the issues of how to make sure that reform plans are tailored to reality, how to remove obstructions created during the adjustment of interests, and how to ensure the assumption of responsibilities for implementing reforms. We will give full rein to the initiative of community-level organizations and encourage local governments to explore which methods for implementing reform are best suited to local conditions, thereby ensuring that reform implementation is accurate, thorough, and effective.

- Making sure social policies meet people's basic needs

We will work hard to ensure the wellbeing of our people, giving full play to the role of the social safety net as a stabilizer. On the one hand, we will increase the supply of public services. Public services should be inclusive, equitable, and sustainable, and should guarantee the basic needs of the people. We will ensure everyone has access to basic necessities and basic public services. On the other hand, we will improve systems to ensure there is a cushion in place for those most in need. We will provide support to economically disadvantaged families based on their type of situation, increasing government funds for unemployment assistance and subsistence allowances, while ensuring that those poor families who are not supported by industry-led poverty-alleviation or employment assistance programs are covered by social security programs and have their basic needs met.

III. Major Tasks for Economic and Social Development in 2016

In 2016, with the focus on adapting to and guiding the new normal in economic development and applying the new development philosophy, we will carry out work in the following nine areas to ensure a good start to the 13th Five-Year Plan:

1. Making progress in major tasks for supply-side structural reform

We will adjust existing resources so as to upgrade traditional drivers for development, while also incorporating additional effective resources so as to foster new drivers; at the same time, we will make the supply structure more adaptable and flexible with a view to increasing the impetus for sustainable growth.

1) We will actively and steadily address overcapacity. We will put greater emphasis on making use of market forces, economic measures and rule of law approaches; on applying targeted policies tailored to local conditions and specific industries and enterprises in an orderly fashion; and on addressing both the symptoms and root causes of overcapacity by establishing a permanent market-based mechanism for adjusting enterprises' production capacity. We will adopt strict standards for environmental protection, energy consumption, safety, and technology; tighten control on the expansion of production capacity; enforce strict financial and credit rules; work with enterprises on a case-by-case basis to carry out mergers, reorganizations, debt restructuring, or bankruptcy through reorganization or liquidation; and actively yet prudently deal with enterprises that have long been indebted, insolvent, and uncompetitive. We will increase support through fiscal, tax, financial, and land policies to help turn around and upgrade the steel, coal, and other industries. When addressing the issue of overcapacity, priority will be given to ensuring proper arrangements are made for workers who are laid off, and funds for rewards and subsidies will be set up to ensure they are resettled and provided with employment.

2) We will work to lower business costs. We should cut the cost of operating for enterprises in the real economy, working hard to reduce transaction costs imposed by government, labor costs, the tax burden, financing costs, energy costs, land-use expenses, and logistics costs, and we will also explore the possibility of reducing social insurance premiums. We will streamline the government review and approval process as well as related procedures for enterprises, and help them make innovations in management. We will raise minimum wages by a reasonable amount. We will continue to revise and streamline taxes and fees; draw up lists and catalogs to manage all fees and charges relating to enterprises; replace business tax with VAT in all industries; accelerate reform of the resource tax; and research the feasibility of streamlining and consolidating old-age insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, maternity insurance, and the housing provident fund. Improvements will be made to the housing provident fund system and the proportion that enterprises contribute to the fund will be reduced by an appropriate amount. We will further liberalize interest rates, develop equity financing, increase the issuance of bonds, and steadily reduce overall financing costs for enterprises. We will accelerate structural reform of the electricity, heat, petroleum, and natural gas industries, and advance reform of the commodity distribution system. (mo