IV. Accelerating the Creation of a New Development Pattern and Pursuing High-Quality Development

 

To build a modern socialist country in all respects, we must, first and foremost, pursue high-quality development. Development is our Party’s top priority in governing and rejuvenating China, for without solid material and technological foundations, we cannot hope to build a great modern socialist country in all respects. We must fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy on all fronts, continue reforms to develop the socialist market economy, promote high-standard opening up, and accelerate efforts to foster a new pattern of development that is focused on the domestic economy and features positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows.

Pursuing high-quality development as our overarching task, we will make sure that our implementation of the strategy to expand domestic demand is integrated with our efforts to deepen supply-side structural reform; we will boost the dynamism and reliability of the domestic economy while engaging at a higher level in the global economy; and we will move faster to build a modernized economy. We will raise total factor productivity, make China’s industrial and supply chains more resilient and secure, and promote integrated urban-rural development and coordinated regional development, so as to effectively upgrade and appropriately expand China’s economic output.

1. Building a high-standard socialist market economy

We must uphold and improve China’s basic socialist economic systems. We must unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector and unswervingly encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public sector. We will work to see that the market plays the decisive role in resource allocation and that the government better plays its role. 

We will deepen reform of state-owned capital and state-owned enterprises (SOEs); accelerate efforts to improve the layout of the state-owned sector and adjust its structure; work to see state-owned capital and enterprises get stronger, do better, and grow bigger; and enhance the core competitiveness of SOEs.

We will provide an enabling environment for private enterprises, protect their property rights and the rights and interests of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law, and facilitate the growth of the private sector. We will improve the modern corporate system with distinctive Chinese features, encourage entrepreneurship, and move faster to help Chinese companies become world-class outfits. We will support the development of micro, small, and medium enterprises.

We will intensify reforms to streamline government administration, delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services. We will build a unified national market, advance reforms for the market-based allocation of production factors, and put in place a high-standard market system. We will refine the systems underpinning the market economy, such as those for property rights protection, market access, fair competition, and social credit, in order to improve the business environment.

We will improve the system of macroeconomic governance, give full play to the strategic guidance of national development plans, and enhance coordination between fiscal and monetary policies. We will work to expand domestic demand and better leverage the fundamental role of consumption in stimulating economic growth and the key role of investment in improving the supply structure. We will improve the modern budget system, optimize the tax structure, and improve the system of transfer payments.

We will deepen structural reform in the financial sector, modernize the central bank system, and strengthen and refine modern financial regulation. We will reinforce the systems that safeguard financial stability, place all types of financial activities under regulation according to the law, and ensure no systemic risks arise.

We will improve the functions of the capital market and increase the proportion of direct financing. We will take stronger action against monopolies and unfair competition, break local protectionism and administrative monopolies, and conduct law-based regulation and guidance to promote the healthy development of capital.

2. Modernizing the industrial system

In pursuing economic growth, we must continue to focus on the real economy. We will advance new industrialization and move faster to boost China’s strength in manufacturing, product quality, aerospace, transportation, cyberspace, and digital development. We will carry out industrial foundation reengineering projects and research projects on major technologies and equipment; support enterprises that use special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products; and move the manufacturing sector toward higher-end, smarter, and greener production.

We will consolidate our leading position in industries where we excel, work faster to shore up weaknesses in sectors vital to China’s development security, and improve our capacity for securing the supply of strategic resources. We will promote the integrated and clustered development of strategic emerging industries and cultivate new growth engines such as next-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, and green industry.

We will build a new system of efficient and high-quality services and promote further integration of modern services with advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture. We will accelerate development of the Internet of Things and build an efficient and smooth logistics system to help cut distribution costs.

We will accelerate the development of the digital economy, further integrate it with the real economy, and build internationally competitive digital industry clusters. We will build a modern infrastructure system with a better layout and structure, more effective functions, and greater system integration.

3. Advancing rural revitalization across the board

The most challenging and arduous tasks we face in building a modern socialist China in all respects remain in our rural areas. We will continue to put agricultural and rural development first, pursue integrated development of urban and rural areas, and facilitate the flows of production factors between them. We will move faster to build up China’s strength in agriculture and steadily promote the revitalization of businesses, talent, culture, ecosystems, and organizations in the countryside.

We must reinforce the foundations for food security on all fronts. We will ensure that both Party committees and governments assume responsibility for ensuring food security and that China’s total area of farmland does not fall below the redline of 120 million hectares. We will work to gradually develop all permanent basic cropland into high-standard cropland. We will invigorate the seed industry, support the development of agricultural science, technology, and equipment, and refine the mechanisms for ensuring the incomes of grain growers and for compensating major grain-producing areas. With these efforts, we will ensure that China’s food supply remains firmly in its own hands.

We will adopt an all-encompassing approach to food, develop protected agriculture, and build a diversified food supply system. We will foster rural industries with local features to create more channels for increasing rural incomes. We will consolidate and expand our achievements in poverty alleviation and help areas and people that have just shaken off poverty build their own momentum for growth. We will develop infrastructure and public services in rural areas in a well-planned and coordinated way and build a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in.

We will consolidate and improve the basic rural operation system, develop new rural collective economies, cultivate new types of agribusiness and commercial agricultural services, and support appropriately scaled agricultural operations. We will advance reform of the rural land system and grant farmers more adequate property rights and interests. We will safeguard the lawful land rights and interests of rural residents who have moved to urban areas and obtained permanent residency, and we will encourage law-based, voluntary, and paid transfers of such rights and interests. We will improve the systems for supporting and protecting agriculture and the rural financial services system. 

4．Promoting coordinated regional development

We will thoroughly implement the coordinated regional development strategy, major regional strategies, the functional zoning strategy, and the new urbanization strategy. We will improve the distribution of the major productive forces and develop a regional economic layout and a territorial space system that complement each other’s strengths and promote high-quality development.

We will make further progress in the large-scale development of the western region, achieve new breakthroughs in the full revitalization of the Northeast, accelerate the rise of the central region, and encourage the eastern region to modernize more quickly. 

We will support old revolutionary base areas and areas with large ethnic minority populations in speeding up development. We will promote development in border areas to boost local economies, raise local living standards, and ensure local stability. 

We will promote coordinated development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and ecological conservation and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin. We will build the Xiongan New Area to a high standard and drive forward the development of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone. 

We will improve the functional zoning system and the development of territorial space. We will advance people-centered new urbanization and work faster to grant permanent urban residency to eligible people who move from rural to urban areas. 

We will leverage the role of city clusters and metropolitan areas to promote coordinated development of large, medium, and small cities and push forward with urbanization that is centered on county seats. Guided by the principle that cities should be built by the people and for the people, we will improve urban planning, construction, and governance and move faster to change the development models of super-large and mega cities. We will carry out urban renewal projects and improve urban infrastructure to build livable, resilient, and smart cities.

We will develop the marine economy, protect the marine ecological environment, and step up efforts to build China into a strong maritime country.

5. Promoting high-standard opening up

We will leverage the strengths of China’s enormous market, attract global resources and production factors with our strong domestic economy, and amplify the interplay between domestic and international markets and resources. This will position us to improve the level and quality of trade and investment cooperation.

We will steadily expand institutional opening up with regard to rules, regulations, management, and standards. We will upgrade trade in goods, develop new mechanisms for trade in services, and promote digital trade, in order to accelerate China’s transformation into a trader of quality.

We will make appropriate reductions to the negative list for foreign investment, protect the rights and interests of foreign investors in accordance with the law, and foster a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized. We will promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

We will better plan regional opening up, consolidate the leading position of eastern coastal areas in opening up, and more widely open the central, western, and northeastern regions. We will accelerate the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the western region. We will work faster to develop the Hainan Free Trade Port, upgrade pilot free trade zones, and expand the globally-oriented network of high-standard free trade areas.

We will promote the internationalization of the RMB in an orderly way, deeply involve ourselves in the global industrial division of labor and cooperation, and endeavor to preserve the diversity and stability of the international economic landscape and economic and trade relations.