Report on the Work of the Government

7. Promoting the great development and flourishing of culture

Culture gives human beings a sense of belonging, and passing on fine culture is essential in maintaining the everlasting vitality of a nation. We will provide a large quantity of high-quality cultural products to meet people's demand for culture. We will intensively promote development of the system of core socialist values. We will strengthen education with regard to social codes of conduct, professional ethics, family virtues, and individual integrity. We will educate children and young people about values and strive to create a social atmosphere that promotes morality, integrity, dedication, and harmony. We will vigorously promote nonprofit cultural services and strengthen cultural infrastructure in communities, particularly in rural areas and the central and western regions. We will promote the flourishing of philosophy and the social sciences, and actively develop the press, publishing, radio, film, television, literature, art, and archives. We will better protect our cultural heritage and foster the flourishing of ethnic minority cultures. We will deepen reform of the cultural system and continue to transform for-profit cultural institutions into enterprises. We will make the cultural industry larger, more intensive, and more specialized; and turn it into a pillar of the economy. We will intensify cultural and people-to-people exchanges with other countries so that we learn from each other's strengths. We will extensively carry out public fitness activities to make the people healthier, and promote the balanced development of sports activities and the sports industry. Chinese culture is highly cohesive and inspiring, and we Chinese today must shoulder the historic duty of advancing it.

8. Deepening reforms in key areas

Reform and opening up are the right choice we made for China's destiny and future. We must respect the people's creativity; boldly explore new ways; continue to promote all reforms, including the reform of China's economic and political systems, with greater resolve and courage; and solve complex issues in development in line with the requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development.

Now and for some time to come, reform will be focused on the following key areas and crucial links. We will further transform government functions, improve macro-controls, balance the relationship between government and the market, and make better use of the basic role of the market in allocating resources. We will advance reform of the fiscal and taxation systems, better balance the distribution of fiscal resources between the central and local governments and between all levels of local governments, and better arouse the initiative of both the central and local governments. We will deepen reforms of land, household registration and public services; balance the relationship between urban and rural areas; and promote coordinated development of industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization. We will carry forward reforms in social programs and income distribution, strike a balance between economic and social development, and effectively safeguard social fairness and justice. We will run the government in accordance with the law and promote innovation in social administration, properly handle the relationship among the government, citizens and social organizations, and build a service-oriented, responsible, law-based and clean government.

The major tasks for reform this year are as follows:

We will deepen reform of the fiscal, taxation and financial systems. We will improve the revenue-sharing system and the system of transfer payments, and increase the scale and proportion of general transfer payments. We will improve the mechanism for ensuring basic funding for county-level governments, and make the budgets and final accounts of local governments more transparent. We will deepen reform of the systems for treasury's centralized revenue collection and expenditure payments, government procurement, and central government debt management. We will improve the excise tax system, comprehensively deepen the reform of resource taxes, and set taxes on more commodities on the basis of their prices. We will thoroughly carry out reform of large financial institutions in which the state holds the controlling stake, ensure orderly development of small financial institutions, and improve the systems and mechanisms that serve small and micro businesses as well as agriculture, rural areas and farmers. We will implement new oversight and supervision standards for the banking industry, work toward establishing a deposit insurance system, and deepen the reform of policy-based financial institutions. We will improve both initial public offerings and delistings, and ensure better protection of returns on investors' money and their rights and interests. We will actively develop the bond market, accelerate reform and development of the insurance industry, and make interest rates more market based. We will work steadily to make the RMB convertible under capital accounts and expand the use of RMB in cross-border trade and investment.

We will promote the common development of economic entities under diverse forms of ownership. We will unwaveringly consolidate and develop the public sector and encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector. We will thoroughly carry out strategic adjustment of the state sector, and improve the mechanism for increasing investment of state capital in some sectors while reducing it in others to ensure its sound flow. We will promote reform of the railway and power industries. We will improve and implement policies and measures for developing the non-public sector; break up monopolies and relax restrictions on market access; encourage nongovernmental investment in railways, public utilities, finance, energy, telecommunications, education, and medical care; and create a fair environment in which economic entities under all forms of ownership can compete and develop together.

We will deepen price reforms. We will prudently carry out reform of electricity prices by implementing progressive pricing for household electricity consumption and improving pricing mechanisms for nuclear power, hydropower, and power generated from other renewable energy sources. We will make the price of electricity better reflect the price of coal. We will reform the prices of refined oil products and proceed with the price reform of natural gas. We will impose the strictest control over water resources, rationally set and adjust water resource fees in different localities, and carry out integrated price reform of water used for agricultural purposes. We will start trials of trading carbon emissions and the cap-and-trade scheme for pollution rights.

We will deepen reform of the income distribution system. We will promptly formulate a master plan for reforming the income distribution system, strive to raise the proportion of individual income in national income, and raise the proportion of remuneration in the primary distribution. We will improve the salary system, put in place a mechanism for regular salary increases, and steadily raise the minimum wage. We will create conditions to increase people's income from property. We will establish a mechanism whereby the public share the proceeds from the sale of public resources. We will take further steps to adjust taxes for high-income groups, strictly standardize supervision of pay and bonuses for senior management in state-owned enterprises and financial institutions, expand the proportion of middle-income groups, raise the incomes of low-income groups, and promote equal opportunity. We will ensure that income distribution is governed by proper standards, effectively protect lawful income, and resolutely ban illegal income. We will quickly reverse the trend of a widening income gap.

We will actively yet prudently carry out reform of public institutions based on their classification. We will classify public institutions scientifically, provide targeted guidance to each class, and phase in reforms sector by sector, level by level, and step by step to deepen reform of the systems of management, personnel, income distribution, and social security for public institutions.

We will accelerate government reform. We will expand socialist democracy; conduct democratic election, decision making, administration and oversight in accordance with the law; and protect people's rights to stay informed about, participate in, express views on, and oversee government affairs. We will implement the basic strategy of enforcing the law in both letter and spirit, respect and uphold the sanctity of the Constitution and laws, and govern in strict accordance with the law. We will resolutely rectify the problems of laws not being abided by or fully enforced, lawbreakers not being prosecuted, uncivilized law enforcement, dereliction and neglect of duty, and corrupt practices in law enforcement. We will work harder to build clean government. To do so, we will fight corruption, effectively carry out the long-term and basic work needed to improve the system of preventing and punishing corruption, and give high priority to solving serious problems that the people are resentful about. We will identify, handle, review and standardize matters subject to administrative approval in strict accordance with the law. Leading officials are strictly forbidden to interfere in economic activities such as government procurement, project tendering and the auctioning of land-use and mining rights. We will strictly implement all regulations which require leading officials to uphold integrity in the performance of their official duties. We will strengthen administrative and democratic oversight and oversight through public opinion, resolutely investigate and prosecute violations of the law or discipline, and severely punish corruptionists.