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 in 2019

The past year marked the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the fifth anniversary of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on building a new Jiangsu with prosperity, sustainability and civility, and it was a year of great significance in the history of Jiangsu’s development. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we acted on the guiding principles of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the second, third and fourth plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions and requirements, and fully implemented the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council and the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee. We remained committed to the underlying principle of making progress while keeping performance stable and followed the new development philosophy. We did a good job in maintaining stable growth, promoting reform, making structural adjustments, improving living standards, guarding against risks and ensuring stability. We promoted high-quality development, achieved generally stable economic progress, made new advances in finishing building a moderately well-off society in all respects with improved performance and took new steps in building a new Jiangsu with prosperity, sustainability and civility.

1. New achievements were scored in economic development. Strong and effective measures were adopted to address the difficulties and challenges brought about by the downward pressure on the economy, Sino-US trade frictions and profound industrial structural adjustments. We worked to keep employment, the financial system, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment and expectations stable. We maintained stable and sound economic development and accelerated the transformation from quantitative to qualitative development and from high-speed to high-quality growth. It is estimated that provincial GDP will increase by around 6.4% to RMB 10 trillion. Per capita GDP is expected to exceed RMB 120,000, ranking first among all provinces and autonomous regions in China. General public budgetary revenue reached RMB 880.2 billion, an increase of 2%, and tax accounted for 83.4% of the total. Investment in fixed assets increased by about 5.1%, of which investment in manufacturing, industrial technology renovation and high-tech industries rose by 4.6%, 8.6% and 23.3%, respectively. Total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 6.2%, and the contribution of consumption toward economic growth reached 60%. The balance of Renminbi deposits and loans of financial institutions reached RMB 15.3 trillion and RMB 13.3 trillion, up by 9.4% and 15.2% year on year, respectively.

2. Industrial structure saw improvement. We continued with the work on cutting overcapacity, reducing excess inventory, deleveraging, lowering costs, and beefing up areas of weakness, strengthened the dynamism of micro entities, upgraded industrial chains and ensured unimpeded flows in the economy. We deepened supply-side structural reform and elevated industries to the medium-high end of the global value chain. We vigorously developed 13 advanced manufacturing clusters, six of which were shortlisted as candidates for national manufacturing cluster cultivation, accounting for 1/4 of the national total. We shut down about 4,000 illegal enterprises with heavy pollution, overhauled 223 zombie companies in accordance with the law and met the targets of industrial capacity reduction in iron and steel and cement sectors set in the 13th Five-Year Plan. The refining-chemical integration project of Lianyungang Shenghong Petrochemical Group and other major projects saw smooth progress. The output value of strategic emerging industries and high-tech industries accounted for 32.8% and 44.4% of industries above a certain designed scale, respectively. The action plans “100 Enterprises Taking the Lead” and “Upgrading 1,000 Enterprises” were continuously implemented. The number of industrial enterprises with operating revenue of over RMB 10 billion reached 142, an increase of three over the previous year, and the number of provincial-level innovative “small giant enterprises” that had proprietary advanced technologies reached 973, an increase of 250 over the previous year. We forcefully promoted integrated development of industrialization and information technology, and had built a number of smart factories, smart workshops, industrial internet platforms and benchmark factories. We endeavored to develop 100 leading enterprises and upgrade 100 zones in producer services. As for the internet platform economy, we strove to nurture 100 key enterprises, increase its profit and tax payment to RMB 100 billion and build it into an RMB-one-trillion sector. Operating revenue and profit of service enterprises above a certain designated scale rose by 8% and 7.5%. Services took up 50.7% of provincial GDP. 

3. Growth drivers were shifted at a faster pace. We implemented the innovation-driven development strategy, moved faster in making breakthroughs in key and core technologies and promoted the integration of science and technology with the economy and commercialization of research results. R&D investment exceeded RMB 270 billion, accounting for 2.72% of the provincial GDP. Among others, R&D investment of enterprises accounted for 80% of the total. The number of high-tech enterprises reached 24,000, a net increase of nearly 6,000. The number of invention patents owned by every 10,000 people was 29.9, a year-on-year increase of 3.45. The contribution of scientific and technological progress to economic growth was 64%, enabling Jiangsu to top China in regional innovation capacity. New headway was made in major innovation platforms, including the test facilities for future networks and high-efficiency low-carbon gas turbines as well as the Vacuum Interconnected Nano-X Research Facility. China’s first leading area for the development of the internet of vehicles was established in the province. The number of national incubators and incubated enterprises both remained first in China. New industries, new forms of business and new models flourished. Mass entrepreneurship and innovation gained momentum. The digital economy reached RMB 4 trillion in size. The operating income of business services, software and information technology services, and internet and related services increased by 9.4%, 18.8% and 23.4%, respectively. In the year, 1.841 million market entities, including 543,000 enterprises, were newly registered, with 5,044 market entities and 1,488 enterprises registered per day on average.

4. Key progress was made in the three tough battles. We fixed problems identified in the environmental inspection by the Central Government and its second visit, and earnestly implemented the law enforcement inspection and rectification requirements of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in compliance with the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People’s Republic of China. We further promoted treatment of environmental pollution in the Yangtze River economic belt, with focus on sewage and garbage treatment in cities and townships along the Yangtze River, control of chemical pollution, treatment of agricultural pollution from non-point sources, abatement of ship pollution and tailings pond pollution control. As a result, 117 illegal wharves were outlawed, 31 km of river bank was improved, 108 square km of land was afforested, and initial achievements were made in the development of nine demonstration sections along the river. At the same time, the average concentration of PM2.5 in the province dropped to 43 μg/m3, a year-on-year decrease of 6.5%, air quality excellence rate reached 71.4%, and all the targets of national evaluation were met. In 104 water sections evaluated by the national authority, 77.9% of them were Grade III or better in water quality, a rise of 8.7 percentage points. Water worse than Grade V was eliminated in all sections evaluated by the national and provincial authorities as well as in major tributaries of the river. Water quality in the Yangtze River, Huaihe River and other key river basins had improved significantly. For 12 consecutive years, the treatment of the Taihu Lake had guaranteed potable water safety and non-occurrence of large-scale algae-induced black bloom. Established urban areas in 13 prefecture-level municipalities and counties (cities) in the Taihu Lake basin had basically eliminated black and malodorous water bodies. The proportion of excellent seawater areas in offshore areas grew by 41.2 percentage points over the previous year. The prevention and control of soil pollution was carried out in an orderly manner. Tasks assigned by the national authority in carbon intensity reduction and emission reduction of COD and other three major pollutants were completed. Four new national ecological garden cities were added, making both the total number and added number of such cities first in China. We advanced investigation and resolution of risks and hidden dangers in the fields of economy, finance, society, science and technology, and forestalled regional and systemic risks. We spared no effort to see that the basic needs of food and clothing for those living in poverty were met and they had access to compulsory education, basic medical care and safe housing. We continued with the poverty-relief campaign toward moderate prosperity. 551,500 registered low-income rural residents achieved the goal of earning an annual income of RMB 6,000. 97 economically weak villages by provincial standards met the targets and 12 counties (districts) with prioritized assistance from the provincial government eradicated poverty. One-on-one assistance and poverty alleviation collaboration between east and west China saw solid progress.

5. New progress was made in coordinated development between urban and rural areas and among regions. We took the strategy of rural revitalization as the focus of the work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new era and earnestly conducted 10 key projects. Agriculture and rural areas maintained good momentum of development. 2,333 square km of high-standard farmland was added. The level of agricultural mechanization reached 86%. Overall agricultural production capacity continued to increase. Total grain output reached 37.05 billion kg. The contribution of scientific and technological progress toward agricultural development rose to 69.1%, 9.9 percentage points higher than the national average. Rural reform was furthered, and 70% of villages (communities) basically completed reform of the collective property rights system. Rural habitat environment was further improved as 95% of the rural population gained access to sanitary household latrines, another 2,500 km of water supply network was put in place, 5,887 km of roads and 2,208 bridges were revamped, and housing of 100,000 households in north Jiangsu were improved as scheduled. Yangtze River Integration Master Plan was fully implemented for high-quality integrated development in the region by promoting integrated development in six aspects including industrial innovation and infrastructure; meanwhile, the construction of a demonstrative zone for green development was initiated. Construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt and Grand Canal National Cultural Park made solid progress, and construction of China Grand Canal Museum kicked off. The “1+3” major functional zoning plan was further implemented as policy measures were adopted to promote the high-quality development of industrial parks jointly built by entities in south and north Jiangsu and coordinated development among different regions in south, north and central Jiangsu was strengthened. We sped up the improvement of a modern integrated transportation system as Xuzhou-Suqian-Huai’an-Yancheng Railway and Lianyungang-Huai’an Railway were completed and put to use, the high-speed railway service was available to all the five cities in north Jiangsu, construction of the South Riverside Inter-city Railway, Yancheng-Nantong High-speed Railway and Lianyungang-Xuzhou High-speed Railway was accelerated, construction of the Changzhou-Taixing Yangtze River Bridge, Longtan Yangtze River Bridge and Nanjing-Huai’an Railway was started, the Shanghai-Nantong Yangtze River Railway Bridge and Wufengshan Yangtze River Bridge completed final closure, and the phase II project of the 300,000-ton channel at Lianyungang Port as well as revamping and extension projects of Nanjing Lukou International Airport and Sunan Shuofang International Airport made smooth progress. Passenger throughput at Nanjing Lukou International Airport exceeded 30 million, making it one of the global large international airports. The infrastructure and emergency response capacity of the water resource sector was improved, and we won the hard battle against the natural disasters of drought, typhoon and flood.

6. Reform and opening-up endeavor made fresh progress. Greater effort was made to open wider to both the east and the west by leveraging Jiangsu’s position as the intersection of the Belt and the Road, and a special action plan comprising five major projects was launched. Trade volume between Jiangsu and countries and regions along the Belt and Road grew by 9.5%, and its proportion against Jiangsu’s total foreign trade increased by 2.2 percentage points. Construction of the China-Kazakhstan Logistics Cooperation Base, SCO (Lianyungang) International Logistics Park, and Huaihai International Land Port was accelerated. We adopted effective approaches to respond to the difficulties and challenges caused by trade frictions between China and the US. By doing so, Jiangsu maintained a stable foreign trade volume in general, and, among others, the export volume grew by 2.1%.  The paid-in foreign capital totaled USD 25.7 billion and was utilized in a more efficient way, amongst which paid-in foreign capital in manufacturing and strategic emerging industries grew by 18% and 32%, and the proportion of paid-in foreign capital in these two sectors against all reached 49% and 61%, up by 6 percentage points and 12 percentage points year on year, respectively. The establishment of the Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) comprising Nanjing, Suzhou and Lianyungang subzones was officially approved. Upgrading of development zones or industrial parks of all kinds and at all levels in the province was further accelerated. Meticulous efforts were made to pull off the 2nd Jiangsu Development Summit & the 1st Global Jiangsu Entrepreneurs Convention, World Internet of Things Expo and World Intelligent Manufacturing Summit, and to organize and participate in the Second China International Import Expo (CIIE). We intensified efforts in the reform of streamlining administration and improving services by accelerating the building of a five-tiered government service system. 92.5% of administrative approvals were able to be completed online.  One office building was designated to deliver government services to the public, and over 90% of procedures could be completed at one service window. We drafted and adopted an action plan to improve business environment and a 30-measure policy to promote high-quality development of private enterprises, and stepped up the building of the social credit system. As a result, Jiangsu ranked among the top in a business environment evaluation report based on opinions from 10,000 private companies released by All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce in 2019. Reforms in key areas including state-owned assets, SOEs, finance and tax, and social programs made concrete progress. Over 90% of the overdue debts of governments and SOEs to private enterprises or SMEs were paid, outperforming the national target which was set at 50% plus.

7. People’s wellbeing was further improved. Orienting our efforts towards people’s aspiration, we focused on addressing problems concerning people the most. The large-scale policy to slash taxes and fees was fully implemented and another RMB 220 billion was saved within the year, benefitting over 3.5 million companies and 27 million people. Multiple measures were taken to ensure financial support for key areas concerning people’s wellbeing.  General budgetary expenditure was reduced by over 10% and expenses to improve people’s livelihood grew by 8.5%. Per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents reached RMB 51,000 and RMB 23,000, up by 8.2% and 8.8% year on year. Greater efforts were made to help companies curb employee turnover. In the year, another 1.483 million people found urban jobs, outnumbering the target set at 1.2 million. Registered and surveyed urban unemployment rates stood at 3% and 4.5% or so, respectively, both of which were below the national average. We worked hard to secure supply of major agricultural and sideline products, including pork, at stable prices by granting RMB 850 million as temporary price subsidy. CPI grew by 3.1%. Social security system was further improved as per capita basic pension for enterprise retirees increased by 5.5%. RMB 1 billion was given as subsidy to 3.525 million people of low-income or in need of medical assistance to cover their basic medical insurance. Growths in beneficiaries of and funds for serious illness insurance reached 57.7% and 59.3%, respectively, and a municipal level medical insurance mechanism was put in place. 10 concrete plans to improve people’s wellbeing were earnestly implemented, resulting in accelerated development in education, healthcare, culture, tourism, radio and television, sport, and funeral and interment, and over 90% of basic public services at the community level were delivered in accordance with unified standards. We continued to work out new ways in social governance, and further improved mechanisms for risk analysis, assessment, accountability and prevention and control. We focused on addressing pressing complaints made through letters or visits, strengthened oversight of food, drug and vaccine safety, and stepped up campaigns to crack down on organized crimes and local mafias. By doing so, overall stability and harmony of society was guaranteed, and 98.3% of people believed Jiangsu was a safe place. We learnt a hard lesson from the chemical plant explosion accident which happened in Xiangshui on 21 March, and launched special programs to guarantee workplace safety by defusing hidden risks through large-scale investigations on all fronts. As a result, the number of workplace safety accidents and death toll dropped by 15.6% and 18.1%, respectively.  

In the past year, new achievements were scored in the work on the elderly, women and children, the youth, the disabled, labor unions, the Red Cross, charity and care for the next generation as well as on ethnic minorities, religions, auditing, statistics, foreign affairs, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao affairs, overseas Chinese affairs, advisory work, work of culture and history, archives, local chronicles and news. Major progress was also made in national defense mobilization, mutual support between the military and the civilians, placement of ex-servicemen as they transferred to civilian jobs, special assistance to veterans, and civil air defense.

The series of celebrations commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China greatly arouse our patriotic feelings, cemented our confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and empowered us to strive to champion the pursuit of high-quality development and the building of a new Jiangsu with prosperity, sustainability and civility. The educational activities about “remaining true to our original aspiration and keeping our mission firmly in mind” yielded sound results that the morale of CPC members and officials was greatly boosted to make new headway in the work. The government institutional reform was completed in full, and the building of a law-based government was advanced. Thanks to these efforts, we achieved greater efficiency in governance and a higher level of law-based administration. We earnestly implemented resolutions and decisions adopted by the Provincial People’s Congress, leveraged an inclusive consultation mechanism in major decision-making process, and willingly subjected ourselves to the legal supervision of the Provincial People’s Congress, the democratic supervision of CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, and public and media scrutiny. The oversight role of auditing was effectively brought into play. Altogether, 554 pieces of proposals from deputies to Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress and 740 pieces of proposals from CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee were handled; 14 sets of local regulations were submitted to the Standing Committee of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress for deliberation; and 238 pieces of important documents finished legitimacy review. We resolutely acted in line with the requirement of comprehensively strengthening Party disciplines, and strictly followed the instructions on work style improvement of the CPC Central Committee and Jiangsu Provincial Committee by waging battles against formalities for formalities’ sake, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance, with particular emphasis on the first two. In light of reducing burden at the primary level, the number of documents issued by the provincial government dropped by 32% and that of meetings was down by 34%. We scaled new heights in building a clean government and fighting against corruption as we made sure that any violation of law or regulation was seriously investigated and punished.

Fellow deputies,

These achievements in the past year have certainly not come easily. We owe these achievements to General Secretary Xi Jinping at the helm, the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, and the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. These achievements are resulted from the hard work by all with one mind and concerted efforts to maintain political integrity, think in term of the big picture, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership, to reinforce confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and to uphold General Secretary Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and resolutely uphold the Party Central Committee’s authority and its centralized, unified leadership. These achievements are also attributable to the direct leadership of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, and the oversight and support of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress and CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, as well as the support of people from all walks of life. On behalf of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, I wish to pay tribute and express sincere thanks to workers, farmers, intellectuals, officials and people from all quarters across the province. My thanks also go to deputies to the Provincial People’s Congress, members of CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, all other political parties, federations of industry and commerce, public figures without party affiliation, civil societies, the People’s Liberation Army stationed in Jiangsu, armed police forces, public security officers, firefighters, and to compatriots in the Hong Kong and Macao SARs and Taiwan and overseas Chinese and foreign friends who followed and supported Jiangsu’s reform and development.   

We are also conscious that, some difficulties, problems and areas of weakness still exist in our economic and social development. Downward pressure on the economy continues to mount, the real economy faces many challenges, and the difficulty of maintaining a balanced budget grows. The capacity for innovation is not strong enough, and our industrial structure generally remains at the middle and low end of the global value chain. Balanced and adequate development is yet to be achieved, ecological conservation and pollution control continues to be a weighty task, and there are still many areas of weakness in education, healthcare, elderly care, childcare and early childhood education, housing and other areas related to people’s livelihood. Jump in pork prices due to the outbreak of African Swine fever has brought difficulties to the life of people. There are still many risks and hidden dangers in a number of sectors, with a high frequency of workplace accidents. Especially worth mentioning is the extraordinarily serious accident in Xiangshui on March 21, which has left us with lessons that should never be forgotten. The capacity and system for governance need to be further modernized. Bureaucratism and pointless formalities exist to varying degrees in the work of government. A small number of government employees lack drive. We need to prioritize these issues and take forceful measures to address them.

II. Overall Requirements, Targets and Tasks in 2020

2020 is the final year for completing the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and the 13th Five-Year Plan. We will achieve the first centenary goal to lay a solid foundation for embarking on a new journey towards modernization and realizing the second centenary goal. The world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, and China is in a critical period of realizing national renewal. We are faced with an environment for development with unprecedented new changes. Generally speaking, both in the immediate future and for some time to come, China will still be in an important period of strategic opportunity in which a lot can be achieved, and our economic fundamentals have achieved steady rise and will remain sound over the long term. The five new objectives set for the important period of strategic opportunities elaborated by General Secretary Xi Jinping, namely, economic structural improvement and upgrading, scientific and technological innovation, reform and opening-up, green development and participation in the reform of the global economic governance system, the concurrent implementation of three major national initiatives, namely, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Yangtze River Economic Belt initiative and the initiative for regional economic integration of the Yangtze River Delta, and the approval of Jiangsu Pilot FTZ have provided orientations and major opportunities for us. The advancement of reform and opening-up with greater efforts and on a higher level by the central government, and the implementation of policies and measures such as larger-scale tax and fee cuts, support in private sector development and business environment improvement have bolstered our efforts against downward pressure on the economy. Our strong real economy, rich scientific, educational and human resources, and fairly full-fledged infrastructure network in particular have even more anchored our courage and conviction to overcome difficulties and obstacles. We need to view the developments with a holistic approach, translate external pressure into motivation, and seize strategic opportunities in transition from crises to opportunities. We should remain firmly confident in our development and maintain strategic resolve, while being ever ready to protect against potential dangers and think about worst-case scenarios, focusing on running our own affairs well to strive for Jiangsu’s leading position in high-quality development and steadfastly promote the building of a new Jiangsu with prosperity, sustainability and civility.

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;

－Implement fully the guiding principles of the 19th CPC National Congress and the second, third and fourth plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee;

－Earnestly put into practice the guidelines of the Central Economic Work Conference and the Seventh Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee;

－Firmly implement the Party’s basic theories, lines, and policies;

－Strengthen awareness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core and keep in alignment;

－Strengthen confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics;

－Uphold General Secretary Xi Jinping’s core position in both the Party Central Committee and the Party as a whole, and uphold the Party Central Committee’s authority and its centralized, unified leadership;

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

－Adhere to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability;

－Continue to apply the new development philosophy;

－Focus on supply-side structural reform;

－Push forward the three major national initiatives, namely, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Yangtze River Economic Belt initiative and the initiative for regional economic integration of the Yangtze River Delta;

－Keep employment, financial system, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment and expectations stable;

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

－Launch a special campaign for workplace safety; and

－Ensure steady and healthy economic development and social security and stability.

These efforts should ensure fulfillment of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects with improved performance and a complete success of the 13th Five-Year Plan. We will endeavor to ensure Jiangsu’s leading position in high-quality development, and accelerate the building of a new Jiangsu with prosperity, sustainability and civility. By doing so, we will lay a solid foundation for embarking on a new journey towards modernization.

With the above in mind, the main projected targets for economic and social development this year are set as follows:

－GDP growth of around 6%;

－An increase of general public budgetary revenue by around 2.5%;

－A rise of total retail sales of consumer goods by around 7%;  

－Stable, better-structured imports and exports and utilized foreign investment;

－Over 1.2 million new urban jobs, a registered urban unemployment rate within 4% and a surveyed urban unemployment rate of around 5%;

－Per capita disposable personal income growth that is basically in step with economic growth;

－CPI increase of around 3.5%;

－A reduction of around 3% in energy consumption per unit of GDP;

－Emission reduction of four major pollutants, namely, COD, sulphur dioxide, ammonia nitrogen and NOX, that achieves the targets set by the national authorities; and

－Significant decrease of workplace accidents and death toll.

The above-mentioned objectives not only take into consideration the profound changes in domestic and international environment and the fulfillment of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects with improved performance and the 13th Five-Year Plan, but also reflect the requirements of pursuing progress while ensuring stability and ensuring Jiangsu’s leading position in high-quality development so as to achieve reasonable quantitative growth and steady qualitative upgrading.

To achieve these targets, we must both highlight our priorities of the year and serve our long-term and fundamental interests. First, we must uphold overall Party leadership. Leadership of the CPC is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the greatest strength of this system. Government at all levels shall take a clear political stand and uphold centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee. We will follow Party leadership in every aspect of our work, see to effective implementation of the major principles and policies of the CPC Central Committee and the decisions of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, and closely follow the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in terms of thinking, political orientation and actions. Second, we must work for high-quality development guided by the new development philosophy. The philosophy paves the way for actions, and development practices are driven by the development philosophy. We will arm ourselves, guide our practices and push forward our work with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Under the guidance of the new development philosophy, we will establish systems and mechanisms to implement the new development philosophy, improve an indicator system to evaluate high-quality development, and apply the new development philosophy to every aspect of our work and practices of high-quality development. However great the downward pressure on the economy will be, we cannot return to the old path of judging success or failure by the growth of GDP and the model of inefficient and pell-mell development. Third, we must adhere to a people-centered development philosophy. People’s aspirations for a better life are what drive us forward. We will work to raise people’s quality of life to create a high-standard life in the process of high-quality development, and continue to enable our people to feel more satisfied, happy, and secure, starting with the most prominent problems and the most specific work through ensuring their access to childcare, education, employment, medical services, elderly care, housing, and social assistance with a full and faithful understanding of the evolution of the principal contradiction facing Chinese society. Fourth, we must resolutely win the three critical battles against potential risk, poverty, and pollution. These three critical battles, whose results play a decisive role in the degree of a moderately prosperous society in all respects with improved performance we are building, are crucial hurdles we have to remove. Focusing on solving problems, keeping the objectives in mind, and remaining result-based, we will target at the requirements of seeing that the basic living needs of rural poor population are met and that such people have access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and housing and at our goals of poverty alleviation to decisively win the fight against poverty and consolidate its gains. We will target at continuously improved environment by fighting against air pollution, water pollution, and soil pollution. We will target at making greater efforts to forestall and defuse major risks in key areas to ensure that no regional or systemic risks will emerge and safe development. Fifth, we must strengthen areas of weakness in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects with improved performance. Building a moderately prosperous society in all respects with improved performance is our solemn promise to the people of Jiangsu. Targeting at “improved performance” and “all respects”, we will focus on strengthening areas of weakness to promote more balanced and more adequate development, improvement of impoverished people’s basic quality of life  in particular, so that the moderately prosperous society in all respects with improved performance we build earns the people’s approval and stands the test of time. Sixth, we must resolutely intensify reform and opening-up. Reform and opening-up is a game-changing move in making China what it is today; it now remains a game-changing move for us to spearhead development. Relying on reform and opening-up as the ultimate driver for high-quality development for the new era, we shall foster new edges and accumulate momentums for higher-level development and for building a new Jiangsu with prosperity, sustainability and civility.

III. Priorities for 2020

This year, in pursuing economic and social development, we will face weighty tasks and many challenges. We must address crucial issues to deliver a solid performance. We will focus on the following 10 priorities.

 1. We will sustain stable and healthy development of the economy. We will uphold the principle of seeking progress amidst stability and make greater efforts to keep economic performance within a proper range.

Tax and fee reduction will intensify. We will overhaul fees imposed on businesses, allow eligible businesses with difficulties to delay payment of social insurance premiums as appropriate, scale up direct trading of electricity, and further lower costs of electricity, gas and logistics. These will bring about larger benefits to market entities.

New drivers for investment and consumption will be fostered.  Leveraging the market and the government as the “two hands” to concertedly guide capital to flow into areas that both fuel development and improve people’s livelihood, that bring mutual benefits to both the supply and the demand sides and that exert multiplier effects, we will catalyze the upgrading of both the industry and consumption. We will initiate key industrial and infrastructure projects and major sustainability programs that strengthen weak links as well as those for people’s livelihood and launch an action plan for renovating old residential areas in cities, with the aim of improving public service facilities, such as utility tunnels and parking lots, and people’s living environment. To unleash residents’ consumption potential, we will bolster the provision of cultural, tourist, sports, nursing, elderly care and housekeeping services, build high-grade pedestrian streets and shopping centers, create demonstration enterprises in new retail and high-class business districts, and improve amenities such as community food markets.

We will promote high-quality development of the private sector. We will uphold the “two no irresolutions” principle, namely no irresolution in consolidating and developing the public sector, and no irresolution in encouraging, supporting, and guiding the development of the non-public sector. We will forge a close and clean relationship between government and business, foster a fairer market, policy, legal and social environment, and raise confidence of entrepreneurs. We will improve the exchange and consultation system between government and business, establish a long-term mechanism for resolving overdue debts owed by governments and state-owned enterprises to private and SMEs. A practice of “point-to-point” assistance will be carried out to address issues of difficult and expensive financing faced by SMEs. Private enterprises will be supported in engaging in industrial production, growing their main businesses and pursing high-quality development.

2. We will implement the innovation-driven development strategy. By leveraging innovation as the primary force, and talent as the primary resource, we will fully tap into Jiangsu’s advantages in both talent and real economy to upgrade its technological strength, innovation capabilities and industrial core competitiveness.

More efforts will be rendered to make breakthroughs in major and core technologies. With the commitment to building an independent and controllable modern industrial system, we will focus on overcoming bottlenecks and difficult issues in key areas and intensify efforts to make technological breakthroughs. We will strengthen basic research, promote original and collective innovation and propel re-innovation based on existing ideas. We will carry out researches into frontier and leading technologies, promote innovation in forward-looking industrial technologies and set up large-scale science facilities, in a bid to create more top innovators in Jiangsu, a fertile ground for innovation.

Enterprises will play the leading role as main innovators. We will take steps to bolster enterprises’ capacities for innovation and resource integration, support enterprises in collaborating with universities and research institutes in building high-level technological centers, engineering research centers and high-value demonstration centers for fostering patents. By taking steps to cultivate high-tech enterprises and upgrade small enterprises into high-tech ones, we will empower technological companies with high growth potential and nurture benchmark high-tech enterprises. We will work to raise the number of high-tech enterprises to 30,000.

Commercialization of research results will be intensified. We will strengthen the leading role of the Sunan National Innovation Park in innovation, leverage the functions of platforms such as the Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute and Jiangsu Provincial Technology Property Rights Trading Market, and establish innovation centers at a quickened pace. To enable more innovation results to take root and bear fruit in the land of Jiangsu, we will professionalize and refine innovative platforms, build open, efficient and high-level R&D platforms for collaborative research into generic technologies, commercialize a batch of key research results and establish demonstration zones, key projects and demonstration enterprises for military-civilian integrated innovation.

We will foster a first-class innovation ecosystem. By improving incentive schemes for technological innovation and implementing policies and protection systems for intellectual property rights such as 30 policies on reform in scientific and technological systems, we will promote successful practices in pilot reform of provincial scientific research funds and project management, beef up efforts in implementing policies such as deducting R&D expenses from taxable income, amortizing costs of intangible assets before tax and pilot programs for insuring the first set of major equipment. We will conscientiously implement policies and measures such as the 26-item policies on high-end talent production and schemes on supporting sci-tech entrepreneurs in order to fuel innovation in Jiangsu with talent. The improvement of the service system for innovation and entrepreneurship will be expedited and a culture for innovation will be cultivated to practically remove institutional obstacles for both research entities and researchers and unleash the vigor for innovation and creativity across all sectors of society.

3. We will accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading. We will continue to deepen supply-side structural reform, cement outcomes of reducing excess capacities in steel and iron industries and coal-fired power plants and expedite the elimination of “zombie companies”. These efforts aim to promote survival of the fittest production capacities, accelerate high-quality development of manufacturing and upgrade industries to the medium-high end of the global value chain.

We will build advanced manufacturing clusters. With the focus on building 13 advanced manufacturing clusters including those for engineering machinery, integrated circuit, high-end equipment, bio-pharmaceutical, IoT and frontier new materials, we will launch programs to strengthen and extend the industrial chain to beef up basic capacities of industries and modernization level of the chain. We will press ahead with the action plans “100 Enterprises Taking the Lead” and “Upgrading 1,000 Enterprises” and foster a number of national champions in individual manufacturing areas and “hidden champions”. We will promote quality upgrading in modern services, professionalize producer services and move it up to the high end of the value chain. We will comprehensively bolster integrated development of modern services and advanced manufacturing.

We will intensify technological renovation. We will strive to make technologies more intelligent, greener and more service-oriented, shore up weak links in major equipment, improve workplace safety and elevate the quality of development. We will expedite large-scale technological renovation, improve inherent quality of industrial enterprises and stimulate dynamism for inner growth. To induce the transformation from “Manufactured in Jiangsu” to “Intelligent Manufacturing in Jiangsu”, we will push forward the development of “5G + industrial internet”, run intelligent manufacturing projects and manufacturing digitalization programs and advance in-depth integration of industrialization and information technology.

We will spur industrial improvement. By earnestly carrying out the Implementation Decisions on driving transformation and upgrading and high-quality development of the chemical, steel and iron industries and coal-fired power plants, we will help chemical enterprises meet safety and environmental requirements, and phase out enterprises and projects that fall short of environmental standards, provide no guarantee for safety and are backward in technologies in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. Support will be given to big quality projects that conform to requirements of national strategies, lead the whole industry forward, meet safety and environment requirements and apply advanced technologies, as we pursue industrial structural improvement and upgrading for intensive development. We will, however, refrain from the “one-size-fits-all” approach in handling these enterprises, so as to encourage the industry to improve its layout and develop at a higher level and more intensively. We will carry out quality upgrading programs for modern services, propel producer services to be specialized and higher in value and consumer services to be diverse and of high-quality, so as to comprehensively bolster the integrated development of modern services and advanced manufacturing.

Efforts will be invested in developing building economy, urban block economy and headquarters economy. We seek to add new drivers to high-quality development through nurturing and growing new industries, new business types and models. Endeavors will include facilitating innovation and industrial application of such technologies as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, big data, and block chain, cultivating strategic industries like the new generation of information technology, speeding up the development of 5G communication network and the pilot zone of the internet of vehicles as well as the digital economy.

Efforts will be invested in developing production activities that integrate new industries, new forms of business and new models. We seek to add new drivers to high-quality development through nurturing and growing new industries, new business types and models. Endeavors will include facilitating innovation and industrial application of such technologies as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, big data, and block chain, cultivating strategic industries like the new generation of information technology, speeding up the development of 5G communication network and the pilot zone of the internet of vehicles as well as the digital economy.

4. We will increase input in rural revitalization. By giving continued priority to the development of agriculture and rural areas, we will make new achievements with our work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers through the implementation of 10 major projects on rural revitalization, accelerating the development of modern agriculture, improving rural environment, continuing to deepen the reform of agricultural industry and rural areas, and scoring a decisive win against poverty.

We will deepen supply-side structural reform of agricultural industry, making strategic adjustment of its structure and promoting integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas. We will nurture a number of signature brands and geographical indication products and scale up eight competitive characteristic industries to RMB 100 billion level. Guided by the principle of improving grain production through soil conservation and technology, we will continue to develop modern agricultural industrial parks and high-standard farmlands, apply fallow and crop rotation to larger areas of farmlands, mechanize farming, support agricultural technology advancement, and improve commercialized agricultural services to enhance the comprehensive production capacity of the industry. As always, the governor shall assume responsibility for grain production while the mayors, the “food basket”. Hog production will be resumed as soon as possible. Grain production, key agricultural products supply and price stability will be sustained.

We will build idyllic villages with distinctive features, enhance public space governance in rural areas, continue with Toilet Revolution and village cleaning as we strive to complete the three-year task of improving rural environment. We will address the lack of rural infrastructure and public services, strengthening road construction and supporting facilities for water and power supply, communication, and cold-chain logistics.

The reform of rural land contracting and collective property rights system will be advanced while the reform of rural residential land system will be carried out in a steady yet prudent manner. We will encourage the development of household farms and farmers’ cooperatives and facilitate leading companies to grow larger and stronger through merger and acquisition and joint stock partnership. We will forward the reform of supply and marketing cooperatives and the development of collective economy in low-income villages, and build a capable team for rural development by educating farmers.

At the final battle against poverty, we must pull efforts together for a decisive win. We shall see to it that the basic needs of food and clothing for all are met and they have access to compulsory education, basic medical care and safe housing. We will ensure effective policy implementation for the five special types of poverty-stricken population, improve supervision of the reoccurrence of poverty and flexibility in offering assistance, establish mechanisms to address the issue of relative poverty with enduring effect, and better coordinate efforts in paired assistance and collaboration in poverty alleviation to underpin what has already been achieved.

5. We will make greater efforts in eco-protection. We will promote green development under the guidance of Xi Jinping’s instruction on eco-protection and the “green is gold” philosophy, ensuring continuous improvement of environmental quality.

We will win the battle against pollution. We will invest more efforts in pollution treatment through appropriate and targeted measures in line with the law to defend the blue sky, clear water and clean land. The provincial standard on pollutant discharge will be put forward to offer reference for pollution treatment in sectors like energy, industry, transportation, and construction. Key tasks including VOC and diesel-powered truck pollution treatment will be prioritized. We will see to it that effective contingency plan is in place to cope with days with heavy air pollution. We will work hard to achieve the goal for PM2.5 and ozone concentration control and reduction. We will enact regulations on water pollution control and treatment as soon as possible, ensure effective implementation of the river and lake chief system, properly manage sewage outlets, address the pollution of the Taihu Lake basin and offshore areas, treat black and odorous water bodies in urban areas, renovate poor wastewater treatment facilities in industrial parks, ensure drinking water safety, and control pollutions in rural areas and in agricultural industry. In order to sustain soil and land resources, we will intensify soil pollution prevention and control, improve management over agricultural lands based on classification and ensure safe use of construction lands, and reinforce garbage-sorting system and collective treatment of hazardous wastes, preparing well for the inspection of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on the enforcement of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution.

We will ensure better protection instead of over-development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The rehabilitation of the ecology and environment of the Yangtze River will enjoy top priority. We will carry on with the “4+1” project on pollution control and treatment targeting at pollutions from urban sewage and garbage, chemical industry, non-point agricultural sources, ships, and tailings ponds, requiring effective correction of problems as we step up efforts to build a number of demonstrative sections. We shall see to it that the Guide to the Negative List for the Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and Jiangsu’s detailed rules for its implementation are strictly carried out. We will specify goals and tasks for the present stage targeting at chemical industrial parks and companies within one km-distance to the Yangtze River, seeking greater breakthrough in addressing the problems caused by heavy chemical industries close to the Yangtze River. Acting in accordance with the eco-protection red line, environmental quality benchmark, resource use ceiling, and the negative list for access, we will continue with eco-rehabilitation of mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, grasslands, and farmlands, make new progress with key water conservancy projects, give special emphasis to the protection of the ecosystem along natural shore line and in key wetlands, and speed up the building of the eco-security buffer zone and the beautiful eco-belt along the Yangtze River.

We will improve eco-governance capacity. Jiangsu has been chosen as the pilot province for modernizing eco-governance system and capacity. In order to complete the mission, we shall first lay a solid foundation through basic work, including the establishment of an eco-monitoring system, an eco-standard system, and relevant environmental infrastructure. Certain mechanisms like the eco-compensation transfer payment system, upstream-downstream two-way water quality compensation system, fiscal policies coupled to total pollutant discharge, and green financial policies will be improved as part of our devoted efforts to sustain balance between economic development and eco-protection.

We will develop green industries. The plan for green industry development will be put forward to guide the development of clusters of green industries with low energy consumption, low emissions, and high efficiency as well as a number of highly professional energy-saving and eco-friendly companies to drive high-quality development. We will promote sustainable development of marine economy by nurturing emerging marine industries in addition to land-based industries.  

6. We will achieve greater coordination in regional development. We will improve function-oriented regional economic planning in line with the law of development, ensuring plan-guided space use, better policy-making and appropriate allocation of factors of production to allow each region to play to their strength and complement each other.

We will promote integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. In this process, we shall always regard the Delta region as an indivisible whole and collaborate well with other members in the region while playing to our strength, contributing Jiangsu wisdom with solid achievements for shared benefit. Based on the overall planning for “1+3” functional zone development (“1” refers to the Yangtze River city cluster, “3” refers to the Jianghuai ecological economic zone, costal economic belt, and Xuzhou as a key city of the Huaihai Economic Zone), we will enhance cooperation between Southern and Northern Jiangsu in industrial park development to nurture synergy in regional development. In the future, supply of essential factors of production like land and energy will be weighted toward central cities with high efficiency in resource allocation, sound development momentum, and strong economy and population carrying capacity to enhance the central city or the city cluster’s ability in driving regional development. Regulation will be strengthened in the process of developing themed towns.

We will improve the modern transportation system. We will make and implement a Jiangsu plan in line with the strategy of empowering the nation with a sophisticated transportation system, and develop strategic infrastructure networks. The construction of the railway along the northern bank of the Yangtze River and Shanghai-Suzhou-Huzhou railway will begin. The construction of the railway along the southern bank of the Yangtze River and Nanjing-Huai’an intercity railway will speed up. And the Huai’an-Zhenjiang section of the Lianyungang-Huai’an-Yangzhou-Zhenjiang railway will open to traffic together with the Lianyungang-Xuzhou high-speed railway, the first phase of Shanghai-Nantong railway, and the Yancheng-Nantong high-speed railway. Thus, the basic railway structure with three vertical and four horizontal lines will take shape in Jiangsu. We will promote seamless link of rail transit at various levels as demonstrated by our efforts in developing a “Yangtze River Delta on the rails” together with Shanghai, Zhejiang and Anhui. We will expand the Pingchao-Guangling section of the Shanghai-Shaanxi Expressway and connect other dead-end highways to the intra-provincial highway network to improve the arterial road system. The construction of the Changzhou-Taixing and Longtan Yangtze-River-crossing channels will be accelerated and the Wufengshan Yangtze River Bridge and the Fifth Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge will open to traffic upon completion. The building of the 300,000-ton navigation channel at Lianyungang Port will be accelerated. The construction of the new airport in Lianyungang and the renovation of Sunan Shuofang International Airport will continue. Expansion of Terminal 1 of Nanjing Lukou International Airport will be completed. Phase I of Suqian-Lianyungang waterway will begin construction. And the building of the Grand Canal demonstration zone for green and modern water transportation will speed up.

7. We will generate new advantages of reform and opening-up.

As part of our effort to promote the development of Jiangsu as a province at the intersection of the Belt and the Road, we will carry out Five Major Plans, namely, expanding an international integrated transportation system, deepening international production capacity cooperation, promoting “silk road trade”, improving key cooperation parks and building cultural exchanges brands, and advance opening-up in more fields, with broader range and greater depth. We will make solid progress in promoting the construction of China-UAE, China-Cambodia, China-Ethiopia and other overseas cooperation industrial parks, give strong support for the development of China-Israel, China-ROK, China-Germany and other domestic cooperation parks, strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. We will further cultivate traditional markets including Europe and the United States, foster the growth of emerging markets such as Africa, and continue to expand markets in the countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. We will ramp up preparations to organize participants to the Third CIIE, amplify the “spillover effect” of the CIIE, promote high-quality development, and enhance people’s quality of life. We will conscientiously implement the Foreign Investment Law of the People’s Republic of China and related regulations to strengthen foreign investment promotion and protection, increase efforts to attract advanced manufacturing industries, modern service industries and foreign headquarters, and further improve quality and efficiency of foreign capital and foreign trade while ensuring stability.

We will accelerate the implementation of the General Plan of China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone based on its functions and positioning, highlight institutional innovations, explore new horizons of opening-up, gain more institutional innovations that can be applied elsewhere, and make Jiangsu a better “testing ground” for reform and opening-up. We will strengthen institutional innovation of development zones, further enhance their capacity to gather resources and industries, and promote industrial transformation and upgrading to drive high-quality development of Jiangsu.

We will introduce supplementary measures to the Regulations on Improvement of Business Environment of Jiangsu Province and modify or abolish rules and regulatory documents that do not comply with the Regulations. We will deepen the reforms that delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services, promote pilot programs of “separation of permits and business licenses”, strengthen and regulate oversight over the whole process of business operations. We will promote “internet + administrative services”, improve the integrated administrative service platform and five-tiered system of government services, consolidate the achievements of “online examination and approval services”, and build a world-class pro-business environment.

We will deepen the reform of state-owned assets and enterprises, pursue reforms in finance, tax, investment and financing systems, science and technology, price, natural resources, and other areas, remove institutional obstacles to high-quality development, and further stimulate the untapped potential for development.

8. We will pursue quality progress in cultural development. We will study and promote Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and cement the common ideological foundation which underpins the concerted endeavor of all the people in Jiangsu. We will keep to the goal of developing an advanced socialist culture, unleash people’s potential for innovation and creativity, and promote the development and prosperity of cultural programs and industries.

We will give full play to the leading role of socialist core values. We will implement the Outline on Conducting Patriotic Education in the New Era and the Outline on Implementing Citizen’s Moral Development in the New Era and integrate the socialist core values into the rule of law and social governance. We will step up efforts in developing culture practice centers for the new era, county-level media convergence centers and the Xuexi.cn learning platform, and make steady progress in cultural development. We will raise intellectual and moral standards of teenagers. We will organize publicity campaigns themed on building a moderately well-off society in all aspects with improved performance and the development achievements in the 13th Five-Year Plan. We will launch “Learn-from-Lei Feng” voluntary services, enhance the publicity of exemplary deeds by the “People’s Role Models” including Wang Jicai and the “Mazhuang experience” of promoting cultural progress in rural areas. We will strengthen integrated internet management and enhance the capacity of using and managing the internet.

We will provide more excellent cultural products. We will launch the creation projects to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC and the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, introduce films, TV series, stage shows, plays, music pieces, works of fine art, and literary works of high quality, hold a series of cultural activities including the 2020 Zijin Culture and Arts Festival, the Zijin Elites of Peking Opera and Kunqu Arts Festival and the Chinese Opera Gala (Kunshan). We will continue to promote the demonstration projects for improving the efficiency of public cultural services at the grassroots level, strengthen the development of comprehensive cultural service centers in rural areas and cinemas in towns and villages, advance the development of a “Scholarly Jiangsu”, and promote the transformation and upgrading of rural libraries. We will improve the mechanism for supporting mass activities on culture and further enhance people’s sense of gain.

We will make major headway in promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism. We will establish and improve the integrated development mechanism of culture and tourism, implement the “culture +” and “tourism +” strategies, promote cultural tourism programs for the benefit of the people, and advance the high-quality development of cultural industries. We will build national-level cultural industry demonstration parks and national all-for-one tourism demonstration zones and cultivate a number of leading enterprises in culture-tourism integration. We will strengthen the protection of famous historical and cultural cities, towns and villages, accelerate the upgrading of revolution-related tourism, rural tourism, cultural heritage tourism, etc., step up development of the Grand Canal National Culture Park and the China Grand Canal Museum to high standards, hold the second Grand Canal Cultural Tourism Expo, and build the cultural tourism brand “Thousand-Year Old Grand Canal and Water-Charming Jiangsu” to set an example in protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal culture.

9. We will work to ensure and improve people’s wellbeing. We will always take the people’s aspiration for a better life as the ultimate goal of our work and implement the Several Decisionss on Raising the Income Level of Urban and Rural Residents with Focus on Improving People’s Well-being. We will speed up the improvement of social welfare systems for urban and rural residents and focus on addressing people’s concerns and problems and meeting their expectations.

We will implement the policy of giving priority to employment. Taking securing employment as the top priority, we will do a good job in ensuring that key groups of people including college graduates, demobilized military personnel, laid-off and unemployed workers, rural migrant workers, and the disabled have better access to employment. We will implement policies and measures for helping enterprises to reduce layoffs and avoid zero-employment family. We will carry out vocational skills improvement plans and improve the quality of employment. We will intensify efforts to deal with wages in arrears for migrant workers and basically eradicate wage defaults.

We will strengthen the social security network. We will implement a universal insurance plan, introduce a provincial fund for the unified collection of basic pension insurance premium and payment of benefits for enterprise employees, bring the medical insurance schemes under municipal unified management, increase insurance for serious diseases, and strengthen medical assistance. We will implement the standard for urban and rural subsistence allowances to meet people’s basic needs, provide basic living allowances and improve the universal assistance system covering all groups with difficulties. We will improve the system of subsidies and institute a sound mechanism to raise social assistance and social security benefits in keeping with price rises. We cannot allow price rises to affect the basic needs of low-income people.

We will improve the supply of basic public services. We will foster virtue through education and nurture a new generation of capable young people who have a good and all-round moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetical grounding and are well-prepared to join the socialist cause. We will speed up education modernization, build an education system that serves lifelong learning for all, and work hard to run education to the satisfaction of the people. We will promote quality and balanced development of compulsory education, build high-quality demonstration high schools, and advance the development of group-running schools and partnered schools. We will step up the development of universities included in the “Double First-Class” initiative and high-level universities, and carry out higher vocational education innovation and development excellence program and secondary vocational school pilot program. We will further regulate after-school training institutions, build a sound environment for education, and ease the burden of teachers and students in primary and secondary schools. We will make steady progress in building a Healthy Jiangsu, continue to deepen the reform of the healthcare system, improve the basic healthcare system, promote coordinated medical service, medical insurance, and pharmaceutical reforms, apply the tiered diagnosis and treatment model across the province, and strengthen the development of medical communities. We will improve the public health service system and strengthen disease prevention and control. We will implement the Action Plan on Improving Healthcare Services in Rural Areas and encourage more medical talent to work at the grassroots level. We will promote the essence of traditional Chinese medicine, make innovations, and establish national medical centers and regional medical centers at the national and provincial levels. We will strengthen the development of a strong sports province in the new era, and coordinate the development of mass sports, competitive sports, and the sports industry. We will deepen funeral and interment reforms and ensure that non-profit facilities for the placement of ashes of the deceased are available in all towns and villages.

We will improve elderly care and childcare services. Focusing on improving service capacities, enhancing the quality of care, and improving service structure, we will take multiple measures to increase the supply of elderly care and childcare services, accelerate the construction of an elderly care service system that coordinates home-based, community-based and institution-based elderly care and combines medical care or rehabilitation with elderly care, and develop elderly care and childcare agencies that provide affordable and accessible services to better meet the needs of the whole society.

10. We will make every effort to maintain social security and stability. We will conscientiously study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important statements on preventing and resolving major risks and strengthening workplace safety, and the decisions and deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, shoulder the political responsibility of “promoting regional development while keeping the people safe”, and improve the workplace safety management system and the modernization of management capacity.

We must work flat out to ensure targeted measures are taken in workplace safety improvement. Local government, competent government departments for supervision and regulation as well as business entities shall shoulder their due responsibilities. We will improve the workplace safety accountability system of leadership teams and members. Work Safety Committees at all levels are expected to fully leverage their roles in coordination and the safety inspection system covering the provincial, municipal and county levels will be continuously improved. We will promote IT application in enhancing workplace safety, strengthen supervision over intermediaries that carry out work safety and environmental impact evaluations, and better the emergency response mechanism as part of the efforts to reinforce the foundation of workplace safety. Campaigns to remove hidden risks and address problems and comprehensive initiatives on safe handling of hazardous chemicals will be launched. We will resolutely curb the occurrence of serious and major accidents, substantially reduce the number of work safety accidents and the death toll thus incurred and bring about overall enhancement in inherent safety. Efforts will be intensified in disaster prevention, mitigation and relief, and in capacity building for natural disaster prevention and control.

We will focus on preventing and defusing risks in priority areas through engagement in across-the-board troubleshooting, plan refinement and responsibility assignment to specific individuals, so that major risks and hidden dangers will be dealt with in a timely manner and incidents of “black swans” and “gray rhinos” effectively forestalled. Campaigns on cracking down on illegal financial activities will be rolled out far and wide with risks in internet finance, corporate debts and other fields positively and properly prevented and defused. We must work to make sure houses are built to live in, not for speculation, and cities, which have a primary role to play in this regard, fulfill their due obligations. Policies tailored to the context of specific cities shall be fully implemented to further stabilize land prices, housing prices and expectations and promote steady and sound development of the real estate market.

We will explore new paths to improve social governance. We are committed to promoting governance of the people, by the people and for the people and will continuously improve social governance modernization. We will push forward institutional innovation in grid social governance, deliver village social governance projects and develop a new model of community-level social governance. We will strive to improve the dispute settlement mechanism through various means and coordinated efforts and address major complaints made through letters or visits to nip problems in the bud. More efforts will be invested in tightening control over food and drug safety and further enhancing market oversight. We will conduct the 7th national population census, develop new approaches to services and management of the minority floating population, and handle religious affairs in accordance with the law. We are determined to intensify the special campaign to root out organized crime and local mafia. Major crimes and other legal violations will be seriously cracked down on with steps accelerated to improve the multi-dimensional and IT-based public security system, in a bid to shape a safer Jiangsu people find more satisfying with a more solid foundation and a higher level of development.

In the coming year, we will render full support to national defense and military reform, continue to carry out national defense education and mobilization. We will build a new type of military-government and military-civilian ties through promoting mutual support between the military and civilians, offer assistance to ex-servicemen as they transfer to civilian jobs and secure civil air defense. Guided by the new development philosophy, we will be fully committed to drafting the 14th Five-Year Plan so that it will guide and inspire the whole province in the concerted efforts to spearhead high-quality development.

Fellow deputies,

This year, we will continue to deliver good results in 10 areas to meet the needs and expectations of the people. First, we will extend education benefits to more people. We plan to rebuild, revamp and expand 350 compulsory education schools and 50 high schools. Annual public education fund granted to ordinary public high schools and secondary vocational schools will be increased respectively to over RMB 1,000 and 1,500 per person on average. Second, we will improve social security. The minimum basic pension benefits for rural and non-working urban residents will be increased to over RMB 160 per person per month. The bottom line of government subsidies for basic medical insurance schemes will be raised to RMB 570 per person in both urban and rural areas. The minimum reimbursement ratio of insurance payment for serious diseases will rise from 50% to 60%. Third, we will refine the elderly care service system. 30,000 households of the elderly that is in financial difficulty, disabled or with severe disabilities will be renovated to meet their basic living needs. A total of 6.8 million senior citizens aged 65 and above will enjoy a basic health check package free of charge. Fourth, we will boost supply of childcare and early childhood education services. Another 80 childcare and early childhood education agencies open to all will be built. 300 kindergartens will be built, expanded or given a face lift. Ratio of kindergartens open to all will rise from 77% to 85%, and an average of RMB 650 per person will be granted as public fund to pupils at public kindergartens on an annual basis. Fifth, we will provide more assistance to people in straitened circumstances. Those living in extreme poverty in southern, middle and northern Jiangsu will respectively be entitled to subsidies equaling or exceeding 40%, 45% and 50% of the per capita disposable income of local residents. Another 200 “Homes of Love” for rural left-behind and poverty-stricken children will be set up, and 200 community rehabilitation demonstration centers for people with disabilities will be revamped. Sixth, we will enhance healthcare services. Subsidy for basic public health services will be lifted to RMB 80 per person. Another 80 rural regional healthcare centers will be put in place. We will promote full coverage of antenatal and newborn screening tests and enable on-the-spot settlement of out-patient medical expenses incurred anywhere within the Yangtze River Delta where one’s insurance is registered. Seventh, we will enrich the cultural life of our people. 100 sport parks will be built and 10,000 cultural events organized in the rural areas. Emergency response radio terminals will be made available in every administrative village across the province. Eighth, we will speed up renovation of urban residential areas. 500 old residential areas will be improved and continuous efforts will be exerted in installing elevators in old multi-storey residential buildings. We will begin the redevelopment of 180,000 housing units in rundown urban areas and finish 80,000 units in the year. Altogether 100 farm produce markets will be upgraded. Ninth, we will improve the living environment in rural areas. We will continue to ensure good construction, management, maintenance and operation of rural roads, and upgrade 3,000 km of roads together with1,000 bridges in rural areas. The rural highway safety and life protection project stretching over 4,000 km will be implemented. Another 150,000 eco-friendly rural household latrines will be built. Another 4,200 km of rural water supply pipeline will be laid. We will improve the housing conditions of 100,000 farmer households and renovate dilapidated houses of low-income families, recipients of subsistence allowances and the extremely poor people provided for by the government and living separately as well as the impoverished families of the disabled in rural areas in northern Jiangsu. Tenth, we will provide legal aid to a wider range of people at the community level. Each and every village or community is to be provided with one legal adviser. We will build 100 family mediation community centers and train 10,000 mediators. Legal aid is expected to reach more than 80,000 people.

Fellow deputies,

General Secretary Xi Jinping has mapped out for us a blueprint of a new Jiangsu with prosperity, sustainability and civility, guided by which we have been forging ahead with greater efforts. Standing at a new starting point, we must bear firmly in mind the instructions and maintain political integrity, think in terms of the big picture, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership. Our confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics shall be reinforced. We vow to resolutely maintain General Secretary Xi Jinping’s position as the core of the CPC Central Committee and the whole Party and uphold the authority of the Central Committee and its centralized and unified leadership. We must study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches as an important political task. Efforts will be made to deepen understanding of General Secretary’s remarks, draw wisdom from them and thus pool strength to march towards the goal he has pointed out for us and further our efforts in the building of a new Jiangsu with prosperity, sustainability and civility. We must study and implement fully the guiding principles of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, put into practice its Decisions of the Seventh Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, and see to it that all administrative departments are of the people, by the people, and for the people. We will explore new ways of administration in a bid to enhance efficiency, strive to build a service-oriented government people are satisfied with, and endeavor to be a front-runner in modernizing provincial governance system and capacity. We must advance law-based administration and make progress in building a law-based government.  We will make decisions in a sound, democratic, and legal way. Government shall readily subject itself to legal supervision of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress and its Standing Committee, the democratic oversight of the CPPCC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, public oversight, and oversight through public opinion, and strengthen auditing-based oversight so that power is exercised with transparency within a sound system of rules and regulations. We shall remain true to our original aspiration, keep our mission firmly in mind, and fulfill duties in a most conscientious way with a sense of responsibility and concrete actions and a hardworking and enterprising spirit that never ceases to scale new heights in the new era. Nothing is more convincing than the achievements to be delivered by us in reform and development as well as in our endeavors. We will win the trust and support of the people with concrete actions and good performance. We must intensify efforts in the building of a clean government. We shall resolutely act in line with the requirement of comprehensively strengthening Party discipline, perseveringly act on the central Party leadership’s eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct and its implementation rules, rigorously put into practice the 10-point decision by the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, and work still harder while upholding frugality with steadfast commitment to addressing the practice of formalities for formalities’ sake and bureaucratism. We aim to “tighten our belt” for affluence of the people and make painstaking efforts for happiness of the people. We will never waver in our commitment to maintaining a clean and honest government that works for the people.

Fellow deputies,

A great cause builds on hard work. Let us rally ever more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and uphold socialism with Chinese characteristics. Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the leadership of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, we will seize the day and live it to the full, and forge ahead with down-to-earth efforts in full speed against difficulties to spearhead high-quality development and compose new chapters in building a new Jiangsu with prosperity, sustainability and civility in the new era.