Implement Existing Policies While Introducing New Ones

Implement Existing Policies While Introducing New Ones*

September 26, 2024

Since the beginning of this year, the CPC Central Committee has united the people and led them in calmly tackling difficulties and challenges. We have intensified macroeconomic regulation with a focus on driving deeper reform and opening up, expanding domestic demand, and optimizing the economic structure. As a result, the economy has generally remained stable and made good progress. New quality productive forces have steadily advanced, and the people’s wellbeing has been secured. We have also made headway in preventing and defusing risks in key areas, promoting high-quality development, and maintaining overall social stability.

The fundamentals of China’s economy and its strengths, including its vast market, strong resilience, and significant potential, remain unchanged. At the same time, some new developments and challenges have emerged that impact our current economic performance. We should adopt a comprehensive, rational, and objective perspective on the economic situation, face up to difficulties, and stay confident. It is imperative to focus our efforts on key areas and take a proactive approach. We should ensure the effective implementation of existing policies while also introducing new ones, to make our work more targeted and productive. With a concerted effort, we will strive to accomplish the objectives and tasks for this year’s economic and social development.

We should give more weight to fiscal and monetary policies in making countercyclical adjustments, guarantee the required fiscal expenditure, and ensure governments at the primary level have the resources they need to meet the people’s basic living needs, pay salaries, and maintain normal functions. It is necessary to issue and make effective use of ultra-long special treasury bonds and special local government bonds, in order to better leverage the stimulative role of government investment. We will lower the required reserve ratio and significantly cut interest rates. We will reverse the downturn in the real estate market and stabilize its development. For commodity housing, we should strictly control the increase of new projects, optimize the existing inventory, and improve quality. We should approve more loans to whitelist projects. In response to public concerns, we should adjust housing purchase restrictions, lower interest rates for existing mortgages, and promptly improve land, fiscal, taxation and financial policies, to establish a new model for real estate development. Efforts should be made to boost the capital market by vigorously guiding medium- and long-term investment capital into the market and eliminating the barriers to the entry of funds from social security, insurance, wealth management, and other channels. We will support mergers, acquisitions and restructuring of listed companies, steadily advance the reform of publicly offered funds, and study and introduce policies to protect small and medium-sized investors.

We should assist enterprises in overcoming difficulties and further regulate related law enforcement. We will formulate a private sector promotion law and foster a favorable environment for the development of the non-public sector. It is crucial that we integrate efforts to boost consumption and improve people’s wellbeing, to enable low­ and middle-income groups to earn more and optimize the structure of consumption. We should foster new forms of consumption. We will support and regulate the involvement of non-governmental entities in the development of the eldercare and childcare industries, and waste no time in refining our policies to boost birth rates. We will intensify efforts to attract and stabilize foreign investment, introduce and implement reform measures allowing foreign investment to access the manufacturing sector, among others, and foster a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized.

Basic living needs must be met. Priority will be given to ensuring employment for fresh college graduates, migrant workers, people recently lifted out of poverty, and zero-employment families. We should also strengthen assistance to groups with employment difficulties, such as middle-aged people, people with disabilities, or people who have been unemployed for an extended period. We must increase assistance for low-income groups. Efforts should be made to ensure the provision of essential supplies, including food, water, power, gas and heating, at stable prices. We should prioritize grain and agricultural production, ensure increased incomes for farmers, and effectively manage agricultural production in autumn and winter to safeguard national food security.

We should work hard, unite as one, and inspire public enthusiasm, initiative and creativity in the pursuit of high-quality development. Party members and officials should assume their responsibilities, pursue innovation, hone their capabilities, and deliver results in the process of overcoming difficulties and challenges. We will apply the “three distinctions”, and readily support those who step up to their responsibilities and those who are engaged in worthwhile efforts. We will encourage economically advanced provinces to play a pivotal role in driving and supporting the country’s economic development.

* Main points of the speech at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee.

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)