Chinese Premier’s speech at opening ceremony of the annual meeting of the New Champions
At the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2017 held on June 27th in the city of Dalian, China, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed the importance of promoting inclusive growth and achieving sustainable development in the new round of industrial revolution which is arising in the era of economic globalization. Li said, more inclusive growth in China has been an important reason why the Chinese economy has maintained steady growth in recent years despite the sluggish word economy.
The Chinese economy has maintained a momentum of steady and sound growth this year. The first quarter saw 6.9% growth with marked improvement in economic performance, and major economic indicators have continued to move in a positive direction in the second quarter. In particular, the unemployment rate for urban areas in China has fell to 4.91% in May, the lowest level in years. And over 13 million new urban jobs have been created on a yearly basis over the past few years. A number of international organizations and research institutions have recently revised up China’s growth forecasts.
China has implemented the strategy of innovation-driven development, encouraging more people to go for entrepreneurship and innovation. For the past three years, an average of over 40,000 new market entities have been set up every day, including some 14,000 newly registered enterprises. China’s entrepreneurship and innovation have greatly advanced economic transformation and upgrading.
China has also achieved valuable changes in the economic structure. Last year, consumption became a primary growth driving factor, contributing 64.6% to economic growth. The added value of the service sector accounted for more than 51.6% of GDP. Current account balance to GDP ratio dropped to 1.8%, showing that domestic demand has become a strong pillar of the Chinese economy. These major changes point to the qualitative improvement in the Chinese economy and have made the growth more stable and sustainable.
China has continued to raise the standards of basic social welfare for the people. In the past 30 years and more, over 700 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty, creating a Chinese miracle in the history of poverty reduction. In the past five years, China has invested over six trillion Yuan in cumulative terms to ensure proper housing for over 80 million people by rebuilding more than 30 million housing units.
Li emphasized that all countries must better adapt to and steer economic globalization forward and promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and put in place better institutional arrangements providing opportunities for equal participation by all, give more support to vulnerable groups and develop a model of balanced and inclusive growth.
Li also said, China will introduce one-trillion-yuan reduction in taxes and fees for business this year, which will be applied equally to foreign-invested companies. And in the coming five years, China will import 8 trillion US dollars worth of goods. A Chinese economy which enjoys a sound momentum in the long run and becomes increasingly open will remain the most attractive investment destination.