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Historic
achievements of national economy and social development (11/12/2002)
In the 13 years since the founding of the third generation collective
leadership with Mr. Jiang Zemin at the core, China has made remarkable
achievements in reform and opening up. The Central Party Committee
has held high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory, implemented
the thought of ¡°Three Representatives,¡± followed the path of building
socialism with Chinese characteristics, and taken a host of important
decisions on advancing in an all-round manner the reform and opening
up program and socialist modernization drive. A series of historic
changes have taken place in China¡¯s economic and social life. The
second strategic objective of modernization has been realized, and
actions have been taken towards the third strategic objective. People
will enjoy an even more comfortable life, and the socialist modernization
will be further accelerated. The achievements made in the 13 years
can be summarized into the following eight aspects.
I. Various adverse internal and external influences have been
overcome. National economy has maintained rapid growth; the country¡¯s
economic power, overall national strength and international competitiveness
have all reached a higher stage.
1. The country¡¯s economy has kept a stable and rapid growth. With
the 13 years¡¯ sound leadership of the Central Party Committee, reform
and opening up program has been advanced to a new stage, inflation
has be effectively managed, the impacts brought by the Asian Financial
Crisis and international economic depression have been overcome,
and the tendency of deflation has been contained. The ups and downs
of economic growth have been avoided. From 1990 to 2001, the annual
growth rate of Gross Domestic Product averages 9.3 percent, about
7 percentage points higher than the 2.5 percent world economic growth
rate of the same period. The national economy maintains a good momentum
of growth this year. For the first three quarters, the GDP grew
by 7.9 percent, 0.3 percent higher than the same period of last
year. The GDP for this year is projected to be over 1 trillion Yuan.
2. Economic strength has been enhanced. The Gross Domestic Product
of 2001 reached 9,593.3 billions Yuan, which doubled that of the
year 1990, hence China leaped from the tenth place in the world
and the second place among developing countries to the sixth place
and first place respectively. Productions of main industrial and
agricultural products, such as grain, meat, steel, coal, cement,
digital program-controlled switchboard, ranked number one in the
world. Foreign exchange reserve has amounted to US$246.5 billion
July this year from 1989¡¯s US$5.55 billion, ranking the second in
the world. Grain reserve has reached a historic high level.
3. The quality of economic growth and efficiency kept improving.
Guided by the central government¡¯s strategic thoughts of improving
economic efficiency as core of economic development and transferring
economic growth from extensive mode to intensive mode, technology,
production and management of enterprises have been greatly modernized.
In 2001, energy consumed by every 10 thousand Yuan¡¯s output has
reduced by 73.3 percent on the basis of 1990, and the social productivity
from 1990 to 2000 has experienced an average annual growth of 14.8
percent. China¡¯s enterprises¡¯ international competitiveness has
been continuously increased. Fiscal revenue of 2001 reached 1,637.1
billion Yuan, which is a 6.1-fold increase of the 1990¡¯s.
II. In accordance with the requirement of strategic adjustment put
forward by the Fifteenth Party Committee, great efforts have been
made in structural adjustment, which effectively promoted economic
structure rationalization and optimization.
1. Structures of primary, secondary and tertiary industries are
better coordinated. In 2001, the proportion of the added value of
3 industries in GDP has changed from 1990¡¯s 27: 42: 31 to 15: 51:
34.
2. ¡°Three Optimizations¡± and ¡°One Increase¡± have turned up agricultural
structure. The first optimization is in crop mix, where grain crop,
economic crop and feed crop are coordinated, and major agricultural
products are concentrated in advantageous areas. The second is agricultural
products structure optimization. Improved varieties of crops account
for 95 percent of the country¡¯s total. The third is optimization
of rural industries, where the proportions of animal husbandry and
fishery in the total production of farming, forestry, animal husbandry
and fishery raised respectively by 4.7 and 5.4 percentage points.
Fourthly, the level of agricultural products processing and efficiency
keeps increasing. Production in the form of ¡°corporation plus farmers¡±
and order farming is developing very fast, and a large number of
leading agricultural products processing enterprises, specialized
counties and villages have emerged, which have effectively raised
the added-value of primary products, extended agricultural chain
and increased farmers¡¯ income. Agricultural productivity has been
increased tremendously.
3. The overall quality of industry and its international competitiveness
are obviously strengthened. Innovations of traditional industries
are accelerated. Traditional industries such as color TV, washing
machine, textile and container have strong worldwide competitiveness.
High-tech industry becomes a new point of economic growth. Its industrial
output from 1996 to 2001 grew annually by around 20 percent. High-tech
industrial belts with their own characteristics have been formed
in the Yangtze Delta, Pearl River Delta, Cross-Bohai Sea, along
Shenyang-Dalian highway and around cities such as Xi¡¯an, Chengdu,
and Chongqing. Information technology, modern bio-technology are
widely applied in all aspects of social life. Equipment manufacturing
industry has seen new accomplishment. By implementing manufacturing
projects of urban mass transportation equipment, environmental protection
equipment localization, digital communication equipment localization,
Chinese equipment manufacturing enterprises have enormously improved
their self-alliance capability. Structure of service industry keeps
being optimized. The proportions of some traditional service industries
such as wholesaling, retailing, and catering have gone down, and
that of communication service has increased. New services such as
consulting, logistics, chain management and community service are
booming. Tourism, in particular, with its rapid development, has
become a new point of economic growth.
4. Bottleneck restraints for economic and social development brought
by infrastructure and basic industries have by and large been removed;
capability of energy production, transportation and communication
have improved greatly. China¡¯s installed power generation capacity
and highway length both rank the second place, and numbers of fixed
telephone and mobile phone subscribers are number one in the world.
Urban water supply, transport, garbage and waste water treatment
have been notably improved, which have developed the cities¡¯ function,
and improved the cities¡¯ appearance.
III. Reform has achieved historic progress, and the shift from
a planned economy to a socialist market economy has been basically
realized. Preliminary socialist market economy has been established.
To establish socialist market economy is an unprecedented undertaking.
The third generation collective leadership with Mr. Jiang Zemin
at the core has put forward the objective of establishing a socialist
market economy, vigorously promoted the reform of economic structure,
actively eliminated the systematic impediments of productivity gains,
and established preliminarily a socialist market economy.
1. Market plays a fundamental role in allocating resources. First
of all, both industrial and agricultural productions are decided
by market. All mandatory plans for agricultural production have
been removed, and industrial production mandatory plans are limited
to 5 kinds of products, including timber, gold, cigarette, salt
and natural gas, among which mandatory plans only exist in some
links in the production chain and a number of product types. Secondly,
prices of commodities and service are determined by market. Currently,
prices of 95.8 percent retail commodities, 92.5 percent agricultural
and sideline products and 87.4 percent productive materials are
determined by market. Thirdly, markets of production factor have
developed to certain scale. Stock market is developing rapidly,
a uniform market for inter-bank borrowing and lending has been set
up, bill discounting market and Treasury bond market have come into
being. Labor market is being optimized, and trade volume of both
technological market and land market are continuously increasing.
Fourthly, market environment is improving day by day. A great number
of modern commodity markets with over 10 billion Yuan trade volume
have become important channels which connect production with sales
and link cities with countryside. Modern logistics centers, distribution
centers and e-business have developed. At the same time, necessary
market laws and regulations have been amplified, and market supervision
and licensing agencies have been gradually perfected. Regional blockade
and monopoly have been abolished, and an open and fair market system
has been set up.
2. The economic system, which has public ownership at its dominant
position and allows for diverse forms of ownership, has been basically
formed. First, state-owned economy makes further development with
stronger controlling power. By the end of 2001, state-owned property
has reached 10,931.6 billion Yuan, which is 91.4 percent more than
that of the year of 1995. The state-owned economy is the leading
force in key areas that concern the national economy and people¡¯s
livelihood. The establishment of a modern enterprise system is the
orientation of the reform of state-owned enterprise. Reform of state-owned
enterprises has been accelerated, which improves the quality and
efficiency of the state-owned economy. Secondly, non-state-owned
economy is growing vigorously, and it has become an important strength
of national economy. In the year of 1990, non-state-owned economy
including private economy accounted for only 10 percent of the country¡¯s
industrial added value, and the present figure is over one third.
Private sector of economy has become an important channel of absorbing
labor force.
3. Macro regulatory system has been basically established. Economic,
legal and necessary administrative tools have replaced mandatory
plans. Economic regulation are realized through indirect means instead
of the former direct means, by applying comprehensively the taxation,
interest rate, price and investment policies.
4. Social security system has been basically formed. The primary
endowment insurance system for urban employees, which features by
a combination of social pooling and individual accounts, has been
basically set up. The primary medical insurance system for urban
employees has been initiated, and unemployment insurance has been
improved.
IV. Open economy is developing rapidly. An overall opening structure
is set up which lifts the opening-up drive to a new stage.
Foreign trade reached a new stage. China¡¯s import and export volume
of 2001 has reached US$509.8 billion, which is 4.4 times of the
1990¡¯s, and China¡¯s ranking in the world has hence been raised to
6th from 16th. China has been the largest foreign capital receiving
developing country for 9 consecutive years. From 1990 to 2001, foreign
capital of US$510.8 billion is used, among which US$378 billon is
foreign direct investment. 96 percent of foreign direct investment
since China¡¯s reform and opening up is realized in this period of
time. The foreign capital flew into China even faster in the first
3 quarters of this year, when the foreign direct investment actually
utilized went up by 22.6 percent, 1.9 percentage points more than
that of last year. The structure of export commodity has kept improving,
and main export goods have shifted from agricultural products, raw
materials, textile processing products to machinery and electronics.
China has successfully entered WTO, which marks a new phase of China¡¯s
opening up. China¡¯s ¡°Going Out¡± strategy made a good start: many
Chinese enterprises make full use of their comparative advantages
to invest overseas, establish factories in other countries and conduct
Sino-foreign economic and trade cooperation. China¡¯s overseas investment
has come to a large scale and extended to more areas. Foreign contracting
and labor service cooperation are developing very fast, and China
has become one of the world top 10 international project contracting
countries.
V. Western Development Strategy has made significant progress
and regional economy has been developed in a more coordinated way.
Western development strategy was first put forward by President
Jiang Zemin in 1999, and he has given a series of important directives
since then. Over the last more than two years, western development
has achieved material progress. The present western China has a
new and dynamic atmosphere: it has maintained social stability,
economic development, national unity and people¡¯s living standards
have been improved.
1. Unprecedented amount of projects and infrastructure investment
have been made to the West. The State has arranged 36 key projects
with total investment of over 600 billion Yuan. 34 projects have
started construction so far. The southern, middle and northern lines
of the West-East Power Transmission have been basically formed,
the Tibet-Qinghai railway is progressing well, and the whole route
of the West -East Gas Pipeline Project has been carried out.
While implementing key projects, other forms of construction in
the countryside have also been strengthened, such as water supply,
undeveloped counties¡¯ road construction, and power transmission,
broadcasting and television network and biogas projects. The living
conditions in western China countryside have been greatly improved.
2. Start to rebuild beautiful environment. A number of eco-construction
projects are initiated, such as reforestation, natural forest protection,
Beijing-Tianjin sand control, and natural grassland restoration
and etc. In 2000 and 2001, the state has invested over 30 billion
Yuan in western China¡¯s eco-environmental construction projects.
At present, reforestation is carried out in 24 provinces, autonomous
regions, Direct Administrative Municipalities and Xinjiang Production
and Construction Corps. By the end of July, arable land as big as
43.27 million mu has been transferred into forest, and another 39.26
million mu of barren land has been reforested.
3. Feature economy and advantageous industries are developing rapidly.
A number of feature agricultural production bases have been set
up. They are majored in cotton, sugar, cigarette leave, fruits,
meat, and Chinese herbs, and a number of leading sideline products
enterprises have been developed. Advantageous resources such as
hydro-power, natural gas, coal, rare earth, sylvite, phosphate mine,
and non-ferrous metals are being explored in a more intensive manner.
The construction of energy and minerals production bases and leading
enterprises is further strengthened.
VI. Great achievements have been made in socialist cultural
and ideological progress, legal system improvement, science, technology,
education, culture, and health. National defense and ethnic unity
is continuously strengthened.
The Central Party Committee has put forward the strategy of ¡°developing
the country by relying on science and education¡± in 1995, according
to the trend of world economic and scientific development. Scientific
renovations and technological progress are encouraged, and the fundamental
position of primary education is highlighted, science, technology
and education are fully developed. The country¡¯s technological strength
has been enhanced, and a large number of scientific and technological
achievements have been made. ¡°Renovation Project¡± and ¡°863 Program¡±
are successfully implemented, and breakthroughs in aeronautics,
astronautics, information, new material and bio-engineering have
been made. There are a number of achievements in basic research
which attract international attention, and remarkable success is
attained in applied technology. Reform on applied science research
institutions affiliated with ministries has been initially completed,
and the reform now is spreading to other forms of research institutions.
More and more scientific achievements are translated into practical
productive forces and then introduced into market. Education gets
into a new development stage, which makes education play a more
effective role in guiding the economic and social development. Remarkable
progress has been made in primary education by realizing the objective
of the ¡°Two Primary Tasks¡±: primarily making the 9-year compulsory
education universal and primarily eliminate illiteracy of young
and middle-aged people. High school education and diverse vocational
education are further advanced; reform of higher education system
has made significant progress, and higher education enrollment enlargement
is warmly welcomed by the public. Socialist cultural and ideological
progress is strongly enhanced by sticking to coordinated development
of economy and society, and by increasing the investment in social
undertakings under the conditions of a developing economy and increasing
financial capacity.
VII. The growth of population has been effectively controlled.
Resources conservation, eco-construction and environment treatment
have produced remarkable effect. The capability of maintaining sustainable
development is increasingly strengthened.
The Central Party Committee with Mr. Jiang Zemin as its core has
made a significant decision to make sustainable development. This
decision is made for the country¡¯s long-term development and it
is in accordance with China¡¯s fundamental national situation, which
is featured by large population and limited resources.
1. Population reproduction mode has made a historic shift. The natural
growth rate of population has reduced from 1989¡¯s 15.04 percent
to 2001¡¯s 6.95 percent. Population reproduction mode has shifted
form ¡°high birth rate, low mortality rate and high growth rate¡±
to ¡°low birth rate, low mortality rate and low growth rate¡±. Population
quality keeps increasing.
2. Rational exploration and preservation of resources yield remarkable
effect. Arable land is effectively protected. Saving on water in
farming and urban life is making progress. Deforestation and random
mining are basically under control. Harvest of forest along upstream
of Yangtze River, middle and up stream of Yellow River is forbidden.
Timber production of northeast China and Inner Mongolia is greatly
reduced. Besides, notable achievements have been made in marine
resource preservation and energy conservation.
3. Environmental protection is deepened and extended. Discharge
of pollutants is effectively controlled. Pollution prevention and
control in key river valleys, areas and cities have produced effect
of the current stage. Urban pollution has been treated. Laws on
environmental protection have seen significant development, and
people¡¯s awareness keeps increasing.
VIII. Relation between market demand and supply made a historic
shift from seller¡¯s market to buyer¡¯s market. People¡¯s living standard
has seen a historic improvement, people have solved the problem
of food and clothing, and most of them are enjoying a fairly comfortable
life. The dream of having adequate food and clothing cherished by
the Chinese people over the past thousands of year has finally come
true.
1. Income of people in both urban and rural areas increased by a
big margin. From 1990 to 2001, farmer¡¯s income per capita increased
by 62 percent. Urban resident disposable income per capita more
than doubled. The people¡¯s deposit outstanding has reached 8,000
billion Yuan, but that of 1989 was 500 billion Yuan.
2. Consumption level and living quality have been increased notably,
and consumption volume keeps enlarging. In 2001 total retail volume
of consumption goods increased 3.5 folds that of 1990. Great changes
have taken places in consumption structure. The proportion of people¡¯s
expense on food per capita to the total consumption per capita has
reduces from 1990¡¯s 54.2 percent to 2001¡¯s 37.5 percent in cities
and from 58.8 percent to 47.7 percent in countryside. People¡¯s living
conditions of both urban and rural residents improved remarkably:
living space, quality, and necessary accessories are all upgrading.
People are enjoying a much comfortable life. Since reform and opening
up, quality of consumption goods has kept upgrading: such as bicycles,
wrist watch, sewing machine, computer, and automobile, commercial
housing, and etc. Some durable consumption goods become popular
in countryside.
3. Living conditions of low income groups in both rural and urban
areas are improving. For the purpose of ensuring the basic living
of people with living difficulty, such as laid-off workers from
state-owned enterprises and other unemployed people, a number of
social security systems (basic living security system for SOE laid-off
worker, unemployment insurance system and urban resident basic living
security system) are well set up and connected, which realizes ¡°the
insurance for those should be insured¡±. By the end of 2001, poverty-stricken
population in countryside has reduced from to 28 million, and prior
to reform and opening up the figure was 220 million. Some areas
with harsh conditions for subsistence or poor eco-environment have
also embarked on the road of sustainable development.
The valuable experience of China¡¯s reform and opening-up with
the Party¡¯s leadership over the last 13 years can be summed up as
the following points:
1. Making economic development our central task and to seek solutions
of development for problems raised on the way of marching forward.
In this period, we are faced with both opportunities and challenges.
The Central Party Committee has always emphasizes on grasping all
possible opportunities, exploring new ways and avoiding the beaten
track, and always making development as the priority in policy-making
and nation building. The Central Party Committee also stresses that
accelerating development is the crux of solving China¡¯s problems,
and we should speed up development by all possible means.
2. Adhere to the reform of building market-oriented economy and
handle properly the relations between reform, development and stability.
The Central Party Committee has always underlined that development
must rely on reform. Economic system reform must be promoted in
an all-round way according to the requirements of liberating and
developing the productive forces, and the objective of the reform
is to establish a socialist market economy. Economic system and
operating system to be established must be favorable to the development
of the productive forces. At the same time, the relations between
the depth of reform, the speed of growth and the affordability of
society should be addressed. The reform can only be deepened and
the growth be accelerated in a stable society, which will promoted
by reform and development.
3. Adhere to opening further to the outside world and make good
use of the resources and markets both at home and abroad. The Central
Patty Committee has made it a basic national policy to open further
to the outside world. It has also stressed that we should actively
take part in the international competition and faced the challenges.
We have to push our opening up drive to a higher level under the
current situation where economic globalization and world economy
restructuring have been accelerated. We should walk on both legs
of ¡°going global¡± and ¡°introducing in¡±, and make full use of the
resources and markets both at home and abroad. Strategic solutions
to resource and employment problems must be found out so as to expand
economic development and maintain a rapid, sustained and sound national
economic development.
4. To make sober assessment of the situation, to be responsive to
the changes of the time and to make decisive adjustments of the
macro-policies in line with the changed situations, and always take
hold of making macro regulation in our own hands. Faced with drastic
changes of situations both at home and abroad, the Central Party
Committee adopted right measures in the opportune time. When overheated
economy prevailed, the moderately tightening fiscal policy brought
about economic ¡°soft landing¡±, which avoided violent fluctuation.
When effective demand was slack, actions of stimulating domestic
demand were adopted and the moderately tightening fiscal policies
were shifted to an expansionary fiscal policies and a steady monetary
policy, which maintained sustained, rapid and sound economic development.
5. We must always work for material progress and at the same time
for cultural and ideological progress, and improve the socialist
legal system. Over the last 13 years, the Central Party Committee
has always emphasized that socialist modernization is an undertaking
with material progress and cultural and ideological progress supplementing
each other. Only with the two types of tasks both successfully completed,
can we call it the socialism with Chinese characteristics. While
vigorously developing socialist economy, social cultural and ideological
progress must be put in an important position, providing the modernization
program with a powerful ideological driving force and strong intellectual
support. Besides, the Central Party Committee also stressed improving
democracy and legal system, managing state affairs according to
law, and establishing a socialist country ruled by law. Therefore,
all undertakings of the whole country will be continuously pushed
forward.
(China.org.cn)
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