Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine:
How is the progress in China's high-quality development in 2020? Could you elaborate on that? In your opinion, what is the focus of promoting high-quality development in 2021? Thank you.
Ning Jizhe:
This is a good question. Last year, the coronavirus affected our economic growth and development. However, while stabilizing employment, ensuring people's livelihoods, and maintaining the fundamentals of the economy, all regions and departments have been unswervingly implementing new development concepts and promoting high-quality development, continuing to deepen reforms, expanding opening up, and cultivating new drivers of growth. The quality and efficiency of economic growth have been steadily improved.
First, innovation, the primary driving force of development, continues to be stimulated. New industries, new forms of business, and new products are developing rapidly. From January to November in 2020, the operating income of strategic emerging service enterprises above the designated size increased by 8.6% year-on-year, 7 percentage points higher than that of the service industry above the designated size. The proportion of online retail sales of physical goods reached 24.9%, up 4.2% over the previous year; the output of industrial robots, new energy vehicles, and integrated circuits all achieved rapid growth and increased by 19.1%, 17.3%, and 16.2%, respectively. The number of small and medium-sized tech enterprises and high-tech enterprises has exceeded 200,000. Finally, major breakthroughs have been made in the scientific exploration of space and the sea, as I mentioned earlier.
Second, coordination has increasingly become an endogenous feature. New steps have been taken in the transformation of the industrial structure. The added value of the equipment manufacturing industry and the high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 6.6% and 7.1%, respectively, 3.8 and 4.3 percentage points higher than that of all industries above the designated size. The added value of the tertiary industry accounted for 54.5% of China's GDP, up 0.2 percentage point over the previous year. New progress has been made in the adjustment of the demand structure. Investment in high-tech industries and social fields climbed by more than 10% over the previous year to 10.6% and 11.9%, which are 7.7 and 9 percentage points higher than the total investment, respectively. The gap between urban and rural development continued to narrow. The income of rural residents has grown faster than that of urban residents, and the urbanization rate of permanent residents has exceeded 60%.
Third, we made major headway toward green development. Energy conservation and consumption reduction efforts have delivered results. The annual energy consumption per unit of GDP has dropped. The proportion of consumption of natural gas, water, nuclear, wind, solar energy, electricity, and other clean energies has increased by 1 percentage point over the previous year. The environment has also improved significantly. The PM2.5 concentration of 337 cities at or above the prefecture level across the country dropped by 8.3% compared with the previous year. In terms of water environment, among the 1940 national surface water assessment sections, the proportion of water with good quality (Grade I-III) increased by 8.5 percentage points.
Fourth, the path to opening up has become broader. In 2020, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and other special economic zones, and the 30th anniversary of the development and opening up of Shanghais Pudong district. Pilot projects are exemplary and stimulate economic development. In the context of shrinking world trade and cross-border investment, China's total import and export of goods and the actual use of foreign capital have both achieved positive growth. The actual use of foreign capital during the last month of 2020 has not been officially announced. From January to November, the figure increased by 6.3%. The actual use of foreign capital has played a major role in stabilizing economic fundamentals. In the past year, the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port has also been accelerated. We have had active economic and trade exchanges with countries along the Belt and Road. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) was officially signed and the China-EU Investment Agreement negotiations were completed. These all provide a strong impetus for open development.
Fifth, sharing as the fundamental goal has been further emphasized. Poverty alleviation has achieved remarkable results. We have eliminated both absolute poverty and overall regional poverty. The employment situation is generally stable, and the surveyed unemployment rate has returned to the level of the same period of the previous year. The nationwide surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas peaked in February, reaching 6.2%, but in December, the number dropped to 5.2%. The quality of the life of residents has improved significantly, and the ownership of consumer durables has grown rapidly. The construction of a multi-level social security system has been accelerated. The development of education, culture, health, and other social sectors have been stimulated and the ability to guarantee basic public services has been continuously strengthened.
2021 is the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the theme of which is to promote high-quality development. We must continue to take development as the Party's top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country, unswervingly implement the new development concepts of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing, and continue to consolidate epidemic prevention and control and restore economic stability and boost development. We strive to maintain economic operations within a reasonable range and create a favorable environment for high-quality development. Focusing on improving the quality and efficiency of development, we will seek coordinated development of economic quality, structure, scale, speed, efficiency, and safety, and integrate high-quality development concepts into all fields and levels of economic society. Thank you.
