BEIJING: Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday chaired a seminar soliciting opinions on a draft government work report from experts in various fields, businesspeople and representatives from sectors such as education, scientific research, culture, health and sports. Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang was also in attendance.
Over the past year, China has withstood external pressure and overcome difficulties at home to achieve progress in boosting high-quality development, Li said. The fundamental trend of China’s economic recovery and long-term positive outlook has not changed, he said, calling for increased confidence and courage to face challenges and difficulties.
On economic and social development this year, the premier stressed the need to refine macroeconomic regulation and control, increase the intensity and effectiveness of proactive fiscal policy, strengthen the consistency of macroeconomic policy orientation, and ensure that prudent monetary policy is flexible, moderate, precise and effective.
Li also called for efforts to advance reform and opening-up, accelerate the development of a unified national market, nurture new economic growth engines while meeting the diverse needs of the people, and foster a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized.Earlier last week, Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang told the world’s political and business elites in Davos on Tuesday that “discriminatory” trade barriers were a threat to the global economy, in a not-so-subtle dig at the United States.
Li’s remarks came as the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 54th annual conference is preoccupied with a slew of global risks, including war in Ukraine and bombardment in Gaza, climate change and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence.
Li shared the spotlight with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who attended the forum in person for the first time in an effort to maintain military support from Kyiv’s allies after nearly two years of war with Russia.
Li spoke just days after a tense presidential election in Taiwan, the democratic island that Beijing claims as part of China. But the most senior Chinese official to attend the WEF since 2017 did not address the election and instead focused on trade, his country’s economy and AI. He said “new discriminatory trade and investment measures” had appeared every year, adding: “Any obstacles or disruptions can slow down or block the flow of lifeblood of the world economy.” –Agencies
