The State Council proposed division of work on key tasks in the 2022 Government Work Report to achieve this year’s economic and social development goals, according to a circular released on March 25.
A total of 52 major tasks in 44 aspects are appointed to ministries and departments in line with their functions.
The main targets include increasing GDP by around 5.5 percent, creating over 11 million new urban jobs, keeping the surveyed urban unemployment rate within 5.5 percent, maintaining the CPI increase around 3 percent, achieving personal income rises basically in step with economic growth, maintaining stability and improving quality in imports and exports to achieve the balance of payments, keeping grain output at over 500 million metric tons, continuously improving ecological and environmental quality, and lowering the discharge of major pollutants, according to the circular.
In order to achieve the targets set in the government work report, the circular stressed sound and effective macro policies, and micro policies that continue to stimulate the vitality of market entities, adding that structural policies should ensure smooth circulation of the national economy.
Policies on science and technology should be firmly implemented, the circular said, adding that reform and opening-up policy should stimulate growth drivers. Regional policies should lead to more balanced and coordinated development, and social policies should ensure people’s basic living standards.
Regular epidemic prevention and control measures should continue, the document said. Efforts should be made to maintain continuity in macro policies, strengthen cross-cyclical and counter-cyclical adjustments, and prioritize stable economic growth in the face of new downward pressures.
Positive fiscal policies should be more effective, while intensifying implementation of prudent monetary policies, and strengthening policy priority on employment, as well as guaranteeing food and energy security, and preventing and defusing major risks.
To stabilize market entities and ensure employment, measures should be rolled out, such as implementing new supporting policies for taxes and fees, leveraging the positive role of finance in the real economy, cutting production and operation costs for businesses, and putting pro-employment policies in place, said the circular.
It also stressed accelerating the transformation of government functions through pushing forward reform to delegate power, improve regulations and upgrade services.
Joint development of economic entities under diverse forms of ownership should be promoted, and reform on fiscal, tax and financial systems should be deepened.
The circular highlighted efforts to enhance scientific and technological innovation, increase incentives for enterprises to innovate, and strengthen the core competitiveness of the manufacturing sector.
Digital economy should be promoted, and sustained recovery of consumption should be pushed forward. In the meantime, the circular required measures to actively expand effective investment, bringing development among regions more balanced and coordinated, and comprehensively consolidate and expand achievements in poverty alleviation.
Measures should be adopted to stabilize foreign trade, intensify high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and improve comprehensive ecological and environmental governance. Work to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality should be done in an orderly manner, said the document.
Promoting equity and improving quality in education, elevating the capacity of medical and health services, strengthening social security and services, and guaranteeing people's housing needs are also stressed.
The circular also called for improvement in governments’ self-governance to build a clean and law-based government.
