A people-first roadmap for 2020

Moving forward: Li waving as he arrives for a press conference that is video conferenced with journalists at a remote press centre from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. — Xinhua

China reveals a more flexible and feasible roadmap to stabilise the people’s livelihood amid difficulties and uncertainties brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.

AFTER a delay of over two months, China finally held its annual Two Sessions meeting, an important event to pave a roadmap for the country.

This year is especially important for the country as it is in its last mile to reach the goal of establishing a moderately prosperous society, eliminating hardcore poverty and improving livelihood of the people.

Everything went well and as planned until Covid-19 hit the country in January.

The disease was later declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation as more cases were reported globally.

The Middle Kingdom has to adjust its strategies after hundreds of billions of renminbi were spent to save lives and counter the coronavirus.

Premier Li Keqiang, when delivering the report on the work of the government, has unexpectedly announced that they did not set an economic growth target for 2020, considering the difficulties and uncertainties brought by the pandemic although the country had recorded a stunning growth of 6.1% last year.

He noted that it was more important to keep the nation’s economic development on a steady course than to chase after a numerical figure in these challenging times when the International Monetary Fund

is projecting the world’s economic growth to contract by 3% this year.

Affected by the pandemic, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of this year shrank by 6.8%, compared to the same period last year.

Li urged local governments to be prudent in their spending, ensuring that every cent is spent where it is needed most.

“The central government will take the lead by cutting over 50% of non-essential and non-obligatory items, ” he added.

This year, China is giving priority to, among others, securing a basic livelihood for the people, ensuring food and energy safety, stabilising businesses, foreign investments and trade.

Eradicating hardcore poverty among rural folk is a major task and the country is just one step away from achieving this.

The number of impoverished people stood at 5.51 million in 2019, a big reduction from 98.99 million in 2012.

To give its final push, a 146.1 billion yuan (RM89.5bil) allocation has been set aside to fund local poverty alleviation efforts.

In an extraordinary move, the world’s second largest economy announced the issuance of one trillion yuan (RM611bil) in government bonds for Covid-19 control.

The bonds would be used to enhance the research and development of vaccines, medicines and rapid testing technologies, as well as for the setting up of medical facilities for epidemic control and treatment.

“We need to enhance our prevention and control capability, resolutely prevent a resurgence of Covid-19 and protect the health of our people, ” Li emphasised.

The Chinese government also projected the deficit-to-GDP ratio this year at over 3.6%, an increase of one trillion yuan over last year.

Ensuring employment has always been an issue at the Two Sessions meeting.

It has never been an easy task for a country with a labour force of some 800 million people, while at the same time it needs to promote the extensive use of artificial intelligence.

That challenge is even bigger now.

A 53.9 billion yuan (RM33bil) in employment subsidies has been allocated for this purpose, with an aim to create over nine million new urban jobs to cater to 8.74 million fresh graduates joining the workforce this year.

To help business entities survive these challenging times, a list of measures would be taken to reduce corporate operating costs.

They include pension payment relief for enterprises, cutting taxes and fees, and reducing or cancelling VAT (value added taxes) for small-scale taxpayers and the services sector, including public transportation, restaurants, hotels and sports.

The payment of corporate income taxes by micro and small businesses, as well as self-employed individuals, will be postponed to next year.

Other policies include having the rent for state-owned premises to be lowered or exempted, providing support for property owners to reduce, waive or defer rent payments for tenants, increasing loans to manufacturers and promoting e-commerce.

More measures have also been announced to expand the opening up and stabilising of overall performance of foreign trade and investment.

Li emphasised that opening up its door was much needed to stabilise industrial and supply chains for countries to jointly mitigate impact and cut losses to a minimum.

“To help businesses get more orders and retain their employees, we will increase credit supply, extend the coverage of export credit insurance, lower compliance costs for imports and exports and enhance our international shipping capacity, ” he added.

The Two Sessions is an annual meeting between the National People’s Congress, dubbed China’s parliament, and the country’s political advisory body, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Usually held in early March at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the event was postponed following the Covid-19 outbreak.

The meeting has also been shortened from the usual 11 days to seven days.

At a press conference, Li expressed confidence that China would be able to fulfill the tasks and goal of seeing the establishment of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.