Chinese premier stresses solid work to meet annual development goals

Chinese Premier Li Qiang presides over the fifth plenary meeting of the State Council on Aug. 16, 2024. Li stressed solid work to implement reform measures and accomplish the annual economic and social development goals with impetus from further deepening reform comprehensively. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)
BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday stressed solid work to implement reform measures and accomplish the annual economic and social development goals with impetus from further deepening reform comprehensively.
Chairing the fifth plenary meeting of the State Council, Li underscored the need to strengthen the effectiveness of reform with economic structural reform as the spearhead, focusing on key areas like promoting fiscal and tax reform, building a unified national market and advancing new urbanization.
Urging great efforts to enhance the economic recovery trend, Li said more should be done to expand domestic demand with a focus on boosting consumption.
Service consumption should be improved in terms of both scale and quality, and differentiated support policies should be developed to suit the needs of different groups to fully unleash consumption potential, he said.
To boost investment, he said it was essential to effectively leverage the role of government investment and ensure the implementation of policies supporting private investment. The scope, scale and proportion of local government special bonds as capital funds should be increased.
The regular communication and exchange mechanism between the government and enterprises must be continuously improved, the premier said, stressing that businesses voices should be heard and considered, and their difficulties truly addressed.
New quality productive forces should be developed in accordance with local conditions, and the promotion, application and upgrade of new technologies and new products should be supported, he said.
Li also called for active adaption to change and improved high-standard opening up, more effort to attract and utilize foreign investment, support and improvement of people’s livelihood, stabilizing employment for key groups, and new measures to increase residents’ income.
Government work should be more law-based, according to Li, who noted that the fundamental goal of administrative law enforcement should be maintaining the order of the socialist market economy, so as to create a favorable business environment to boost the innovative development of all market entities. ■