China Daily:
What were the new progress and breakthroughs in China's high-quality development for 2021? What aspects should be given more attention when pursuing high-quality development this year? And what about coordinating the relationship between the stable operation of the macro-economy and high-quality development? Thank you.
Ning Jizhe:
High-quality development is a prominent feature of China's 14th Five-Year Plan. In the past year, all regions and departments across the country thoroughly implemented the new development philosophy and promoted the stability and recovery of the economy while stepping up efforts to deepen reforms, expand opening-up, encourage innovation and accelerate reforms in quality, efficiency and drivers. We have made new achievements in high-quality development which were mainly demonstrated in the following five aspects.
First, innovation-driven development yielded new results. High-tech industries rapidly developed. In 2021, the value added from pharmaceutical, aerospace and equipment manufacturing industries, as well as electronic and communication device manufacturing, and computer and office equipment manufacturing industries above the designated size grew by 24.7%, 17%, 18.3% and 18% from the previous year, respectively. All of the above are high-tech industrial manufacturing industries. The valued added of information transmission, software and information technology services industries increased 17.2% year on year. China continued to enhance its national strategic strength in science and technology, witnessing the successful launch of Tianwen 1 Mars probe, the completion of Shenzhou 12 and Shenzhou 13, the operation of the national space laboratory, and other missions accomplished.,
Second, the coordinated development has made new progress. Industrial structures continued adjusting and optimizing. Over the past year, there were two important figures. In 2021, the value added of the manufacturing industry accounted for 27.4% of China's GDP, an increase of 1.1 percentage points from the previous year. At the same time, the value added of the service industry accounted for 53.3% of the national GDP, with its contribution rate to economic growth reaching 54.9%, 16.5 percentage points higher than the secondary industry. It's not an easy target for manufacturing and service industries to achieve. The demand structure has steadily improved. In 2021, the domestic demand's contribution rate to economic growth was close to 80%, signaling a growth of 4.4 percentage points over the previous year. The urbanization level has constantly improved. At the end of 2021, the urbanization rate among permanent resident populations grew by 0.83 percentage point compared to the same period of 2020.
Third, green and low-carbon development has made new achievements. We have made solid progress in energy conservation. In 2021, China's energy consumption per unit GDP dropped by 2.7% from the previous year, a big step forward compared to 2020. The statistic in 2020 remained the same as the previous year since the economy was heavily hampered by the epidemic. Clean energy consumption developed rapidly. According to preliminary calculation, the consumption of clean energies such as natural gas, hydropower, nuclear, wind, and solar accounted for 25.3% of the total energy consumption, one percentage point higher than the previous year. The output of green products has seen rapid growth as well. In 2021, the output of new energy vehicles and solar batteries grew by 145.6% and 42.1% compared to 2020, respectively. All of the figures listed above are extraordinary and suggest that the market enjoys tremendous prospects. The air quality constantly improved as well.
Fourth, we have drawn momentum from opening up to promote high-quality development and realize new breakthroughs. In the past year, China's total import and export of goods increased by 30% to 6 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time, hitting a new high. In addition, the growth rate also reached a record high since 2011; actualized use of foreign investment reached 1.1 trillion yuan, and China's trade volume with economies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 11.6 trillion yuan; and the number of China-Europe freight train trips surged by 22% year on year to 15,000. In particular, at the beginning of this year, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) officially entered into force, marking the largest free trade zone by far in terms of participating population, trade volume, and development potential. It is certain to promote the development of foreign trade, mutual investment, international trade, and international investment.
Fifth, new progress has been made in sharing the results of development. The income of urban and rural residents continued to grow. In 2021, the per capita disposable income of urban residents rose by 7.1% in real terms, and the per capita disposable income of rural residents rose by 9.7% in real terms. Spending on people's well-being also increased. From January to November, among the expenditure in the national general public budget, expenditures on housing security, education, social security and employment increased by 7.4%, 5.1% and 4.9% year-on-year, respectively.
At present, China's economy has shifted away from high-speed growth to high-quality development, and high-quality development is the theme for China's economic and social development in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period. To promote high-quality development, we must follow the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, focus on development as the top priority, promote reform and innovation, and pursue supply-side structural reform as our main task. Now, it is necessary to put stable growth in a prominent position, see that the economy operates within an appropriate range, maintain macroeconomic stability, promote high-quality development and the stable operation of the national economy at the same time, and coordinate the reasonable economic growth in volume and stable improvement in quality to ensure stable, sustained, and sound development of China's economy. Thank you.
