Xu Lin:
Thank you, Mr. Han. The floor is now open for questions. Please identify your news outlet before asking your question.
China Media Group:
Many in the general public are likely eager to know the new content of the CPC Central Committee's proposals for the 14th Five-Year Plan that concerns issues relating to their livelihoods. For example, general income has been growing but gaps in income between different industries and regions have been widening. Meanwhile, consumption has witnessed lower growth. What specific measures does the 14th Five-Year Plan contain to tackle these issues? Thank you.
Xu Lin:
Mr. Ning Jizhe will answer this question.
Ning Jizhe:
Thank you, this question is very important as it concerns many people. The people aspire to live a better life and the proposals for the 14th Five-Year Plan answer the aspiration of millions of people, raising major requirements and measures for the improvement of people's well-being and their quality of life. In terms of employment, we will look to strengthen employment policies, create more jobs, improve support systems for securing employment for key groups, and realize more adequate, higher-quality employment. In terms of income, we will raise levels of income, increase the income of urban and rural residents via multiple channels, and make sure that income increases keep pace with economic growth. In terms of education, we will build a higher-quality education system, promote balanced development and urban-rural integration in compulsory education, and push a higher level of education throughout the nation. In terms of culture and sport, we will organize extensive cultural and fitness activities open to the general public. In terms of healthcare, we will comprehensively promote the building of the Healthy China initiative, speed up the expansion of quality healthcare resources while balancing the distribution of such resources between different regions, and generally improve the healthcare system. In terms of elderly care, we will implement the national strategy of proactively addressing the issue of an aging population, boost long-term and balanced development of the population, and improve basic elderly care service systems. In terms of social security, we will improve the multi-layered social security system and make sure that it covers the entire nation, maintains coordination between urban and rural areas, and is fair, uniform, and sustainable.
Here I will introduce the situation regarding incomes and consumption during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. In the past few years, the income of China's residents has seen continued growth. From 2016 to 2019, disposable income per capita saw real annual growth of 6.5%. The gap between urban and rural areas has gradually narrowed. In 2019, the ratio of disposable income per capita of urban residents to that of rural residents was 2.64, 0.09 smaller than in 2015. The size of middle-income groups has also expanded from more than 100 million people in 2010 to more than 400 million people in 2019. Consumption has seen continued growth, with total retail sales of consumer goods reaching 41.2 trillion yuan in 2019, up 36.9% from 2015. The structure of consumption patterns has also been optimizing: the Engel's Coefficient (the share of residents' expenditure on food concerning overall expenditure) declined to 28.2% in 2019 from 30.6% in 2015, reflecting an upgrade in the structure of consumption patterns. New forms and models of consumption have also been thriving. Online retail sales reached 10.6 trillion yuan in 2019, 1.74 times higher than that of 2015. Online retail, riding the trend, continued to grow this year.
Amid the impact of the pandemic in the past few months, we took measures to boost incomes and encourage consumption, and as a result, both have gradually recovered. In the first three quarters of the year, disposable income per capita has seen real growth of 0.6%, the first positive growth this year. In September, total retail sales of consumer goods grew 3.3% year on year, with the third quarter witnessing a positive growth.
You mentioned earlier that there is an income gap between different industries and regions. In the 14th Five-Year Plan period, we will follow the requirements of the proposals to firmly promote common prosperity, insist on the system under which distribution according to that work is dominant and a variety of modes of distribution coexist, increase the share of work remuneration in primary distribution, improve mechanisms for reasonable wage increases, make efforts to raise incomes among lower-income groups, and expand the size of middle-income groups. We will also improve the system of distribution according to factors of contribution and production and increase middle-to-low-income groups' income payments. We will perfect the redistribution mechanism and improve the intensity and accuracy of measures for adjustment such as taxation, social security, and transfer of payments. We will let the tertiary distribution mechanism play its role and promote charity work. We will encourage consumption with comprehensive measures; ride the trend of consumption upgrades; promote green, healthy, and safe consumption; develop service consumption, and encourage the development of new models and forms of consumption. We will push for the management of consumer goods, including cars, to shift from purchase management to usage management systems, and we will push for the healthy development of housing consumption. We will promote contact-free services, boost the integrated development of online and offline consumption, and tap urban and rural consumer markets. We will implement an on-pay leave system and increase consumption during holidays. We will improve the environment for consumption and offer stronger protections for consumer rights to let consumption better play its fundamental role in driving economic development, which is also a way to improve and secure people's livelihoods. Thank you.
