CHINA will cut sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by 3 percent and achieve a continuous decline in PM2.5 density in key areas, Premier Li Keqiang said yesterday while delivering a government work report at the annual parliamentary session.

China will encourage the upgrade of the steel industry, among others, to achieve ultra-low emissions, and continue efforts to prevent and control water and soil pollution, Li said.

This year, chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions will be cut by 2 percent, he said.

The government will redouble efforts to protect and restore ecosystems, and finish setting redlines for ecological conservation across the country.

This year, more than 6.67 million hectares of land will be afforested, and crop rotation and fallow land trials will be increased to cover 2 million hectares of farmland, according to the premier.

“Wetland protection and restoration will be expanded and pilot reforms for the national parks system will be continued,” he said.

“We will completely prohibit garbage from being brought into China,” he added.

GDP growth target

China has set its GDP growth target at around 6.5 percent for 2018, unchanged from that for 2017, according to the government work report.

Given China’s economic fundamentals and capacity for job creation, GDP growth of around 6.5 percent will enable China to achieve relatively full employment, Li said at the annual session.

China aims to maintain the inflation level at around 3 percent and create over 11 million new urban jobs. The surveyed urban unemployment rate is projected to stay within 5.5 percent, with the registered urban jobless rate within 4.5 percent, the report showed.

The above targets take into consideration the need to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and are fitting given the fact that China’s economy is transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development, Li said.

The GDP growth target is the same as that of last year, but might deliver different kinds of growth as China makes it clear that it prioritizes quality of growth over pace.

People’s wellbeing

China will do more to directly benefit the people, address their difficulties, and ensure that their basic living needs are met, the premier said.

“Our aim is to help people feel more satisfied, happier, and more secure,” Li said.

China will launch a new three-year renovation plan to address housing in rundown urban areas, starting with construction of 5.8 million units this year.

The premier reiterated that “houses are for living in, not for speculation.”

“We will support people in buying homes for personal use, and develop the housing rental market and shared ownership housing,” he said.

“We will step up efforts to supply public-rental housing so that all eligible low-income families struggling with housing, including eligible houseless first-time workers and migrant workers, are able to access public-rental housing under this scheme,” he said.

Talking about the increase of people’s incomes, he said the government will continue raising basic pension payments for retirees and basic pension benefits for rural and nonworking urban residents while appropriately adjust minimum wages.

China will develop fair, high-quality education by promoting the integrated development of urban and rural compulsory education, significantly reducing the rural dropout rate, moving faster to put an end to big class sizes in urban schools, and addressing the problem of heavy extracurricular burdens on primary and secondary school students, Li said.

The government will implement the Healthy China strategy, raise the basic medical insurance and serious disease insurance benefits.

Systemic risks

The premier expressed strong confidence in the nation’s ability to prevent systemic risks.

“We are fully capable of forestalling systemic risks,” Li said, citing the sound fundamentals of the Chinese economy and the many policy tools at the country’s disposal.

China’s economic and financial risks are on the whole manageable, Li said. “What China needs to do is to tackle both symptoms and root causes and enact effective measures to defuse potential risks,” he said.

Li vowed a serious crackdown on activities that violate the law like illegal fundraising and financial fraud.

Tax cut

China will reduce taxes on businesses and individuals by more than 800 billion yuan (US$126 billion) in 2018, the premier said.

China will prioritize lowering rates in manufacturing and transportation, and raise the threshold for annual sales revenue for small-scale taxpayers, according to the premier. The threshold for personal income tax will also be raised.

Far greater numbers of small low-profit businesses will see their income tax halved, and the ceilings on deductible business purchases of instruments and equipment will be significantly raised, Li said.

A policy of uniform corporate income tax exemption on the overseas earnings of Chinese businesses will be implemented. More logistics companies will enjoy preferential tax treatment on their use of land for storage facilities.

A total of 918.6 billion yuan was saved last year via China’s ongoing reform to replace business tax with value-added tax (VAT).

As the most significant tax overhaul in two decades, VAT is replacing the business tax that had been in place for 60 years, streamlining the procedure and avoiding repetitive taxation. It was piloted in Shanghai in 2012 and expanded nationwide in May 2016.

Poverty alleviation

China will further reduce the poor rural population by over 10 million, including 2.8 million people who are to be relocated from inhospitable areas, Li said.

Poverty alleviation efforts will be carried out through the development of local industries, education and health care, Li told the deputies.

China will do more to support areas affected by extreme poverty, and the Central budget’s newly enlarged poverty reduction fund and related transfer payments will be weighted toward these areas.

Li said that China will tailor measures to individuals and individual households to ensure that targeted poor populations, including elderly people, people with disabilities and people with serious diseases, receive the assistance they need.

Poverty relief policies will remain unchanged for those already lifted out of poverty while the battle goes on, and the newly poor and those who slip back into poverty will receive prompt support, he said.

Taiwan issue

Premier Li vowed no tolerance of any separatist scheme or activity for “Taiwan independence” in the government work report to the national legislature.

“We will remain firm in safeguarding China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Li said.

Upholding the one-China principle, the Chinese mainland will continue to promote peaceful development of cross-Strait relations on the basis of the 1992 Consensus and advance China’s peaceful reunification, he said.

Li promised that the mainland will expand cross-Strait economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation, and ensure that over time, people from Taiwan will come to enjoy the same treatment as mainlanders while they pursue their studies, do business, work or live on the mainland.

“As fellow Chinese living on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, we share a bond of kinship. As long as we go with the tide of history and work together for our nation’s greater good, we will together create the future — a beautiful future of national rejuvenation,” he said.

Foreign investors

China will open doors wider to foreign investors this year by completely opening up its general manufacturing sector and expanding access to a number of other sectors, Li said.

Foreign investors will have wider access to sectors like telecommunications, medical services, education, elderly care and new energy vehicles, Li said.

“We will make market entry standards the same for both Chinese and foreign banks,” he said.

Roaming charges

China will abolish domestic data roaming fees to cut the costs for increasingly digital Chinese consumers, according to the government work report delivered by Premier Li.

Rates for mobile Internet services will be cut by at least 30 percent this year, according to the report.

China scrapped domestic roaming fees for long-distance calls last year as telecom operators turned to mobile Internet services to grow their businesses.

“China will do more to speed up broadband and bring down Internet rates, achieve high-speed broadband access in both urban and rural areas, and make free Internet access available in more public places,” said the document.

The country will significantly lower the rates of home broadband, corporate broadband and dedicated Internet access services, it said.

These steps will bring tangible benefits to people and businesses, and boost the development of a Digital China, the report added.

(Xinhua)