Nihon Keizai Shimbun:

China didn't set an economic growth target this year, which is something that has rarely been seen in history. When was the last year that China abandoned a GDP target? In addition, facing unprecedented challenges, how can China ensure the achievement of its economic and social development goals and tasks this year? Thank you.

Ning Jizhe:

I am happy to answer questions from Japanese reporters. A few months ago, anti-epidemic supplies from our Japanese friends with the poem "Miles Apart but Close at Heart" written on the boxes were donated to China, and got a positive reaction. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Japanese friends and thank you for your question.

Speaking of the economic growth targets, this is not the first time that we have dropped a specific target in a government work report. Since the reform and opening-up, there have been three years — 2000, 2001 and 2002 — when we set no annual growth targets in our government work report. It is the fourth time this year. You can check the reports. 

We have not set a specific target for economic growth this year because our country is facing some factors that are difficult to predict in its development due to the great uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 epidemic and the world economic and trade environment. The targets for development outlined are "giving priority to stabilizing employment and ensuring living standards, winning the battle against poverty, and achieving the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects." This shows that our development is centered on improving people's lives, and we consider employment to be a priority. It also reflects that our key goal and task is to win the battle against poverty — one of the three tough battles. It points to the connection of development goals set in the final year of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan and the first Centenary Goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

No mentioning of a specific economic growth target in this year's Government Work Report by no means indicates a less essential role of growth, which serves as an underpinning for ensuring people's livelihood, employment and poverty alleviation. We should pursue reform and opening up as a means to stabilize employment, ensure people's wellbeing, stimulate consumption, energize the market, and achieve stable growth. Though no growth target was set in the Report, it is in fact reflected in relevant indicators for other economic and social development goals.

Now, I will respond to your question about how to achieve our goals. Since the beginning of the year, we have been facing an extraordinary environment both at home and abroad due to the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, and our economic development also been exposed to unprecedented challenges. However, there are always opportunities arising amid crises so long as we surmount the difficulties. After effectively bringing the outbreak under control, China is regaining a steady momentum for economic recovery and improvement. In our next phase, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the NDRC will, in accordance with the requirements in the Government Work Report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang, make solid efforts to ensure stability on the six fronts and security in the six areas, maintaining security to deliver the stability needed to pursue progress and striving to accomplish our annual economic and social development goals. We will strengthen our efforts in the following six aspects: 

First, increasing efforts will be made to secure employment and livelihood. This year, we will give priority to stabilizing employment and ensuring living standards, with a focus on key groups including college graduates, migrant workers and laborers from poverty-stricken areas. In regard to the employment of 8.74 million college graduates this year, we will increase job vacancies in enterprises, expand enrollment in postgraduate schools and open more positions at community-level units. Meanwhile, we will encourage business start-ups as a means to create more jobs. Our public employment services will cover all urban and rural permanent residents (including migrant workers), so as to help more than 200 million migrant workers and tens of millions of workforce in poverty-stricken areas find jobs. We will encourage infrastructure projects to employ more rural labor force and ensure they can work locally and close to their homes. With proper jobs and income, people can enjoy a better life.

Second, we will strengthen our poverty-alleviation efforts. Winning the fight against poverty is an important target and arduous task we must fulfill this year, and we will enhance our poverty-alleviation efforts with employment, industrial development and consumption. We will utilize investments and construction to help people shake off poverty, and exert efforts to overcome the epidemic's impact and accelerate launching or resumption of poverty relief projects. We will expand the scope of the work-relief programs to cover more beneficiaries, and the NDRC has already allocated relevant funds to be distributed in batches throughout the year. Last year, we generally completed our task to relocate people from inhospitable areas a year ahead of schedule in accordance with the "13th Five-Year Plan". From this year on, we will establish more detailed follow-up supportive measures to improve services and facilities including education and healthcare in large resettlement areas, and consolidate our progress in poverty alleviation.

Third, focused policies will be introduced to mitigate the impact of the outbreak. We will pursue a more proactive and impactful fiscal policy, as well as a prudent monetary policy that is more flexible and appropriate, and another package of policies devised to prioritize employment, stimulate consumption, calibrate investments for vulnerable areas, refine industrial structures, differentiate targets for different regions and promote market-oriented pricing. When combined, they can effectively reduce the epidemic's impact.

Fourth, we will strengthen domestic demand to support the economy. We will continue to deepen the supply-side reform, hold firm to the strategy of expanding domestic demand, expand consumption, promote investment and explore potential markets in both urban and rural areas. Based on a population of 1.4 billion people, including a more than 400 million middle-income group, we will promote both traditional and new consumption areas. In regard to investment, we will leverage the 600 billion yuan for investment from the central government budget, special local government bonds worth 3.75 trillion yuan, government bonds approximating hundreds of billions yuan to be issued especially for anti-epidemic efforts and additional financial funds and social capital to address inadequacies and shore up points of weakness.. In this way, we can take great strides in terms of both traditional and new investments. In regard to urbanization, we will endeavor to bring 100 million rural residents to settle down in cities and towns, renovate 39,000 old urban residential communities and support the construction of a new-type urbanization piloted in about 100 counties and county-level cities.

Fifth, assistance to enterprises will be reinforced. We will accelerate our implementation of the policies assisting the development of enterprises and launch a new package of policies as outlined in the Government Work Report. We will adopt multi-faceted measures to help 100 million market entities, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed people, resume work and production to foster the micro-economic basis that can guarantee employment and stabilize economic growth.

Sixth, the reform and opening up will be strengthened. We will fully implement two major documents recently issued – "The Guideline on Accelerating the Improvement of the Socialist Market Economic System in the New Era", and "The Guideline on Improving the Market-based Allocation Mechanism of Production Factors" – to deepen our reforms to streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services. That is how we can improve our business environment, and unleash and develop productive forces. We aim to raise our new institutions of the open economy a notch higher and to continue overall opening-up in a wider, broader and deeper way. Thank you.