Premier warns officials against complacency over a ‘still shaky’ recovery
China’s economy faces a number of challenges, from job creation to government red tape and low efficiency in spite of a strong recovery in the first quarter, Premier Li Keqiang has told officials.
He made the assessment at the annual national conference on clean governance on April 26, four days before the Politburo, headed by President Xi Jinping, convened a meeting to discuss first-quarter economic performance and decided to focus on tackling economic weakness.
The country reported a record 18.3 per cent growth in gross domestic product for January to March compared with a year earlier, when the coronavirus outbreak shut down much of the economy and led to a contraction of 6.8 per cent.
According to a transcript published on Sunday night by Xinhua, Li warned against complacency.
“The foundation of our economic recovery is still shaky,” Li told the officials. “Small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as self-employed businesspeople, are suffering from rising costs, which means there is heavy pressure on employment.”
Potentially adding to the country’s employment challenges are the record 9.1 million students expected to graduate from universities this year, joining graduates returning from overseas and a vast army of migrant jobseekers.
China has this year targeted the creation of more than 11 million urban jobs and an urban unemployment rate of 5.5 per cent. Last year, it aimed for 9 million new urban jobs but created 11.86 million, and targeted a 6 per cent urban unemployment rate but achieved 5.6 per cent, according to its official statistics.
“It will not be easy to achieve this year’s employment target,” Li said at the April meeting.
The premier warned of numerous difficulties still facing the private sector, which he said contributed more than 60 per cent of the nation’s GDP and provided more than 80 per cent of its jobs.
According to Li, of China’s 140 million registered market entities, only about 70 per cent were actually operating. “These approximately 100 million companies are the foundation of our economy,” he said. “We must do our job properly, satisfying their demands and pressing ahead with our anti-corruption campaigns.”
Although the economy had been stabilising, the vitality of private companies had not fully recovered, Li said, with growing uncertainties over rising inflation and property prices, and tensions with the United States, Australia and other nations that could affect grain and energy imports. “Those problems can impact economic stability, so we should pay close attention,” he added.
He said problems such as too much bureaucracy and poor implementation of central government policies at local levels remained prevalent, with corruption and red tape being too prominent in certain sectors.
In January, Xi told party officials at a meeting that corruption remained “the biggest threat to the [Communist Party’s] rule”.
In the latest alleged case, Xiao Yi, vice-chairman of the Jiangxi provincial committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, has been put under formal investigation on suspicion of violating party discipline and laws.
Xiao is being investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, according to a statement released yesterday.