At 10 a.m. on Friday, January 3, 2025, the Information Office of the State Council held a series of press conferences on "China's High-quality Economic Development Results". The National Development and Reform Commission said that it will significantly increase the scale of ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds, intensify the implementation of the "two new" work, and make greater efforts to support the "two-fold" construction.

We will implement subsidies for the purchase of new digital products such as mobile phones, increase support for the replacement of home improvement consumer goods, moderately increase the scale of investment in the central budget and optimize the scope of support, and focus on public sector projects where the market cannot effectively allocate resources.

Consideration of the 2025 economic growth target

Yuan Da, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Development and Reform Commission, recently shared some considerations on setting economic growth targets for 2025. He said that in formulating this goal, we focus on balancing real needs and possibilities, and ensure that it is aligned with medium- and long-term planning to promote high-quality development and achieve the goals of the 14th Five-Year Plan.

The considerations behind goal setting

In setting this year's economic growth target, we have taken into account a number of factors:

Facing challenges: The current external environment is becoming increasingly complex and severe, which has brought a deeper adverse impact on China's economy. New difficulties and challenges are constantly emerging, requiring us to remain vigilant and flexible in an uncertain environment.

Seizing opportunities: Despite the challenges, China's economy has a solid foundation, clear advantages, strong resilience and great potential. By further deepening comprehensive reforms, developing new productive forces in accordance with local conditions, and smoothing the domestic circulation, we can effectively stimulate the endogenous driving force of economic development and inject new vitality into growth.

Policy regulation and control capacity: A series of policy measures introduced last year will continue to have an effect, while this year's macro policy still retains ample space. The abundant means and experience of macroeconomic regulation and control will provide us with solid support for achieving the goal of economic growth.

Intensify the expansion and implementation of the "two new" work

Yuan Da recently gave a detailed introduction to the scale of ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds that will increase significantly in 2025, and elaborated on how to strengthen the implementation of "new infrastructure" and "new urbanization" (referred to as "two new") specific measures. These measures aim to promote high-quality economic development, stimulate the potential of domestic demand, and improve people's livelihood and well-being.

1. Expand the scope of support

Expand the field of equipment renewal: Expand the scope of support for equipment renewal from traditional fields to emerging industries such as electronic information, safety production, and facility agriculture.

Implement the subsidy policy for the purchase of new digital products such as mobile phones, and provide financial subsidies for individual consumers to purchase three types of digital products such as mobile phones, tablets, and smart watch bracelets, and encourage consumption upgrading and technology popularization.

2. Raise the subsidy standard

Increase the level of subsidies in key areas: further raise the subsidy standards for the renewal of new energy city buses and power batteries, and the scrapping and renewal of agricultural machinery, and increase support for green transportation and modern agriculture.

Strengthen the support for the replacement of home improvement consumer goods, promote the healthy development of the home decoration industry, and promote the improvement of residents' quality of life.

3. Improve enforcement mechanisms

Simplify the process and optimize management: Reduce the approval process of equipment renewal projects, and improve the convenience and efficiency of equipment renewal for enterprises.

Optimize the allocation of funds: According to the work results of each region last year, reasonable allocation of resources to ensure the effective use of subsidy funds.

Reduce the burden on enterprises: By simplifying the subsidy process, the pressure on enterprises to advance funds and operating costs is reduced, and the subsidy funds can be cashed out to the beneficiaries in a timely and efficient manner.

Standardize market order: strengthen the supervision of project funds, ensure that every fund is used on the cutting edge, continue to improve the effect of policies, and maintain a good market environment.

Yuan Da stressed that the above measures reflect the government's firm determination to promote the sustained economic recovery and achieve high-quality development. Through the implementation of these policies, it can not only effectively stimulate market demand, but also inject new momentum into the development of related industries, and ultimately achieve the goal of stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, and benefiting people's livelihood. We are confident in the quality and efficiency of economic operation this year, and believe that these policy measures will provide strong support for the achievement of the goals of the 14th Five-Year Plan.

Four aspects of the implementation of special actions to boost consumption

Xiao Weiming, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that looking forward to 2025, the advantages of China's super-large-scale consumer market are still obvious, and the conditions and basic trends to support consumption have not changed. It is expected that the consumer market will continue to show a steady growth trend.

In order to further boost consumption and benefit people's livelihood, the Government has initially considered stepping up its policies in the following areas:

1. Promote the increase of residents' income and reduce the burden

Raise the level of pensions: appropriately increase the basic pensions of retirees and the basic pensions of urban and rural residents, and enhance the consumption power and quality of life of the elderly group.

Raise the standard of medical insurance subsidy: Raise the standard of financial subsidy for medical insurance for urban and rural residents, reduce the medical burden, and increase the disposable income of residents.

Protecting the rights and interests of flexible workers: Strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of workers in flexible employment and new forms of employment, and ensure that these groups of people enjoy stable income and social security, so as to enhance their consumer confidence.

2. Enrich the supply of consumer products and services

Expand the implementation of the "two new" policies: include consumer goods such as mobile phones, tablets, and smart watch bracelets into the support category, and encourage consumers to upgrade electronic products. Promote fair competition by supporting online and offline sales channels, as well as enterprises with different ownership systems and different places of incorporation, to participate in trade-in activities.

Expanding the consumption of services:

Build industry leading enterprises and service brands, and improve service quality. Relax market access restrictions, encourage more market players to enter the service sector, and stimulate effective demand through high-quality supply.

3. Cultivate new growth points for consumption

Tapping into emerging consumer demand: Pay attention to the opportunities brought about by emerging consumer trends and technological advances, and cultivate new consumption hotspots, such as smart homes and green travel, to inject new impetus into economic growth.

Fourth, improve the consumption environment

Optimize the order of the consumer market: strengthen market supervision, crack down on counterfeit and shoddy goods, protect the rights and interests of consumers, and create a safe and secure consumer environment.

Improve infrastructure construction: Promote the construction of urban and rural commercial facilities, especially in rural areas, to narrow the gap between urban and rural consumption and improve the overall consumption experience.

Additional issuance of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to strongly support the "two-fold" construction

Yuan Da, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that in order to more vigorously support the construction of major projects and the improvement of people's livelihood (referred to as "double" construction), China will increase the issuance of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, will strengthen this strategic deployment from three aspects:

1. Intensify construction

We will continue to focus on supporting the development of the following areas: Yangtze River Economic Belt: Continue to promote ecological environmental protection and green development. The New Land-Sea Corridor in the Western Region: Strengthen the construction of transportation infrastructure and promote regional connectivity. Urbanization of rural migrants: Improve the public service system to ensure that migrant workers in urban areas enjoy equal social services.

Improving the quality of higher education: improving the quality of education and scientific research in colleges and universities. In addition, the scope of water conservancy support will be further extended to large and medium-sized irrigation areas and water diversion projects across the country, and intercity railway construction projects in key metropolitan areas will be included in the scope of support. Nationwide, we will also fully implement actions to effectively reduce the logistics cost of the whole society to promote the efficient development of the logistics industry.

2. Strengthen the combination of soft and hard

While promoting the construction of hardware facilities, we insist on paying equal attention to project construction and supporting reforms. Specific measures include:

Planning and policy formulation: Accelerate the formulation of relevant planning and policy measures to ensure the smooth implementation of the project.

Institutional Innovation: Promote institutional innovation, optimize the investment environment, and improve investment efficiency.

Improve the investment mechanism: establish and improve the diversified investment mechanism to ensure the effective use of funds and enhance the comprehensive benefits of investment.

3. Speed up the progress of work

In order to accelerate the implementation of the project, on the basis of the list of about 100 billion yuan of projects issued in advance last year, we will issue a new batch of project lists in the near future. The aim of this move is to promote the project to form a physical workload as soon as possible, ensure that the funds are converted into actual results in a timely manner, and inject strong impetus into economic development.