3. Intensifying efforts to restructure industries, conserve resources and
protect the environment
Restructuring and upgrading industries, which are our major means for
improving the pattern and quality of economic growth, constitute a pressing
task. First, we need to upgrade industries and improve industrial technology. We
will accelerate the development of advanced manufacturing, new and high
technology industries, and modern services, while continuing to improve basic
industries and infrastructure such as transportation, energy and water
conservancy. We will promote the application of information technology in the
economy and society. The key to improving the technology used in industries lies
in comprehensively improving our capacity for independent innovation. We need to
promptly develop core technologies and improve systems integration in some
important industries and create technologies, products and standards for which
we own intellectual property rights. The main measures we will adopt are: We
will strengthen the role of enterprises to make them the main source of
independent innovation and build a market-oriented system for technological
innovation that integrates the efforts of enterprises, universities and research
institutes. We will energetically pursue a name brand strategy by encouraging
development of famous brands for which we hold intellectual property rights. We
will strengthen the system for protecting intellectual property rights and
intensify law enforcement in this area. We will improve the mechanisms for
encouraging independent innovation and adopt fiscal, tax, banking and government
procurement policies that support enterprise innovation. Finally, we will
improve the market climate, promote risk investment for business startups, and
help small and medium-sized enterprises improve their capacity for independent
innovation. Second, we need to restructure some industries that have surplus
production capacity. To do this, we will use a combination of economic, legal
and necessary administrative means, and take full advantage of the role of
market forces. The main measures we will adopt are: We will earnestly implement
all industrial policies, make the requirements for market access more rigorous,
and control expansion of production capacity. We will support corporate
acquisition and reorganization and joint production agreements between
enterprises, and encourage competitive enterprises to grow stronger and larger
to increase concentration in industries. We will, in accordance with the law,
shut down enterprises that use resources destructively, contaminate the
environment, or do not meet production safety standards, and close down outmoded
production facilities. We will make proper and efficient use of existing
production capacity by restructuring investment and expanding consumption
demand. This work has wide implications and involves policy considerations, and
it needs to be done in an energetic yet orderly way.
We must conserve resources. First, we need to use a combination of means,
particularly pricing and taxation, to promote the rational exploitation and
economical use of resources. Second, we need to work quickly to establish or
improve standards for conserving energy, water, land and materials in all
industries, develop key projects that save energy and materials, and promote
more intensive utilization of land. We will encourage development of products
that save energy and resources and construction of buildings that conserve
energy and land. Third, we need to strongly promote upgrading of equipment and
technology, focusing on saving energy and decreasing consumption of materials,
and more quickly eliminate production processes, technologies and equipment
products that waste energy, water and raw materials. Fourth, we need to work
hard to develop the circular economy. A number of circular economy pilot
projects will be conducted in key industries, industrial zones, and urban and
rural areas. We will improve preferential tax policies for comprehensive
utilization of resources and recycling of recyclable waste, and promote
comprehensive utilization of waste materials and recovery and recycling of used
resources. Fifth, we need to improve all facets of management, include the
amount of energy and materials saved when compiling statistics on and evaluating
economic and social development, and set up a system for releasing information
on a regular basis. Beginning this year, the energy consumption per unit of
output for all regions and major industries will be made public on an annual
basis. Sixth, we need to carry out an extensive and long-term resource
conservation campaign throughout the country to heighten public awareness of the
need to conserve resources.
We will accelerate the development of an environment-friendly society. We
will strengthen ecological protection of water sources, land, forests,
grassland, oceans and other natural resources, with emphasis on preventing and
treating pollution in the watersheds of the Huai, Hai, Liao and Songhua rivers,
Tai, Chao and Dianchi lakes, and the Three Gorges Reservoir area, and at the
sources and along the routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. In
addition, we will promote clean production and develop projects for treating
industrial waste water. We will work hard to prevent and control air pollution
nationwide and increase the proportion of sewage treated and household refuse
safely disposed of in key cities. We will take comprehensive measures to control
rural pollution from non-point sources and pollution from livestock and poultry
farming. We will continue projects to protect the natural environment. We will
promptly create a mechanism for ecological compensation. We will strengthen law
enforcement and improve inspections to monitor environmental and ecological
protection. We will improve the systems for monitoring and evaluating
environmental protection and for determining accountability for environmental
problems.
4. Continuing to promote balanced development among regions
We will carry forward the development of the western region and give special
support to the development of key areas, cities and industries there. We will
ensure that ongoing major projects such as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and the
third phase of the Three Gorges Project are completed and put into operation,
and launch a number of major construction projects. We will consolidate and
build upon progress made in returning cultivated land to forests and returning
grazing land to grassland, and quickly adopt follow-up policies. We will
continue ecological projects such as those for protecting virgin forests,
bringing sources of dust storms under control and preventing the spread of stony
deserts. We will support the development of competitive industries and bases for
producing products distinctive to the area. We will speed up the development of
science, technology and education. We need to intensify policy support and
increase transfer payments to accelerate establishment of long-term, stable
funding channels for developing the western region.
We will continue to implement the strategy of rejuvenating northeast China
and other old industrial bases. We will focus on developing large grain
production bases, and on promoting reform, reorganization and technological
upgrading in key industries. We need to successfully transform the economies of
cities whose local natural resources have been exhausted, address the problem of
sinkholes in coal mining areas, turn shantytowns into new housing areas, and
promptly set up mechanisms to compensate for resource depletion and to aid
declining industries. We will conduct pilot projects for reforming some
collectively owned factories operated by state-owned enterprises and cities. We
will fully implement policy measures for opening wider to the outside world and
follow a new path of rejuvenation as we accelerate the reform and opening up
process.
We will energetically promote the rise of the central region. We will take
full advantage of its strengths based on its geographical position, resources,
industries and manpower. We will focus on developing modern agriculture, in
particular developing commercial grain bases in major grain-producing areas,
developing bases for producing energy and important raw materials, and
developing a comprehensive modern transportation system, a modern retail
distribution system and a modern market system. We will support the rejuvenation
of old industrial bases and transformation of resource-dependent cities and
develop bases for modern equipment manufacturing and high technology industries.
We will give major cities a greater role in stimulating the development of
surrounding areas.
We will encourage the eastern region to lead the country in development. It
should focus on improving international competitiveness, improve and upgrade its
industrial structure and enhance its capacity for independent innovation and
sustainable development. It needs to pay more attention to environmental
protection and the economical use of land, water, energy and other resources,
ensure that development is both fast and sound, and lead the country in
scientific development. The special economic zones and the Pudong New Area of
Shanghai should continue to play their proper role in stimulating development.
We will promote the development and opening up of the Binhai New Area of
Tianjin.
We will increase support to accelerate economic and social development in old
revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority regions, border areas, and poor areas.
We will give more aid to ethnic groups with small populations and continue
working to vitalize border areas and enrich the people living there. Developed
regions should assist and stimulate the development of underdeveloped regions in
various ways.