Fellow Deputies,

On behalf of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, I now present to you the report on the work of the government for your deliberation, and I invite comments and suggestions on my report from the members of the Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

I   Review of the Work of the Past Five Years

The past five years were extraordinary five years. Faced with an intricate domestic and international environment, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core put forward a series of new ideas, new concepts and new strategies based on enormous political courage and strong sense of responsibility. Many long-standing problems were solved and significant achievements were made. Historic achievements and changes were made in promoting the cause of the Party and state and socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era. In the past five years, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we fully implemented the decisions of the 18th and 19th CPC National Congress and important addresses by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his inspection in Jiangsu and earnestly implemented the guidelines of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and the decisions and instructions of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee. Adapting to the new normal of economic development, we actively practiced the new concept of development, intensified efforts to conduct supply-side structural reform, advanced practices of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects with improved performance by focusing on innovation and improvement of people’s livelihood and sped up the construction of building a new Jiangsu with a strong economy, well-off people, a beautiful environment and a high degree of social civility. Main goals set in the 12th Five-Year Plan were completed and a good start was made for the implementation of the 13th Five-Year Plan. This administration has realized its objectives of the term.    

1. Overall economic strength was improved markedly. We made development the top priority and enhanced the quality and efficiency of development. Economic development was maintained healthy and stable. The GDP of the province was increased by more than three trillion to RMB 8.59 trillion last year with an annual growth rate of 8.4% on average. Per capita GDP of the province reached RMB 107,000 with an annual growth rate of 8.1% on average. The general public budgetary revenue amounted to RMB 817.2 billion, growing by 6.9% annually on average. Industrial structure was upgraded. The added value from the service sector took up 50.3% of the provincial GDP, the added value of industry above a certain designated scale exceeded RMB 3.5 trillion and the output value from high-tech industries and strategic emerging industries took up 42.7% and 31% of the provincial GDP. We intensified innovation-driven development and pressed ahead with the development of the industrial scientific innovation center and international advanced manufacturing base. We made and implemented a series of policies like Science and Technology 40 Items to support technological innovation. The input in R&D was amounted to 2.7% in all sectors and the contribution of scientific and technological advances towards economic development reached 62%. The number of patent owned by every 10,000 people reached 22.4. The number of high tech enterprises exceeded 13,000. The regional innovation capacity took a national lead for many years. The total retail sales of consumer goods reached RMB 3.17 trillion and consumption contributed to 61.7% of economic growth. The investment in fixed assets was increased by 10.8%, among which the investment in non-governmental sectors and technical innovation was up by 12% and 16.6% respectively. The loan balance of financial institutions exceeded RMB 10.2 trillion and about RMB 2 trillion direct financing was issued. The added value of finance took up 7.9% of the provincial GDP.

2. Urban and rural areas took on a new look. A new layout of regional development took shape after the launching of the “1+3” strategy for key functional areas, in which, the Yangtze River city cluster registered fresh progress in transformation and upgrading, the Jianghuai eco-economic zone made ecology a priority in the development, the development of coastal economic belt stepped into a speedway and solid headway was made in center cities of Huaihai economic zone. New vitality burst out in coordinated development among regions. Steady progress was made in comprehensive reform in rural areas. Agricultural modernization was accelerated with booming development of green agriculture, smart agriculture and made-to-order agriculture and the grain yield reached 35 billion kilograms. We fulfilled the task of registration and certificate conferment of re-evaluated contractual management right of rural land, and the unified four-level rural property transactions market was basically completed. Encouraging progress was achieved in the building of distinctive townships and countryside. The comprehensive pilot project of national new type of urbanization was pushed forward and integrated development of urban and rural areas was promoted. The urbanization rate reached 68.8%. A new round of modification of urban master plan completed with the construction of integrated underground transport networks, sponge cities and smart cities advanced. Effective input was expanded in major infrastructure, totaling RMB 3.57 trillion in the last five years with an annual increase of 16.1%. A number of major projects in the field of transportation, conservancy, energy and information were constructed, which supported and promoted social and economic development.

3. Ecological environment was improved. Against the weak link of eco-environment, we promoted the Campaign of Two Reductions, Six Treatments and Three Improvements (Two Reductions refers to reducing total coal consumption and backward production capacity in chemical industry, Six Treatments refers to treating water environment of Taihu Lake, household refuse, black and odorous water, pollution from livestock and poultry farming, pollution caused by volatile organic compound, and removing environmental risk, and Three Improvements refers to improving the ecological protection, policy regulation of environmental economy, and law enforcement of environmental supervision) and shut down 1,421 low-end chemical enterprises. Air pollution treatment was intensified with the number of days with excellent air quality increasing by 33 and the average PM2.5 density dropping by 33% compared to the data of 2013 when the ten measures against air pollution was implemented. We carried out comprehensive water management by implementing River Chief System and River Section Chief System. It was ensured that people could have access to safe drinking water and no large-scaled lake flooding happened along the Taihu Lake valley. Pollution control was strengthened in the Yangtze River, Huaihe River and offshore areas to see the proportion of level III water evaluated by the state authority was increased by 10.6 percentage points and the proportion of level V water was down by 2.8 percentage points compared to 2014 when the Action Plan against Water Pollution was implemented. Inspection programs on soil pollution were carried out and the risk management and control on soil environment was strengthened. We took the lead in demarcating a red line of ecological protection zones and progress was made in the ecological protection network in Central and North Jiangsu. The number of nature reserves was increased to 31 and the natural wetland protection rate and forest coverage rate was increased to 48.2% and 22.9% respectively. The protection system was performed to improve the quantity, quality and ecology of farmlands. 3.92 million hectares of permanent capital farmland were defined and 2.67 million hectares of high-standard farmland were constructed. Comprehensive improvement of urban and rural environment was pushed forward. After renovating 189,000 natural villages and carrying out more than 80,000 environment improvement projects in urban areas, we became a leader in the country in terms of green land rate in urban built-up areas and per capita park green area. We had 45 eco-cities or eco-counties, 16 national ecological garden cities, 21 national eco-industrial parks and five model cities (counties) for national ecological civilization.

4. Significant headway was achieved in reform and opening up. Following the deployment and requirement of the CPC Central Committee and Jiangsu Provincial Committee on reform, we focused on institution innovation, and the development dynamism was further vitalized. We made economic restructuring the main line and formulated 459 key reform measures. We fully abolished the items not requiring administrative review and approval and abolished or delegated to lower-level government powers of review and approval of 887 matters in total. Positive progress was achieved in the reform of power-delegation, collective administration and quality service and pro-business environment was further improved. The practice of replacing business tax with VAT was in full implementation and reform was deepened in major areas and key links like state property management system, investment and financing system, fiscal and taxation system under the provincial level, commercial system, price mechanism and household registration system. Advancement was made in pilot reforms of science and technology system, ecological system and state tax collection and administration system. The private economy took up 55.4%, up by 1.8 percentage points. Improvement was shown in open economy and the quality and efficiency of paid-in foreign investment was further enhanced. The total volume of paid-in foreign investment of the last five years reached USD 135.38 billion, ranking the first in the country. Foreign trade structure was further upgraded with the volume of general trade accounting for 48.1% of the total volume of import and export, up by 5.6 percentage points compared to 2012. We took an active part in the Belt and Road Construction and development was stepped up in China-Kazakhstan (Lianyungang) Logistics Cooperation Base, China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone and Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone in Cambodia. China-ROK (Yancheng) Industrial Park and Kunshan Pilot Zone of Cross-strait Industrial Cooperation was approved to be built by the State Council. Reform on management system and operation mechanism of development zones was deepened, successful experience of Shanghai Free Trade Area was copied and the transformation and characteristic development from development zones to modern industrial parks were accelerated. The Yangtze River Economic Belt development strategy was put into effect and progress was made in promoting the regional economic integration of Yangtze River Delta. New outcome was made in the paired assistance to Xinjiang, Tibet and Qinghai and the regional and interprovincial cooperation was strengthened.

5. People’s livelihood was further improved. We strived for people’s aspiration for a better life and expanded the investment into social security to improve people’s livelihood. Per capita disposable income of residents reached RMB 35,024, 1.56 times as many as in 2012. The urban-rural income ratio was lowered to 2.28:1 from 2.37:1 in 2012. On the basis of completing the poverty alleviation task for rural residents with annual income less than RMB 4,000, a new round of poverty alleviation projects was launched and improved the per capita income of over 1.33 million low-income residents to over RMB 6,000. Employment was expanded with more than 1.4 million additional residents employed annually. We supported 964,000 urban and rural labors to start their own business, which provided employment opportunities to 4.093 million people. The social security system covering both urban and rural areas was basically refined with penetration rate of major insurances reaching 97% and the minimum living standards for urban and rural residents were among the highest in the country. The list of public service and allocation standard of basic public service at the community level was implemented that the compulsory education was enjoyed in all county areas and the development of high level universities was crowned with success. “Healthy Jiangsu” program was launched in full swing with new progress made in the pilot reform of comprehensive health care, basic public health services expanded to cover 14 categories instead of nine, the 15-min heath service circle covering both urban and rural areas continuously improved and the policy of one couple bearing two kids brought into force across the province. Main health indicators of residents were lifted. 1.387 million units of affordable housing were built and house-renting subsidies were provided to 123,400 households. 1.079 million units were rebuilt in rundown city areas and 180,000 dilapidated houses were rehabilitated. Public cultural service system was improved with the added value of cultural industry accounting for 5%, increasing by 0.7 percentage point. Fruitful results were harvested in quality works of culture. Protection, inheritance and utilization of cultural heritage were reinforced. Jiangsu Grand Theater was completed and ran into operation. We took a lead to set up the public sports service demonstration area. The 2nd Youth Olympic Games was successfully held. The elderly care system gained improvement and new achievements were scored in affairs related to women, children, senior citizens, disabled people and charity.

6. Society became more harmonious and stable. The overall national security concept was implemented and the development of Safe Jiangsu was deepened. The performance assessment of social security kept topping the country and the public sense of security reached 96.5%. The production safety responsibility system was put in place and the situation maintained stable. Work on food and drug safety and security management on network information was strengthened. In-depth progress was made in upholding the rule of law in Jiangsu and public legal system was increasingly improved. People were more satisfied with the enhancement of the rule of law. The development of Credible Jiangsu was in gear and the social credit system was steadily improved. Social conflicts were largely resolved and the number of complaints made through letters or visits decreased by 36.3% in the past five years. Burdens on communities were further alleviated and interaction between government and community was promoted. With the implementation of innovative on-line social governance mechanism, social organizations developed in an orderly way and the level of social governance was elevated. Steady efforts were made in national defense mobilization, civil air defense and reserve forces building for national defense and remarkable progress was achieved in special assistance to veteran, support to army and preferential treatment to the families of servicemen. The development of military and civilian integration was accelerated. New progress was made in the work on ethnic minorities, religions, foreign affairs, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan affairs and overseas Chinese affairs. National Memorial Day to the Nanjing Massacre Victims was smoothly carried out which inspired people’s patriotism.  

Fellow deputies, in 2017, the final year of the term of the current government, we focused on the main work of ushering in successful convocation of the 19th CPC National Congress and studying, promoting and implementing the guiding principles of the congress, took General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions and requirements on Jiangsu’s work as our guide and put them into practice in all respects of the work of the government, advanced work on reform, development and stability in a balanced way and opened up new prospects with fresh achievements. As a result, we have achieved generally stable economic progress while maintaining a sound momentum across the province. Its GDP grew by 7.2%, general public budgetary revenue rose by 4.6%, fixed assets investment increased by 7.5%, total retail sales of consumer goods expanded by 10.6%, import and export volume rose by 19%, including 16.9% growth in export, per capital disposable income growth of urban and rural residents registered 8.6% and 8.8% respectively, registered urban unemployment rate stood at 2.98% and CPI rise was at 1.7%. In short, we have comprehensively met major annual objectives set at the 5th session of the 12th Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress. Important headway was made in major work. We energetically focused on five priority tasks, namely cutting overcapacity, reducing excess inventory, deleveraging, lowering costs, and strengthening areas of weakness. By doing so, production of iron and steel, coal, cement and flat glass was curtailed by 6.34 million tons, 0.18 million tons, 5.1 million tons and 3.3 million weight cases respectively; sales cycle of commercial housing in all its cities divided into districts were kept within 12 months; asset-liability ratio of industrial enterprises above a certain designated scale dropped by 0.5 percentage point; corporate costs were cut by RMB 130 billion thanks to the adoption of multiple measures; 200 major programs in weak areas related to people’s livelihood were carried out smoothly, with RMB 410 billion invested in them. Solid steps were taken to move forward the special Campaign of Two Reductions, Six Treatments and Three Improvements, which curtailed total coal consumption in the province by over 10 million tons and over-fulfilled the targets set by national authorities in energy consumption, CO2 emission and emissions of COD, sulphur dioxide, ammonia nitrogen and nitrogen oxides per unit of GDP. We carried out activities to simultaneously launch major projects and RMB 520 billion was invested in 210 key provincial-level projects in the year. The Jiangsu Development Summit was successfully held. The quality of economic development was further enhanced. Economic structure was further improved with stronger development momentum. Added value of industries above a certain designated scale grew by 7.5%, and output value of high-tech industries and strategic emerging industries rose by 14.4% and 13.6% respectively. The Made in China 2025 Jiangsu Action Plan was thoroughly implemented, and the World Intelligent Manufacturing Summit, World Internet of Things Exposition, China (Nanjing) International Software Product and Information Service Trade Fair, China Jiangsu Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Conference were convened, which boosted industries to move up to the medium-high end of the value chain. Investment in high-tech industries and industrial technological upgrading rose by 8.1% and 11.5% respectively. Total profits from industries above a certain designated scale and operating profit from services increased by 14.9% and 15% respectively. The military-civilian integration systems and institutions were improved and progress in its integrated development was made. New steps were taken in the reform of key areas. Standardized lists of powers for the province, its cities and its counties with unified criteria were established. Jiangsu Government Service Portal and 12345 Online were put into operation. The model of interview-free approval was instituted across the board. Standardized and well-regulated trials of strengthening government transparency at the community level were pushed forward earnestly. The objectives of the “3550” Reform Campaign were basically met. Institutional reforms in the business sector were deepened. Newly registered market entities and registered capital rose by 13.8% and 25.5% respectively. Market entities grew by 4,184 in number on average daily, including 1,507 enterprises. Reforms of separating rural land ownership rights, contract rights, and management rights, the rural collective property rights system and rural land system were piloted in an orderly manner. New measures were taken in improving people’s living standards. 33 policies for enriching the people were introduced and special campaigns to raise people’s income carried out. Consequently, per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents hit RMB 43,622 and RMB 19,158 respectively. 291,000 people got support in starting their businesses and another 1.486 million urban jobs were generated. Improvement was made in enabling the general public the equal access to basic public services and growth in spending on education, healthcare and housing went well above the growth in overall fiscal expenditure. The 10 practical programs for ensuring and improving living standards were completed. New achievements were scored in government self-improvement. The right political orientation was firmly upheld and efforts were made to resolutely follow the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in thinking, politics and action. Activities to enable Party members to gain a good understanding of the Party Constitution, Party regulations, and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s major policy addresses and to meet Party standards were carried out. Dedicated efforts were made to improve Party conduct and moral integrity as well as working style, resolutely combat formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance and strengthen the building of service-oriented and law-based government with ethical conduct and moral integrity. Efforts were made to pursue law-based administration and subject ourselves to the oversight of people’s congresses and the law and democratic oversight of CPPCC committees. The system of reporting major decisions to Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress before their introduction and the requirement of conducting democratic consultation with CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee on major issues were implemented. Altogether, 402 pieces of proposals from deputies to Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress and 607 pieces of proposals from the CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee were handled and 14 sets of local regulations were submitted to the Standing Committee of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress for deliberation.

Fellow deputies, the development process in the past five years is unforgettable while the achievements and progress do not come easily. We owe them to the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the director leadership of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, the supervision and support from Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress and the CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, the care and support from all social quarters as well as the concerted efforts of people across the province. Here, on behalf of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, I would like to pay tribute and heartfelt gratitude to all people in Jiangsu. My gratitude also goes to the deputies to Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress, members of the CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, non-CPC parties, federations of commerce and industry, people with no party affiliation, mass organizations, people from all walks of life, the people’s police , the People’s Liberation Army and armed police forces stationed in Jiangsu, as well as to our countrymen in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan, overseas Chinese as well as foreign friends.

Yet we must not lose sight of the many difficulties and problems Jiangsu faces in pursuing economic and social development. The principal ones are as follows. It is an arduous task to replace the old development engine with a new one. Indigenous innovation capacity and the quality of economic development need to be further boosted. The real economy is facing multiple difficulties in its development. It is necessary to further strengthen and improve the policies, measures and business environment supporting the development of the real economy. Ecological environment is facing many prominent issues. We are confronted with arduous tasks in treating air, water and soil pollution. Unbalanced and inadequate development remains a salient issue. Supply of quality services in education, healthcare and elderly care falls short of the expectations of the general public. Coordinated development between urban and rural areas needs to be enhanced. Infrastructure construction still suffers from quite some areas of weakness. Risks and dangers in internet finance, real estate, government debt and workplace safety cannot be neglected. Transformation of government functions still needs to be furthered, with inadequate service efficiency and bureaucratism and formalism at work to some extent. We must take all these problems seriously, and take more forceful measures to address them all.

II  Major Objectives and Tasks in the Following Five Years

Socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era. This is a new historic juncture in China’s development. The following five years marks a historical period during which China will strive to achieve one of its Two Centenary Goals and a key period for Jiangsu to secure a decisive victory in finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects with improved performance and embark on a journey to fully build a modern socialist province. General Secretary Xi Jinping paid his first investigation tour outside Beijing to Jiangsu following the 19th CPC National Congress, and in the visit he made important instructions and requirements on Jiangsu’s development, which pointed out a clear direction and was rather encouraging for us.

The general requirements for the work of the government are:

－Follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era;

－Comprehensively implement the guidelines of the 19th CPC National Congress;

－Earnestly put into practice the important instructions and requirements on Jiangsu’s work by General Secretary Xi Jinping;

－Remain committed to the underlying principle of making progress while keeping performance stable;

－Adhere to people-centered development philosophy;

－Practice new philosophy of development;

－Promote balanced economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress and coordinated implementation of the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy (Note: This refers to making comprehensive moves to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, deepen reform, advance the law-based governance of China, and strengthen Party self-governance);

－Strictly follow the requirements for high-quality development in light of the change of the principal contradiction facing Chinese society;

－Resolutely implement the requirements for high-quality development;

－Thoroughly boost the practice of finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects with improved performance by focusing on innovation and improvement of people’s livelihood;

－Focus on supply-side structural reform;

－Maintain stable growth, promote reform, make structural adjustments, improve living standards, and guard against risks;

－Highlight key work, shore up weak links and strengthen areas of weakness;

－Facilitate changes in development quality, efficiency and drivers;

－Deliver good performance on three major fronts, namely guarding against and defusing major risks, targeted poverty relief and pollution prevention and control;

－Finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects with improved performance;

－Actively push forward exploratory, innovative and leading development;

－Embark on a new journey of achieving basic modernization with higher standards;

These efforts should further promote the development of a New Jiangsu with a strong economy, well-off people, a beautiful environment and a high degree of social civility.

According to the guidelines of the 19th CPC National Congress and the arrangements of the 13th Congress of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee and the 3rd plenary session of the 13th CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, we have set the following key projected targets for economic and social development for the following five years:

－Marked improvement of economic structure. We will achieve progress in supply-side structural reform, basically put in place a modern industrial system, move industrial structure from the low-medium end to the medium-high end of the global industrial chain. We will make new breakthroughs in indigenous innovation, continuously raise total factor productivity, and lift the shares of output value of high-tech industries and added value of strategic emerging industries in GDP by 46% and 35% respectively. Moreover, progress in science and technology will contribute 66% to economic growth and major innovation indicators will outperform that of medium-level innovative countries.

－Significant progress in urban and rural development. We will expedite the building of the “1+3” major functional zones (Note: 1 refers to the Yangtze River city cluster, and 3 refers to the Lianyungang-Yancheng-Nantong coastal economic belt, the eco-economic belt covering Suqian, Huai’an as well as the Hongze Lake, Gaoyou Lake and Luoma Lake, and the Huaihai Economic Zone with Xuzhou in its center ). We will formulate an urban development pattern dominated by city clusters with coordinated development among big, medium and small-sized cities and small townships. The modern infrastructure system will be more full-fledged and a 1.5-hour high-speed railway transportation circle from Nanjing to all cities divided into districts in the province will be basically put in place. We will significantly improve the level of urban planning, construction and administration, make important progress in village rejuvenation and substantially improve urban and rural landscape.

－Big rise in people’s sense of fulfillment. Increases in personal income will be kept basically in step with economic growth. We will complete the building of a standard system for basic urban and rural public services and fully meet all targets of poverty relief set by the provincial government. We will achieve marked results in better education, more stable employment, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, healthcare services with higher standards, more comfortable living conditions, more beautiful environment and richer cultural and intellectual life.

－Notable improvement in ecological environment. We will score major progress in environmental protection and governance, greatly improve resources preservation and utilization, raise the proportion of number of days with good air quality and III water in water sections evaluated by the state authority, and comprehensively eliminate water body inferior to category V. We will make steady progress in marine environment, bring environmental risks in soil under effective control, and make our sky bluer, ground greener, water clearer and air fresher.

－Prominent enhancement in cultural soft power. We will make core socialist values deeply rooted among the people, continuously promote cultural cohesion and leadership, quality of citizens and social etiquette and civility, and make headway in building the modern public cultural service system and its market system. We will further enhance the overall strength and competitiveness of the cultural industry, keep expanding our international cultural influence, develop a thriving socialist culture and boost our cultural confidence.

－Striking advancement in social governance. We will forge ahead with the building of a law-based and peaceful Jiangsu, improve the social governance system and initially put in place a social governance system featured by joint contribution, shared governance and shared benefits. We will effectively promote the building of a law-based society and continue to lead the whole country in assessment of public sense of security.

To achieve the said objectives, we have to bear in mind the fact that China’s economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development, center on the fundamental requirement of high-quality development and prioritize key tasks concerning the big picture and long-term development. Moreover, we have to turn innovation into the primary development driver, coordination into an inherent feature, greenness into a universal pattern, openness into a must choice and sharing into the fundamental objective.

We will boost economic innovation and competitiveness and push forward high-quality economic development. We will put quality first, prioritize efficiency, deepen supply-side structural reform and move faster to build a modern economic system. We will improve the quality and efficiency of the manufacturing sector, thoroughly implement the Made in China 2025 Jiangsu Action Plan, energetically advance manufacturing and transform and upgrade traditional industries. We will push forward the development of smart manufacturing, build a number of world-class manufacturing clusters of enterprises and facilitate the shift from Made in Jiangsu to Created in Jiangsu and Smart Manufactured in Jiangsu and from Jiangsu Speed to Jiangsu Quality and Jiangsu Efficiency. We will focus on innovation for industrial transformation and upgrading. We will fully leverage Jiangsu’s advantages in a solid industrial foundation and comparative strong innovation capacity, strengthen basic research and focus on key and core technologies. We will highlight the role of enterprises as major players in innovation, intensify industry-academic-research cooperation and facilitate the commercialization of research results. We will move faster to build industrial technology innovation centers with global influence and bases of advanced manufacturing with global competitiveness, expedite the development of advanced manufacturing and modern services and move industries to the medium-high end of the global value chains. We will actively foster new drivers for economic development. We will encourage more social entities to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship and cultivate new growth points in medium-high end consumption, green and low-carbon development, the sharing economy, the digital economy, new finance and human capital services. We will take concrete measures to hedge against and defuse major risks. We will strictly manage government debts, stoutly prohibit illegal financing guarantee behaviors and guard against and address government debt risks. We will intensify oversight of local finance and resolutely prevent the occurrence of systemic and regional financial risks. We will vigorously overhaul and regulate the real estate market and firmly prevent and control real estate risks.

We will pursue high-quality reform and opening-up by eliminating barriers in institutions and mechanisms. As reform and opening-up initiative embraces its 40th anniversary this year, reform and opening-up will be fueled up to embark on a new journey with full strength and move towards breakthroughs in multiple aspects, which will be guaranteed by accentuated accountability of the incumbents. We will continue to make market play the decisive role in allocating resources and put government in better use to enhance reforms in crucial links and key areas. We will focus on improving property right institution and market-based allocation of factors to stimulate the major market players, so as to deepen the economic and social reforms across the board. Institutional reforms on science and technology will embrace the birth of an institution in favor of technological innovations, in which companies play the leading role to follow the orientation set by the market, and industries, universities and research institutes are deeply integrated. We will forge ahead with reforms in power delegation, administration execution and service provision to establish and improve regulations for an open and transparent market and to create an enabling environment for proprietary operation and fair play. We will push forward institutional and mechanism reforms on social governance and integrated urban-rural development by improving social security and housing systems and steadily promoting rural land reform, to set up a powerful institutional guarantee for the building of a modern economic system. We will leverage the geographical advantage of being at the intersection of the Belt and Road Initiative to implement the eastward open-door policy and launch the westward opening-up initiative, so that a brand new open economy will take shape. We will prioritize the efficiency of foreign capital utilization, and give equal weight on import of capital, technology and wisdom, by highlighting introduction of functional agencies and development of headquarters economy. We will effectively promote international industrial capacity cooperation, and enhance capacity building of managing and competing in the global arena. We will further explore new business models of foreign trade, transforming from quantity-oriented policy guidance to quality-oriented one that emphasizes more on cost performance.

We will make greater effort to achieve coordinated development aiming at quality urban-rural development. We will make a balanced development plan to consider primary and secondary industries as well as urban and rural areas as a whole, facilitating the integrated common development. We will further optimize spatial layout. We will work hard to put in place a more scientific and reasonable regional layout of productivity, by accelerating the implementation of “1+3” strategy for major functional zones. New type of urbanization initiative will be further promoted, so as to enhance the attractiveness to and the bearing capacity of the migrated rural population. We will continue to foster the healthy development of townships with unique characteristics, so as to strengthen the coordination, connectivity and integration of regional development. We will speed up the modern infrastructure construction. We will prioritize the establishment of a modern multi-dimensional transport system, by stepping up effort in building of major infrastructures including high-speed railway, aviation, water way, under-river tunnel, road and pipe transport. We will adopt a forward-looking approach to arrange the across-the-board infrastructure for the new generation of information technology, further cementing the guarantee of and support to the economic and social development. We will work harder to implement the rural rejuvenation strategy. With concerted efforts, we will further deepen the supply-side reforms in agriculture by establishing the industrial, production and management systems for a modernized agriculture, and will improve the socialized service system by encouraging factors of all kinds including capital, technology and personnel to favor rural development. We will draw on and extend the good rural governance in Mazhuang, Xuzhou and improve the mechanism for rural governance, to usher in a new era of Native Land in Jiangsu.

We are committed to socialist cultural prosperity and pursue quality progress in cultural development. We shall be confident in our culture, raise our cultural awareness, value our cultural heritage, and build a beautiful home with cultural richness for our people. We will actively set up core socialist values and put them into practice. We will get the general public deeply involved in cultural progress through education, practice and institutional guarantee. The core socialist values will be integrated in all aspects concerning economic and social development. In this way, culture is playing the leading role in increasing social cohesion. We will further enhance cultural undertakings and develop cultural industry. We will improve the public cultural service system, as well as the industrial and market systems for modern cultural development. We will speed up bringing about new business models in cultural industry, and bolster an integrated, innovative and open development of cultural industry with its own characteristics. We will accelerate the “going global” initiative to expand international cultural exchanges and trade. We will press ahead with cultural inheritance and innovation. Our cultural creation shall be of, by, and for the people, and we are looking forward to more fine works which are profound in thinking, exquisite in artistic skills and refined in making, so as to implement the “selected cultural products” strategy. We will promote the inheritance and development of our brilliant traditional culture, better protect cultural heritage, and start to build the Grand Canal cultural belt. We will launch a nurturing plan for great masters for a powerful teambuilding in arts and literature, and bring about a batch of leading figures with positive influence in their own specialties.

We will make greater effort to improve ecological environment, and pursue quality ecological progress. Bearing in mind the philosophy that “green is the new gold”, we will put environment protection and ecological conservation on the top of our agenda, and work hard towards a beautiful Jiangsu. We are committed to winning the hard battle against pollution. We are more determined and resolved to address the outstanding environmental problems by fully implementing the action plan to restore the ecological environment of lakes and rivers, mobilizing all the people to take action, highlighting treatment at the source of the pollution, and focusing on air, water and soil treatment, so as to improve environment in both urban and rural areas and effectively guard against environmental hazards. We will make concerted efforts to protect and restore ecological environment by implementing major projects to protect and restore important ecological systems, improving the ecological risk prevention system and defense system for natural disasters, earnestly implementing the strategic arrangement for major functional zones, strictly safeguarding the “Three Red Lines”, and improving the administrative mechanism for ecological environment. We will adopt a practical approach to spur green, low-carbon and circular development. We will further encourage the development of clean energy including wind, PV and natural gas, set up a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system, promote energy saving and recycling, promote green and low-carbon lifestyle and production, speed up institution building for ecological progress, and improve the preventive, administrative and accountability mechanisms for a whole-process prevention and control and confirmation of responsibilities in case damages occur. As a result, a sound ecological environment will further increase people’s sense of gain, underpin a healthy economic and social development, and promote a good image of Jiangsu province.

We will focus on raising people’s living standards and work for substantial increase in people’s wellbeing. People’s aspiration for a better life sets the orientation of our endeavor. Making people rich will be embedded in the philosophy steering the development, guiding our work, and pointing out the way-out for our endeavor. We will make reform and development results benefit all the people in a fairer fashion. We will continue to increase people’s income. Multiple means will be leveraged to ensure that people’s income increases faster. People’s income increase shall be in step with economic growth, as labor reward shall echo productivity. We will put more emphasis on employment policy, making more people find their right niche at workplace. We will deliver better basic public services. We will adopt an equalized and standardized approach in basic public service provision. Pivoting on education, healthcare, elderly care and other sectors that are much concerned about by the people, we will increase the provision of quality public services, and strive to establish a sustainable and multi-tiered social security system which provides full coverage to all the people, whether in urban or rural areas, with well-defined right and responsibility and proper degree of security. We will intensify our effort to win the hard battle against poverty. Initiatives for making people rich and building of a well-off society will be earnestly implemented through more concentrated support, more effective measures and more precise work to completely fulfill our commitment to lifting people out of poverty as set by the provincial government and building an inclusive well-off society in which not a single person is left behind in Jiangsu. We will take concrete measures to enhance social governance with a refreshed mindset. We will improve the institution for better social governance, extend “Internet + social governance” model across the board, and strive to pursue socialized, law-based, intelligent and professional social governance. We will continue to pursue the building of a safe Jiangsu, improve the public security system, and guarantee production, food and drug safety. We will expedite the building of a law-based Jiangsu and fully implement major plans and measures for law-based governance across the province to safeguard people’s interests, uphold social justice and equity, and promote social harmony and stability.

A new era embraces new missions, and a new journey calls for new actions. Under this new historic context, we must precisely identify where we are and where we are going. We will move forward guided with new coordinates, new vision and new philosophy, strive for a new chapter in Jiangsu to put into practice socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, and endeavor to take the lead in the overall development across the country by making concrete and practical efforts. Pivoting on the historic change in the principal contradiction of Chinese society, we must take the initiative in unswervingly pursuing quality development by integrating social advancement with people’s aspiration for a better life. Focusing on making people rich, we will continue to increase people’s sense of gain and satisfaction. We must adhere to our endeavor to deepen reforms across the board, abandon all out-of-the-date mindset and eliminate institutional and mechanism barriers, and see to it that our reformative measures produce the desired results and are conducive to greater endogenous driving force by further emancipating our mind and taking actions proactively. We must regard innovation the cornerstone of our development, make full use of innovation to empower development, and make innovation the most prominent signature of Jiangsu in the new era. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we are fully confident that as long as all the people in Jiangsu work hard with one mind and forge ahead with determination, the grand blueprint of a new Jiangsu with a strong economy, well-off people, a beautiful environment and a high degree of social civility, sketched by General Secretary Xi Jinping, will definitely be turned into reality.

III Major Tasks for 2018

The year 2018 marks the beginning of our implementation of the thrust of the 19th CPC National Congress, the 40th anniversary of the Reform and Opening-up Initiative ever launched, and a magnificent year to witness the transition when we are moving to the 13th Five-year Plan period and to finish building a full-fledged society of initial prosperity. Major anticipated goals in this year’s economic and social development are: GDP will grow over 7%; the general public budgetary revenue will increase by about 6%; R&D input from the whole society will reach 2.74% of GDP; investment in fix assets will grow at around 6.5%; investment in new and high-tech industries will increase by around 9%; industrial input and investment in industrial technological advancement will go up by 6.5% and 10% respectively; overall labor productivity will rise to RMB 185,000; total retail sales of consumer goods will go up by 10% at least; foreign trade will see sound growth in stability; disbursement of foreign capital will remain stable; another 1.1 million plus people will get urban jobs; urban surveyed unemployment rate and registered unemployment rate will be curbed within 5% and 4%, respectively; increase in CPI will be kept around 3%; per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents will be in keeping with economic growth; energy saving, emission reduction, as well as air and water quality will be in compliance with designated standards set by the Central Government. In accordance with the arrangements made by the Central Government and the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, we will focus on the following nine major tasks to pursue quality development, by adopting a balanced approach to stabilizing growth, promoting reform, adjusting economic structure, improving people’s wellbeing and forestalling risks.

1. We will renew our effort in supply-side structural reform.

We will make notable progress in improving the quality of economic development with targeted endeavor to raise the quality of the supply system. We will continue the major work in cutting overcapacity, destocking, deleveraging, reducing corporate costs, and shoring up weak links. We will prioritize eliminating ineffective supply, nurturing new driving forces and reducing cost for the real economy. We will strictly enforce and apply environment, quality, and safety-related regulations and standards to cut overcapacity, weed out backward productivity and crack down on illegal productivity. We will render more efforts to properly deal with “zombie corporations”. We will improve the mechanism to settle claims and debts according to law, and properly seek replacement for the laid-off employees. Tailored policies and regulatory measures will be implemented to address the relatively heavy real estate inventory in some small and medium-sized cities. We will work steadily to ensure that a multi-tiered capital market be put in place, direct financing ratio and equity financing ratio in particular, will continue to go up and we will take active yet reliable measures to lower the corporate leverage ratio, especially that of the state-owned enterprises. We will earnestly implement measures to reduce corporate cost, continue to clean up corporate-relevant charges of all kinds, and further reduce corporate energy-using, logistics and financing costs. A batch of major “shoring up the weak links” projects concerning technological innovation, increasing people’s income, and basic infrastructure will be further implemented. We will speed up optimizing and upgrading the manufacturing sector. Intelligent manufacturing will be put on top of our agenda. The Yangtze River City Cluster will actively take part in application for “Made in China 2025” pilot program. Greater effort will be made to develop industrial Internet. “Internet + Manufacturing” special action plan will be implemented to set up a big data and cloud service platform for the growth of intelligent manufacturing to serve the whole province and the country at large. We will establish a group of model smart workshops and smart factories, and produce a batch of leading intelligent manufacturers, making the manufacturing sector more intelligent, digital and networked. We will draw up and put into practice the promotion plan for producing major industrial clusters, and accelerate our effort to bring about a batch of trillion-yuan grade industrial clusters in the new generation of IT, new materials, high-end equipment and other sectors. We will boost up growth of the leading enterprises, speed up the establishment of an industrial eco-system in which large, medium, small and micro companies collaborate harmoniously, and achieve the overall upgrading of the whole industrial chain. We will actively make comprehensive evaluation on integrated utilization of resources by industrial enterprises, and stimulate factors to move towards fast-growing companies with high efficiency, high output and high technology. We will make “Made in Jiangsu” a prestigious brand through quality-improving action plan and reinforce quality supervision across the board. We will further pursue the innovation-driven development. Measures will be taken to elaborately implement the 40-item policy on technological innovation and the 26-item policy on high-end talent production, so as to expedite the building of a regional innovation system centering on technological innovation. The Sunan National Innovation Park will witness new progress, innovation platforms including Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute and Jiangsu Technology Equity Market will be put in good use, manufacturing innovation centers at both national and provincial levels will be enhanced, and National (Wuxi) Sensor Networks Innovation Demonstration Zone will gain greater support. We will foster integrated development of education and industrial innovation, actively engage in building of national comprehensive sciences center, carry out research on and draw up Jiangsu high technology development plan, and strive to make breakthroughs in making leading technology out of original work. Greater emphasis will be laid on the quality of demonstration bases for innovation and entrepreneurship so that business startups and innovations by the general public will be elevated to a higher level. Creation, protection and application of intellectual property right will be strengthened. We will work harder for the growth of new driving forces. We will keep a close watch on the latest dynamic of international industrial development, and continue to design and implement a batch of provincial-level major projects pivoting on digital economy, sharing economy, and modern supply chain, to enhance faster growth of new industries, new modes and new business models. We will step up effort to embrace technological upgrading, equipment updating and green and low-carbon renovation in traditional industries to catalyze the emergence of new driving forces. We will continue to implement the “Double Hundred” Project for producer services (one hundred key industrial construction projects and one hundred key technological upgrading projects) and the Project of “One Hundred, One Thousand, 10 Thousand” for the Internet platform economy (100 key platform enterprises, RMB 100 billion tax revenues, RMB 1,000 billion industrial scale), to empower modern finance, e-commerce, modern logistics, cultural tourism, healthcare and elderly care and other sectors. We will pursue an elevated development of modern service clusters, and actively build national and regional centers of service economy. We will encourage more consumption on branded products, information and services, aiming at culturing new growth points in the service sector. Measures will be taken at a faster pace to turn Jiangsu into an ideal tourist resort with its outstanding element of water. We will boost up integrated civil-military development in which basic infrastructures are shared by both and joint efforts will be made in the key sectors.

2. We will devote great energy to implement the rural rejuvenation strategy.

We will improve the work relating to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers in the new era through the rural rejuvenation strategy, prioritizing the development of agriculture and rural areas and speeding up the modernization of agriculture and rural areas across the board. We will advance agricultural supply-side structural reform. The development of modern agriculture will be accelerated, and the strategy of improving grain production will be implemented by relying on land and technology, so as to cement and improve grain production capacity and guarantee grain security. We will further protect farmland and balance its occupation and compensation, improve land use and build high-standard farmland. Our emphasis will be changed from the increase of output to improvement of quality and efficacy, the regional structure and product mix of grain, husbandry, horticulture and aquaculture industries will be adjusted and optimized, endowment producing areas and county-level industries with distinctive features will be nurtured. We will improve the rural industrial mix, extend the agricultural industrial chain and value chain, and promote the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. We will step up efforts to nurture agricultural brands, and encourage the development of well-known, unique, quality and new agricultural products that are produced in large scale with good performance. We will carry out the initiative of “One Village, One Product, One Store” to accelerate the development of online sales of agricultural products. We will focus on encouraging small household farmers to become involved in modern agriculture, cultivate new types of agribusiness, service providers and professional farmers, and accelerate the increase of farmers’ income. We will vigorously encourage the development of household farms and farmers’ professional cooperatives, encourage leading agricultural enterprises to expand their scale and enhance their competitiveness, and improve specialized agricultural services. We will support agricultural innovation and encourage the application of advances in agricultural science and technology. We will strengthen irrigation, water conservancy and supporting machinery for agricultural operations by improving agricultural materials, technology and equipment. We will be fully prepared for the success of the National Expo for New Technology Innovation and New Farmers’ Entrepreneurship and the Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Conference. We will take solid steps to develop countryside villages with distinctive features. We will energetically develop high-efficiency agriculture with distinctive features, and accelerate the development of leisure agriculture, leisure fishery, rural tourism and other new industries, new modes and new business models. We will attach importance to protecting the rural legacy, special forms and traditional buildings of villages in light of the unique features of the villages in various regions, and design well important space, buildings and landscapes, while digging deep the time-honored history and inheriting the local rural culture to form a distinctive style. We will strengthen the construction and operation of facilities in rural areas to treat such domestic pollution as garbage and sewage, pick up pace to comprehensively utilize straws and waste of the livestock and poultry, energetically develop circular eco-agriculture, and redouble our efforts to comprehensively treat agricultural pollution from non-point sources to create a beautiful and harmonious rural view. We will continue to build the “Rural Road with Four Advantages”, and improve such supporting facilities as road transport, water and power supply, communications, logistics and distribution, and public services. We will improve systems and mechanisms for promoting integrated urban-rural development. We will make the planning system better, take all things regarding urban and rural development into consideration when compiling the planning, and make an overall design by integrating multiple regulations into one. We will improve the structure of towns and villages and accelerate the development of key towns and central towns. We will improve systems and mechanisms to promote connectivity, co-building and sharing of infrastructure in urban and rural areas and shore up weak links in basic public services for rural residents. We will press ahead with the reform and institutional innovation of the rural land system, the collective property rights system and the rural finance, and establish a uniform market in urban and rural areas for such factors as the labor force, land, science and technology, and capital to bring about common prosperity in both areas. We will modernize rural governance. We will strengthen basic services in rural communities and improve governance in rural areas, while cultivating a group of pioneers for such governance who are both able to help others to prosper and good at governance. We will improve the governance model in rural areas based on a combination of self-governance, rule of law, and rule of virtue to ease the burden of rural communities. We will build community-level centers for comprehensive cultural service to enrich rural culture and life, inherit historical rural culture and retain the sentimental memories of our hometown. We will work to promote good and up-to-date practices and trends, and create a simple and honest social etiquette and civility in rural areas.

3. We will promote balanced development of the urban and rural areas and among regions on a higher level.

We will deepen the strategy of “1+3” key functional zones. We will optimize their productivity structure, further define and clarify their respective functions, positioning, development goals, industrial selection and priorities, and encourage complementary development, featured and coordinated development. We will formulate and put into place overall planning, relevant special planning and specific action plans, with key areas in infrastructure, industrial innovation collaboration, major carriers and platforms, ecological environment and the people’s livelihood, and carry out a group of major functional and supporting projects. We will build such major carriers as Nanjing Jiangbei New Area and Tongzhouwan Demonstration Zone for Joint Development of the Yangtze River and the Yellow Sea with high standards, formulate a negative list for industrial development in functional zones, and put in place a hierarchical appraisal and evaluation system and mechanism after research. We will redouble our efforts to develop infrastructure. We will accelerate the construction of Lianyungang-Huai’an-Yangzhou-Zhenjiang and Xuzhou- Suqian-Huai’an-Yancheng high-speed railways, inaugurate the construction of Yancheng-Nantong, South Jiangsu Yangtze-River-side, Phase II of Shanghai-Nantong, Shanghai-Suzhou-Huzhou, and Nantong-Suzhou-Jiaxing railway projects, energetically promote the groundbreaking of Northern Yangtze-River-side and Nanjing-Huai’an railway, and press ahead with the planning and construction of the Second Line of Beijing-Shanghai Passage. We will focus on renovating and expanding trunk expressways as well as removing the blocks in front of dead-end roads, accelerate the construction of Yangtze River bridges and tunnels, and speed up the construction of ports and channels. We will optimize and integrate airports and other aviation resources across the province, open up new domestic and international routes, expand and strengthen the airport economy and the aviation industry. We will accelerate the construction of such backbone drainage projects as Xinmeng River, advance the preliminary work on the Phase II project of the Water Channel for the Huaihe River flowing into the sea, take emergency response measures and comprehensively treat the collapsed banks of the Yangtze River, and press ahead with projects to consolidate and improve water conservancy and seawalls in coastal areas. We will carry out a group of energy transformation projects to cement energy supply and security, and use more clean energy to optimize the energy mix. We will focus on such major projects as Optical Network Jiangsu, Wireless Network Jiangsu and High Definition Jiangsu, and speed up work on planning to build the 5G networks. We will carry out the project which enables every enterprise to have access to the industrial Internet, and promote the pilot construction of the quantum communication network. We will actively promote the development of sponge cities and such urban infrastructure as utility tunnels, and exert ourselves to treat easily flooded urban areas. We will improve the quality of urbanization. We will accelerate work on compiling urban system planning in key areas, and create networks of cities and towns based on central cities and supported by small and medium-sized cities, enabling the coordinated development of cities of different sizes and small towns. We will focus on improving infrastructure networks and take city clusters as the main form to bring the driving role of Nanjing as a megacity into full play for greater progress in the integrated development of Nanjing, Zhenjiang and Yangzhou, and to develop Xuzhou into a central city of Huaihai Economic Region. We will build networks of cities of different sizes and make efforts to improve public services in small and medium-sized cities. We will emphasize the guiding role of planning, prioritize the integration of industries and cities, and support and encourage sound development of towns with distinctive features. We will speed up the building of well-known towns for cultural tourism and towns with distinctive industrial, ecological and functional features by enhancing their richness and quality. We will earnestly promote work on granting permanent urban residency to people who move from rural to urban areas, relax restrictions across the board on residence registration for key groups, extend the urban-residence permit system to cover all areas, establish the mechanism for keeping the increased amount of urban-rural construction land in line with the newly-granted urban residency to people who move from rural to urban areas, and improve the rate of urbanization among the registered population. We will fulfill work on assisting the construction of Tibet and Xinjiang Autonomous Regions and Qinghai Province, and advance inter-provincial collaboration with Shaanxi and Liaoning provinces.

4. We will advance reform in key areas and produce real results.

We will eliminate obstacles from institutions and mechanisms, and focus on key reforms that have symbolic, path-breaking and pillar significance to further release the vitality of innovation and development. We will deepen the reform of streamlining administration, delegating powers and improving regulation and services. We will optimize the list of powers and responsibilities in provincial departments, push forward with “online examination and approval service” and the standardization and regulated operation of making government affairs public at the community level, run at a larger scale the pilot reform of relatively centralized right of administrative license. We will deepen the reform of “many-in-one permit” and “separation of operating permits and business licenses”, and press ahead with the work on “less permits with granted license”. We will strengthen oversight over the whole process of business operations. We will also select supervision objects and send law enforcement officers on a random basis and promptly release relevant outcomes to the public. We will expand Jiangsu administrative service networks to incorporate the community level, with an aim of establishing such a network that covers the province, municipality, county, town and village levels, so as to achieve the goal that enterprises can get registered and start business within three work days, receive the real property rights certificate within five work days and the construction permit for industrial construction projects within 50 work days. We will speed up the development of big data center of the province. We will focus on the pilot county-level integrated reform of Jiangyin, and deepen the reform of public administration system in economically competitive towns. We will deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises and state-owned assets. We will supervise commercial state-owned assets in a centralized and unified manner, reform the system of authorized operation of state capital, advance transformation of enterprises invested or operated by state-owned capital in a proactive and prudent manner, and use the capital market to carry out the mixed ownership reform. We will press ahead with the improvement of modern corporate system, optimization of corporate governance structure and selection and appointment of professional managers in state-owned enterprises to encourage them to improve quality, enhance competitiveness and expand scale. We will deepen the reform of fiscal and tax system as well as the system of making government budget and final account public, beef up efforts in integrating public finance funds, optimize the structure of fiscal expenditures, and improve the efficiency of public finance funds. We will step up efforts to promote innovated development of finance, promote innovation in the supply-side structural reform of financial support, and speed up the development of Yangzijiang New Financial Cluster, Taizhou State-level Pilot Reform Zone for Restructuring and Upgrading of Finance-supported Industries. We will deepen the reform of scientific and technological system, remove the obstacles that impede the cooperation of research and industries, and promote close integration of science, technology and economy, and close alignment of innovative achievements and industrial development. We will accelerate the reform of investment and financing system, make government investment more scientific, standardized and efficient, and bring the guiding role of government investment into full play. We will take solid steps to advance the price reform, the power distribution and sales reform, and the work on examination of fair competition. We will create a favorable environment for the development of private businesses. We will promote the system of market access list across the board, and remove invisible obstacles in credit loans, going public, taxes, innovation, tendering and bidding and talents. We will implement well policies and measures that support the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and resolve the problem of difficult and expensive financing through multiple channels to release the full vitality of social capital. We will take solid steps to carry out major national pilot reforms of new urbanization and ecological system.  

5. We will speed up to break new ground in pursuing opening up on all fronts.

We will actively respond to the new trend of economic globalization. The fields and scope of opening-up will be expanded, and quality economic development through all-round opening-up will be promoted. We will bring the advantages of our role as the intersection of the “Belt and Road” into full play, develop well and make good use of the China-Kazakhstan (Lianyungang) Logistics Base and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) (Lianyungang) International Logistics Park with high standards, accelerate the construction of the China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone, and promote the construction of the China-ROK (Yancheng) Industrial Park, to generate new opening-up advantages. We will earnestly participate in construction of such infrastructure as railways, ports, communications and power grids, and take solid steps to carry out international industrial capacity cooperation. We will follow the requirements of promoting well-coordinated environmental conservation and avoiding excessive development, and redouble our efforts to conserve and restore the ecological environment of the Yangtze River. We will coordinate our efforts to facilitate the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt, establish and improve more effective cooperation and promotion mechanism, enhance connectivity of transportation facilities, and promote integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region. We will upgrade our export-oriented economy, and proactively respond to the major changes and challenges of the international trade structure. We will accelerate the cultivation of new models and new forms of foreign trade, and support the development of such new models as cross-border e-commerce, market purchasing based trade and comprehensive foreign trade services. We will improve the quality and increase the added value of export products, export more new and high technology, high-end equipment, key spare parts and quality consumer goods, and promote quality import and quality export. We will advance quality development through the major measure of foreign capital introduction, and improve the quality of inbound investment. We will focus on introducing excellent enterprises and teams with core competitiveness to lead Jiangsu enterprises and get them imbedded into the global industrial chain, value chain and innovation chain. We will implement the model of pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list across the board, and make earnest efforts to become the first to replicate the experience gained from the state’s pilot program of opening the service industry wider to the outside world. We will make more efforts to promote integrated industrial development of Jiangsu and Taiwan, and promote restructuring and upgrading of Taiwan-invested businesses. We will accelerate the development of Jiangsu-Macao Cooperation Park. We will press ahead with the integration and improvement of special customs regulation zones, replicate the innovative systems of free trade areas, and expand the pilot project of general taxpayer qualification. We will comprehensively implement policies and measures for the reform and innovative development of development zones, strive to build national innovation-oriented parks, IPR demonstration parks and eco-industrial parks, and deepen the comprehensive pilot project of Suzhou Industrial Park for opening up and innovation. We will focus on building such major platforms for opening-up as Jiangsu Development Summit, the World Internet of Things Exposition, the World Intelligent Manufacturing Summit, the Cross-Strait Entrepreneurs Summit and the China (Nanjing) International Software Product and Information Service Trade Fair to provide strong support for the development of an export-oriented economy on a higher level.

6. We will work to ensure and improve people’s wellbeing.

We will focus on the most pressing, most immediate issues that concern the people the most, see basic needs are met, improve institutions, guide public expectations, and keep up with people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. Priority will be given to developing education. We will continue to rejuvenate our province with education, advance the modernization of education, and deepen the reform and opening up of education. We will work to improve the quality of basic education, make vocational education more integrated and bring out the full potential of higher education. We will increase government funding and move faster to build Jiangsu universities into world-class universities and develop world-class disciplines. We will persist in fostering virtue through education and strengthen the competence of teachers. We will advance babysitting service for infants and early education service for children. We will focus on resolving such prominent problems as insufficient preschool education resources, heavy burden of assignments for primary and middle school students, disorderly operations by after-school education providers and shortage of teachers, create a sound ecological environment for education, and strive to develop education that people are satisfied with. We will deepen the innovation and entrepreneurship initiative, and refine and implement the “33 Opinions to Enrich the People”. We will open more channels for college graduates and other young people and laid-off workers in the process of cutting overcapacity as well as migrant rural workers to find jobs and start their own businesses. We will also encourage scientific and technological professionals, returned overseas students and other high-profile talents to make innovations and start businesses. We will expand such new space for start-ups as the “Internet plus”, and fully release the great potential of business startups in creating more jobs. We will promote vocational skills training on a large scale, and make the relations between the supply and demand of the labor market more rational. We will tackle structural unemployment and improve the quality of employment. We will advance the “Health Jiangsu” program, deepen the reform of medical system, improve community-level healthcare services, strengthen the ranks of general practitioners, and promote contracted family doctor services with high standards. We will implement the smart health project, and establish quality and efficient healthcare services. We will improve basic public health services, prevent and control major diseases, and improve the whole-process services for childbirth. We will ensure the preservation and development of traditional Chinese medicine. We will provide more integrated elderly care and medical services, and give more mental support to the elderly people. We will build demonstration areas for innovation of home-based care and community-supported care services for the elderly people, and put in place a policy system and create a social environment for nursing as well as showing piety and respect for the elderly people. We will strengthen the social security system and work to see that everyone has access to social security. We will improve the system for provincial unified management of enterprise employees’ pension schemes, and increase the basic pensions of the retirees from government agencies, public institutions and enterprises. We will speed up to implement a unified system of basic medical insurance for rural and non-working urban residents, and promote the system of basic care insurance. We will make social assistance and humanitarian charity support each other, and improve the system for supporting and caring for children, women, and elderly people left behind in rural areas as well as people with disabilities. We will make urban management more standardized, networked, refined and intelligent. We will innovate the urban governance mechanism, make efforts to build cities of civility and urban infrastructure, and improve the capacity for urban management and services. We will speed up renovation of shanty urban areas and urban villages, and promote the pilot project for the rental housing market. We will put in place a housing system that ensures supply through multiple sources, provides housing support through multiple channels, and encourages both housing purchase and renting. This will make us better placed to meet the housing needs of the people. We will go all out to carry out targeted poverty alleviation. We will take targeted assistance measures in accordance with conditions, continue to alleviate poverty through industries, employment and education, and innovate and expand the model of alleviating poverty through assets income. We will help people increase confidence in their own ability to lift themselves out of poverty and see that they can access the education they need to do so, so as to enhance the self-improvement capacity of economically weak villages and low-income people. We will step up efforts to support such old revolutionary base areas as Huangqiao and Maoshan. For those who have been reduced to or relapsed into poverty by diseases or disabilities and who are not capable of shaking off poverty by themselves, we will implement such measures as support and nurturing, treatment of serious diseases, mutual medical assistance and meeting people’s most basic needs. The average income of more than 600,000 recorded low-income residents in rural areas will rise to RMB 6,000. Each of the 200 economically weak villages will have a collective income of RMB 180,000 per year. We will set up a supervision system of transparent poverty alleviation, and implement performance-based management of poverty alleviation funds to improve efficiency and guard against corruption.

Properly addressing problems faced by people with difficulties in their life and production is what we are committed to as we are in the final stage of finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and is a significant symbol of finishing building a full-fledged society of initial prosperity across the board. The government and officials at all levels need to attach great importance to and make solid progress in work on helping and supporting people with difficulties, enhance awareness of responsibilities, make thoughtful arrangements, deepen the initiative of “carrying out extensive investigation at the community-level”, care for the people and resolve their difficulties, and strive to score real achievements that earn the people’s approval and stand the test of times.

7. We will make steady progress in building a beautiful Jiangsu.

We will make greater efforts to improve the ecological environment through green, circular, and low-carbon development. The battle against pollution must be won. We will further the campaign on air pollution prevention and treatment with special emphasis on the control and alleviation of PM2.5 and ozone pollution. We will treat pollution in energy, industry, construction, and transportation sector in a systemic way for the returning of blue sky. Water pollution control will be strengthened. We will implement action plan for the protection of ecosystem in rivers and lakes, make sure that river and lake chiefs shoulder their responsibilities, and carry forward pollution treatment targeting at the catchment of the Yangtze River, Huai River, Taihu Lake, and offshore areas. We will see to it that sections with water quality worse than Grade V in national and provincial assessment disappear. Treatment of sources for central drinking water supply above county-level will be completed and treatment targeting at black and odorous water bodies in urban areas will speed up. We will tighten control on soil contamination, complete the survey on farmland pollution, and draw up the list of polluted lands and of those undesirable for utilization. We will implement the “263” special campaign (two reductions to cut coal consumption and backward productivity; six treatments targeting at Taihu Lake, household garbage, black and odorous rivers, VOCs, husbandry pollutions, and hidden environmental risks; three improvements refer to ecological protection, environmental and economic policy control, and the supervision over law enforcement). We will further explore the potential for continuous reduction of coal consumption and promote clean utilization of coal. Special campaign to shutdown, relocate, upgrade, or restructure a batch of chemical industries will be carried on. We will shut down companies that are not up to environmental, energy, or safety standards in line with laws and regulations, enhance circular operation in development zones and industrial parks, make sure that the facility is in place for the promotion of garbage sorting, recycling, and reutilization, the treatment of husbandry pollution, and the safe disposal of hazardous waste. We will preserve and restore the ecosystem in mountains, forests, rivers, lakes and farmlands, speed up our pace in building the Yangtze River ecological belt, Nanjing-Hangzhou ecological and economic belt, and the ecological corridor between the Yangtze River and the Huai River as well as demonstration and special zones for ecological protection, facilitate the declaration of the Yellow Sea wetland as world natural heritage, continue our work in afforestation as well as wetland and farmland protection, redouble efforts in coastal line rehabilitation, improve the environment along traffic arteries, develop green cities, and prepare for the 10th Horticulture Expo. We will make further progress in the establishment of ecological protection mechanism. Trial projects to designate urban, agricultural and ecological space on one hand and ecological red line area, permanent basic croplands, and urban development borderline area on the other will be implemented at municipal and county level. Progress will be made in registration reform as we strengthen the natural resource property right system. We will fine-tune fiscal policy relevant to pollutant discharge and promote paid use and trading of discharge right as a step in establishing a market-based and diversified compensation mechanism for environmental and ecological damages. The reform to promote vertical supervision over law enforcement of sub-provincial institutions will be completed to ensure the universal coverage of provincial-level supervision. Audit over natural resource assets under the name of leading officials will be performed at the end of their term.

8. We will push forward the development of socialist culture.

We shall adhere to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, carrying forward traditional culture, revolutionary culture, and advanced socialist culture, and coordinating economic and cultural progress. Educational campaigns on socialism with Chinese characteristics and the Chinese Dream will be launched to publicize Xi Jinping’s philosophy in the new era. Top think-tank will be built to assist Jiangsu’s quality development, with special emphasis on policy-making. We will innovate means of communication and promote the integration of all media. We will reinforce the core value of socialism (as we endeavor to build a law-based Jiangsu) and patriotism through education, including the organization of activity on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening-up and the public memorial ceremony for Nanjing Massacre victims. We welcome the flourishing of art and literature and look forward to the birth of reality-based pieces of work with profundity and exquisite art, including pieces that eulogizing our Party, our motherland, our people, and our heroes. We will strengthen the building of an art team with an increasing number of creative art producers. We take to our mission to preserve the fine traditional Chinese culture as demonstrated in our efforts to plan and build the Grand Canal cultural belt. We attach importance to cultural services for the public, promoting universal reading within the society. We will nurture a number of leading cultural enterprises and stimulate the consumption of cultural products. To better present Jiangsu on the global stage, we should develop our own cultural brand. The building of Chinese cultural center in The Hague is, as we consider, an important step in enhancing Jiangsu’s soft power and well worthy of our dedicated efforts. In terms of physical culture, we are committed to the development of public sports and the enhancement of overall strength of competitive sports. This year, we will host the 19th Sports Meeting of Jiangsu Province.

9. We will explore new ways for the improvement of social governance.

We are committed to the building of a safe Jiangsu under law-based social governance, a modern one featuring universal engagement and sharing. We will do our best to guard against and defuse major risks. We will strengthen government debt management, crack down on illegal financing, and tighten control over debt scale and ratio to prevent risks. We will tighten financial regulation, acting as a responsible keeper in market access, early intervention, and exit. We will stay vigilant toward illegal financing and risks in such key areas as Internet finance while strengthening regulation in weak links assisted by the monitoring and early-warning platform, and guarding against systemic financial risks within the region. In terms of real estate, it is important to bear in mind that houses are for living not speculation. Local government must perform its duty and conduct regulation tailored to the specific context. A long-term mechanism should be in place to regulate market expectations and house purchasing in case of such risks as market disorder and the rise and fall of house price. We will reinforce the multi-dimensional and IT-based public security system covering the whole society, cracking down on illegal and criminal activities. We should act in line with the accountability system, guarding against the occurrence of major accidents in workplace and ensuring production safety, and food and drug safety depending on regular in-depth safety and stability check and in-time problem-solving. We will enhance the social capacity of disaster prevention, control and relief by improving and using well the emergency response mechanism. Social psychology does matter. We will improve the psychological service system for the public to foster self-respect, confidence, peaceful mind, and positive attitude across the society. We will stay alert to and address social contradictions. The adoption of big data and IT technology will enhance our capability of foreseeing, identifying, and resolving social problems. We will establish a sound risk assessment mechanism for major decision that may affect social stability, and set up diversified mechanisms for problem solving. We will strengthen the law-based petitioning system to ensure that officials shoulder their responsibilities in attending to the rightful request of the public and put more efforts on work in relevance with ethnic groups and religions. Community governance should be improved as the focus on social governance gradually shifts to the community level. The reform to enhance interaction between the government and the people on one hand and communities, social organizations, and social talents on the other will be deepened. We will improve grid management within the society where social organizations play their effective roles while government governance, social regulation, and people autonomy complement each other. We will proceed with law enforcement system reform in urban areas, improving urban governance and services through specific projects. We will improve the social credit system to enhance public integrity. We will promote civil-military inosculation and solidarity to create closer ties between the army and the people, giving special care to servicemen and their family and offering assistance to ex-servicemen as they transfer to civilian jobs.

Fellow Deputies,

It remains our fundamental goal to ensure that the people live a good life. This year, we will continue to focus our efforts on 10 things for the wellbeing of people. The increase of job opportunities is regarded fundamental to people’s wellbeing. We will assist an additional 100,000 people who cannot secure employment in job finding and 20,000 university graduates and 30,000 farmers in business start-up. We will see to it that over 80% of ex-servicemen receive skill training and 95% of the trainees find jobs. An additional one million people will receive public emergency relief training. Social security will be strengthened. The minimum individual pension will rise to RMB 135 per month and minimum subsidy to medical care, RMB 510 per year. The minimum subsistence allowances for urban and rural recipients will rise by 5% and 8% respectively, making it RMB 430 per month for individual recipient in rural areas. More attention will be given to elderly people and those with disabilities. We will establish another 100 day-care centers and 2,000 community-based dining spots for the elderly to complete its universal coverage in urban communities. We will build distributed PV power stations for 5,000 impoverished rural families with disabled member(s) and ensure that each village (street) has a “home for the disabled”. Strong support and great care will be given to children in rural areas whose parent(s) work elsewhere. Two hundred care centers will be set up for these kids. We will take effective measures to prevent birth-defect, performing 700,000 prenatal-screenings and 800,000 neonatal-screenings. Food safety regulation will be tightened. To guarantee the safety of every bite, we will incorporate 2,200 key food producers and dealers in the electronic tracking system for food safety, set up 30 model food corners/ streets and 3,000 model shops. Living environment will be improved. We will renovate old residential areas, installing elevators in storeyed buildings for the benefit of the elderly and establishing 100 provincial demonstration residential areas with good living environment. We will strengthen housing support targeting at rundown areas. We will begin the retrofitting of 215,000 housing units, finish much of the construction work of 170,000 units, and renovate 15,000 dilapidated houses in rural areas. People in rural areas will enjoy more convenient transportation. We will build or upgrade 3,500 kilometers of rural roads, 800 bridges, and 6,000 farm bridges. Bus lines will be open in 80 more villages and counties, making the total coverage rate 77.6%. Water pollution in urban and rural areas will be addressed. We will harness over 100 black and odorous urban rivers, eliminating heavily polluted urban water bodies within two years. We will see to it that problems concerning drinking water sources at county-level or above are addressed, ensuring drinking water safety for the public, especially in rural areas. “Toilet revolution” will be pushed with greater efforts. We will improve the conditions of public restrooms in urban areas, construct or upgrade 1,500 restrooms at tourist sites, and install 200,000 eco-friendly toilets in rural areas. Cultural activities will be promoted to enrich people’s life. We will add or upgrade 300 community-based service centers, set up 4,000 cultural service centers, improve the function of 4,000 rural libraries, construct 700 fitness parks, and build 500 kilometers of fitness trails.

The improvement of people’s wellbeing is a cause with no stopping point but new starting points coming one after another as we proceed on. We shall always put people’s interest on top of everything and prioritize issues of people’s deepest concern, working nonstop for the enhancement of people’s sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.

IV Self-improvement of the Government

Fellow Deputies,

The new era presents us with new test. How well we perform in the test is up to the people to judge. Staying true to our aspiration and mission and guided by the spirit of self-revolution, we strive to complete the task that has been assigned to us in order to live up to the expectations of the people in Jiangsu.

We shall improve political awareness and ability. CPC leadership is fundamental to the existence of socialism with Chinese characteristics and is where the greatest strength of China’s socialist system comes from. To uphold CPC leadership, we must follow the leadership of the CPC Central Committee. Government and those who work in governmental bodies must strengthen political conviction, uphold political integrity, keep in mind the larger picture, follow the core Party leadership and its policies, and have confidence in our path, guiding theories, political system, and culture. We vow to resolutely maintain General Secretary Xi Jinping’s position as the core of the whole Party and uphold the authority of the CPC Central Committee and its central, unified leadership with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, keeping in line with the Central Committee in terms of political stance, direction, principle, and path. We will bear in mind Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and use it as guidance for our practice and work, absorbing energy from the truth and belief. We shall hold firm to our belief and keep people’s best interest at heart, acting as pioneer in the course of modernization. We shall ensure that the Party leadership covers every aspect of our work as we implement the policies of the CPC Central Committee and the instructions of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee.

We will promote law-based administration. Governance under the rule of law is the basic requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the guarantee for its development. Government must perform its function under the rule of law. Power is conferred by law and therefore, must be exercised based on the rule of law. This is the guiding principle in our work of building a law-based government. The system of people’s Congress constitutes the fundamental political system in China. We must implement decisions made by Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress and its Standing Committee and report to the Congress major events and major decisions before it is issued. Deliberative democracy should be exercised. We should improve government consultative mechanism, tightening bonds with the CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee and listening to the opinions of deputies to the Provincial People’s Congress, members of the CPPCC, democratic parties, federations of industry and commerce and NGOs and non-Party personages to ensure that decisions are made through scientific and democratic approach. Restriction and supervision over the exercise of power must be tightened. Government shall willingly subject itself to legal supervision, the oversight of the Standing Committee of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress, the democratic oversight of the CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, and judiciary, public, and media supervision. Intra-government oversight must be tightened within a sound system of rules and regulations to ensure that power is exercised in the sunshine. We will improve the administrative decision-making mechanism assisted by the new think-tank, adding more transparency to government affairs. Credibility and integrity are essential to governance. Government should serve as a good example in honoring its commitment for the public to follow in the course of enhancing social credibility and integrity.

We will keep enhancing competency. To shoulder new tasks in the new era, we must have both political integrity and competency. Following the instructions on enhancing governing capacity from the report of 19th CPC National Congress, we shall strengthen capacity-building in order to perform well in the test of the new era, always having a sense of urgency, bearing in mind our responsibility, and being fully aware of the fast-changing environment. A knowledge-based government is key to future development. We shall keep up with the pace of knowledge updating, mastering new knowledge in new areas and shoring up weak links to establish an inclusive, systemic, and professional knowledge base as the foundation for strengthening the ability to better adapt to the new era, realize new goals and implement new plans. We should be both creative and realistic in work, forging ahead with full energy and a pioneering spirit, adopt problem-oriented methods, and use IT technology to optimize government services. We need to apply bottom-line thinking and remain vigilant toward major risks, enhancing the ability to foresee what may be coming and preparing ourselves with feasible counter-measures at hand in order to take control when risks emerge.

We will enhance work style. Work style is of great concern to the image of government and people’s attitude toward the government. Efforts to improve work style shall never cease. We should wage battles against formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance following the instructions on work style improvement of the CPC Central Committee and Jiangsu Provincial Committee. We should always keep people’ best interest at heart, taking seriously issues that concern the public and correcting any behavior that is against people’s interest. We must reach deep into the public during survey to get the real picture and take effective measure to address the issue. Well-functioned incentive mechanism and error correction mechanism should be in place to guard against wrongdoings of officials while encouraging them to press on with full stride. The work should be done step by step and each step must be a concrete one.

We will strengthen efforts in the building of a clean government. We are government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We shall improve Party conduct and uphold integrity upon the requirement of comprehensively strengthening Party discipline. We shall address the root of problems and build a system that ensures officials dare not, cannot and will not become corrupt and that power and officials are subject to the restriction of system with tightened oversight. We shall strengthen supervision through auditing over public funds, the trade of public resources, state-owned assets, public expenses, and regular expenditure to ensure that limited resources and money are spent for development and the improvement of people’s wellbeing. Government must abide by rules and disciplines, being aware of the bottom line and keeping away from the red line, and always exercise strict personal conduct as civil servant.

Fellow Deputies,

We have entered a new era for the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics as well as a new stage for the building of a new Jiangsu with a strong economy, well-off people, a beautiful environment and a high degree of social civility. New goals are beckoning us on. Rallying closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, taking Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as guidance, and following the strong leadership of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, let us forge ahead with the cause of finishing building a well-off society in all respects at a higher level through promoting innovation-driven development and improving people’s wellbeing, and endeavor to build a new Jiangsu as we have blueprinted, ushering in a new chapter of Jiangsu’s development in the new era.