Report on the Work of the Government

4. Accelerating strategic economic restructuring

This is the major goal of transforming the pattern of economic development. China's economy needs to be quickly put on the path of endogenous growth driven by innovation.

We will adjust and optimize the industrial structure. We will quicken the establishment of a modern industrial system and give impetus to industrial transformation and upgrading.

First, we will transform and upgrade manufacturing industries. We will intensify technological upgrading in enterprises, with the focus on becoming better able to develop new products and build brand names; utilize energy and resources more comprehensively; increase the integration of technological and process systems; and raise the quality, technological content and value-added of products. We will encourage enterprises in key industries to enter into trans-regional acquisitions and reorganizations. We will improve the exit mechanism and accompanying policies for outdated production capacity.

Second, we will accelerate the cultivation and development of strategic emerging industries. We will vigorously develop the next-generation IT industry; build a high-performance broadband information network; accelerate the integration of the telecommunications network, the radio and television broadcasting network, and the Internet; and promote demonstrations on how to use the Internet of Things. We will energetically give impetus to the development of industries such as energy conservation, environmental protection, new energy, biotechnology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials and new energy vehicles. We need to promptly formulate standards, improve policies, enhance innovation capabilities, get small and medium-sized high-tech companies to play their role, and foster the healthy development of strategic emerging industries so they more quickly build their production capacity and core competitiveness.

Third, we will vigorously develop service industries. We will accelerate the development of producer services and actively develop consumer services. We will make every effort to develop and upgrade the software industry. We will strive to create a market environment that is conducive to the development of service industries, and quickly improve the policy system for stimulating their development. We will make the prices of power, water, gas and heating basically the same for both service industries encouraged by the state and the industrial sector as quickly as possible.

Fourth, we will strengthen the modern energy industry and the comprehensive transport system. We will actively promote changes in the way energy is produced and used and raise energy efficiency. We will give impetus to the clean use of traditional energy sources, intensify the construction of smart power grids, and vigorously develop clean energy. We will coordinate the development and accelerate the construction of a comprehensive transport system that is convenient, safe, cost-effective and highly efficient. We will steadfastly make coordinated development plans for land and sea and advance the development of the marine economy.

We will promote balanced development between regions. We will fully implement all regional development plans. In implementing the master strategy of regional development, we will steadfastly give high priority to the strategy of large-scale development of the western region, and earnestly implement the policies and measures for the new ten-year period of the large-scale development of the western region and all the measures to promote the leapfrog development of Tibet and Xinjiang. We will fully revitalize old industrial bases such as northeast China and continue to transform resource-dependent cities. We will vigorously foster the rise of the central region and make greater use of its geographical advantage of linking the eastern and western regions. We will actively support the eastern region in taking the lead in development, and leading the country in making innovations in systems and mechanisms and transforming the pattern of development. We will get Shenzhen and other special economic zones, Pudong New Area in Shanghai and Binhai New Area in Tianjin to better play a leading and exploratory role in reform and opening up. We will give greater support to the development of old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas and border areas, promulgate and implement the 2011-2020 rural poverty alleviation and development program, launch the project to alleviate poverty through development in contiguous areas with particular difficulties, and lift impoverished areas out of poverty more quickly.

We will actively yet prudently move forward with urbanization. We will adhere to the path of urbanization with Chinese characteristics, abide by the principles of urban development and foster the sound development of urbanization. We will adhere to scientific planning and strict management. We will strengthen urban infrastructure and public service facilities, increase the overall carrying capacity of cities and towns, and raise the level of urban management and services. We will gradually make sure that rural migrant workers who have stable jobs and have lived in cities or towns for a number of years are registered as urban residents in line with local conditions and in a step-by-step manner. We need to help rural migrant workers who do not currently qualify as urban residents to resolve practical difficulties such as remuneration, schooling for their children, public health, renting homes, and social security. We need to fully respect the right of farmers to independently choose whether to seek jobs in cities or stay in their home villages, and genuinely protect their legitimate rights and interests concerning land they contract to work and the land on which their homes sit. We must steadfastly adhere to the correct orientation of ensuring that urbanization together with agricultural modernization and the building of a new countryside are mutually reinforcing.

We will strengthen energy conservation, environmental protection and ecological development, and actively respond to climate change. We will focus on conserving energy in areas such as the industrial sector, construction, transportation and public institutions. We will continue to implement key energy conservation projects. We will vigorously conserve energy in the industrial sector, popularize energy-conserving technology and equipment, and improve energy efficiency. We will invest more in improving energy conservation in existing buildings and actively promote energy conservation in new buildings. We will vigorously develop the circular economy. We will move forward with the pilot project to build low-carbon cities. We will strengthen our capacity to adapt to climate change and respond to extreme climate events in particular. We will put in place well-equipped statistical and monitoring systems for greenhouse gas emissions, energy conservation and emissions reduction. We will accelerate the planning and building of sewer networks and garbage disposal facilities in urban areas and expand the use of recycled water. We will strengthen the environmental management of chemicals. We will start the work of denitration in coal-fired power plants and strengthen prevention and control of particles pollution; step up the treatment of marine pollution; accelerate the treatment of water pollution in key river basins, the treatment of air pollution, the treatment of heavy metal pollution in key areas and the comprehensive improvement of the rural environment; and control pollution from non-point rural sources. We will continue to carry out major ecological restoration projects, intensify the protection and management of major functional ecological zones, implement the second phase of the project to protect natural forest resources, implement the subsidy and reward policy for grassland ecological conservation, consolidate achievements already made in turning reclaimed farmland into forests and grasslands as well as grazing land to grasslands, vigorously carry out afforestation, strengthen wetland protection and recovery, and make progress in comprehensively dealing with desertification and stony deserts. We will improve contingency plans for preventing and mitigating natural disasters, and accelerate the development of surveying and evaluation, monitoring and early warning, prevention and control, and emergency response systems in areas prone to geological disasters from mountain torrents.