(Source: Chinese Embassy in Morocco )

March 25, 2011

 

The Chinese Embassy in Morocco recently sent a press release to over 20 major media organizations, including Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, National TV Station, National Broadcasting Station, Moroccan Maghrebe Arab Press, the Morning, the Opinion, the Economist and the Journal Weekly, among others, on the Fourth Session of the 11^th National People's Congress of the People’s Republic of China.

 

According to the press release, from March 5 to 14, 2011, the Fourth Session of the 11^th National People's Congress(NPC) of the People’s Republic of China was held in Beijing. A series of documents were submitted to the NPC for review and adoption, including government work report delivered by Mr. Wen Jiabao, the Premier of the State Council, who gave the report on behalf of the State Council, the Outline of the 12th Five-Year Program on National Economic and Social Development, and the report on the work of the NPC Standing Committee.

 

China’s economy scaled new heights during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan: GDP grew at an average annual rate of 11.2%; government revenue increased from 3.16 trillion to 8.31 trillion Yuan; the number of new urban jobs increased by 57.71 million, and 45 million agricultural workers found urban employment. The per capita disposable income of urban residents rose by an annual average of 9.7% and the per capita net income of rural residents by 8.9% in real terms. In 2010, the GDP rose by 10.3% to reach 39.8 trillion Yuan; the CPI increase was held in check at 3.3%; 11.68 million new urban jobs were created; and thetotal foreign trade volume reached US$ 2.97 trillion.

 

The year 2011 is the first year of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, and it

is pivotal for the Chinese people to do a good job in order to accomplish all the tasks and objectives set forth in the plan this year. TheFourth Session of the 11^th National People's Congress reaffirmed the major targets for this year's national economic and social development as follows: to increase the GDP by around 8%; further optimize the economic structure; keep the CPI increase around 4%; create more than nine million new urban jobs; keep registered urban unemployment rate at 4.6% or lower, and continue to improve the balance of payment.

 

In 2011, the Chinese government will put its emphases in ten fields: 1. Keep overall price level basically stable; 2. Further expand domestic demand, especially consumer demand; 3. Consolidate and strengthen the position of agriculture as the foundation of the economy; 4. Accelerate strategic economic restructuring; 5. Vigorously implement the strategy of reinvigorating the country through science and education and the strategy of strengthening the country through human resource development; 6. Strengthen social development and ensure and improve the wellbeing of the people; 7.Vigorously enhance cultural development; 8. Deepen reforms in key areas; 9. Further improve the opening to the outside world; 10. Strengthen effort in promoting clean government and combating corruption.

 

The 12th Five-Year Plan adopted by the Fourth Session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) maps out the blueprint for the next five years of China’s socialist construction. In the 12th Five-Year plan, China will adhere to the scientific outlook on development, mainly focusing on accelerating the transformation of its economic growth pattern, deepening reform and opening up, ensuring the wellbeing of the people and improving their livelihood, consolidating and enhancing the achievements of tackling the international financial crisis, maintaining steady and fast long-term economic growth and social stability, building a decisive foundation for making China into a moderately prosperous country in an all-round way.

 

In the 12th Five-Year Plan, China’smajor targets for national economic and social development are as follows: set the target of annual economic increase over the next five years at 7% with significant improvement in the quality and performance of the economy, based on the 2010 price level, the GDP in 2015 exceed 55 trillion Yuan; accelerate the development of the service sector and raise its value-added contribution to GDP by 4 percentage points; urbanization level to be increased from the current 47.5 percent to 51.5 percent; expenditure on research and development to account for 2.2 percent of GDP; proportion of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to reach 11.4%; energy consumption and CO2 emission per unit of GDP to be reduced by 16% and 17% respectively; release of major pollutants to be reduced by 8% to 10%; forest stock to be increased by 600 million m³; and forest cover increased to 21.66%; over 45 million new jobs to be created in urban areas; per capita disposable income of urban residents and rural residents to rise at an annual average of over 7% in real terms; participation in basic social insurance schemes to be greatly expanded; insurance coverage of medical expenses to be increased to over 70% in accordance with relevant policies; low-income housing to be made available to around 20% ofurban households; average life expectancy to be raised by one year to 74.5.

 

The press release emphasizes that the Chinese government and people are confident to fulfill the tasks and objectives set out in the 12th Five-Year Plan and optimistic to build a better and more prosperous country.