Xu Lin:

Thank you Mr. Jiang Jinquan. Now Mr. Han Wenxiu will brief us on upholding and improving the basic socialist economic system.

Han Wenxiu:

Good morning. I would like to brief you on upholding and improving the basic socialist economic system. The basic economic system, as a constant component of the economic system, has a decisive influence on the nature of the economic system and the mode of economic development. For years, we have adhered to a basic socialist economic system in which public ownership has a dominant position, with other forms of ownership existing side by side. As an innovative outcome of the fourth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the socialist market economy has been included in the basic economic system, together with the distribution system under which distribution according to work is the dominant mode and a variety of modes of distribution coexist. The three interconnected parts, which support and reinforce each other, form the basic socialist economic system, thus making our socialist economic system more mature and well-established. This major innovation serves as a valuable guide for better realizing the full potential of our socialist system, unleashing and developing productive forces, and promoting high-quality economic development. 

Important policies for upholding and improving the basic socialist economic system were put forward at the plenary session.

First, we need to remain committed to unswervingly consolidating and developing the public sector of the economy and unswervingly encouraging, supporting and guiding the development of the non-public sector. We need to deepen reforms of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), improve the modern corporate system with Chinese characteristics, enhance their competitiveness, creativity, control and influence as well as abilities to resist risks through market competition, in order to support state capital in becoming stronger, doing better and growing bigger. SOEs need further reform to embrace mixed-ownership. The private sector, which has maintained steady growth since the adoption of reform and opening up policy in 1978, now contributes more than half of China's GDP, and the share is continuing to rise. The plenary session called for efforts to form a cordial and clean relationship between government and business, promote healthy growth of the non-public sector of the economy, and encourage those working in this sector to achieve success. 

Second, we will adhere to distribution according to work as the dominant mode of distribution with a variety of other modes coexisting. We should both make the cake bigger and share it fairly. We will encourage people to make their money through hard work while improving mechanisms for distribution based on contributions of factors of production such as labor, capital, land, knowledge, technology, management and data. We must improve the regulatory mechanism of income redistribution and develop social welfare programs such as charity. We will enlarge the middle-income group, regulate income distribution procedures, and form an "olive-shaped" distribution structure.

Third, we will accelerate efforts to improve the socialist market economy system and give full play to the role of the market in resource allocation and strengthen the role of the government, so that the "visible hand" and the "invisible hand" complement each other. It is necessary to build a high-standard market system, strengthen the protection of property rights, intellectual property rights and enterprises' trade secrets, promote the construction of the factor market, strengthen the competition policy, carry forward the development of advanced manufacturing, revitalize the real economy, improve the system of scientific and technological innovation, and elevate new institutions of the open economy to a higher level. 

We believe that with the strong foundation of the basic economic system of socialism, the Chinese economy will surely achieve stability and high-quality development. Thank you!