Officials of the National Development and Reform Commission attend a press conference, Beijing, China, October 8, 2024. /CMG
Editor's note: Bi Qingmiao, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is an associate professor at Lingnan College, Sun Yat-sen University. Her research focuses on China's economic growth and business environment. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
On October 8, 2024, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to introduce the implementation of a package of incremental policies. The objective is to solidly promote economic upward restructuring and continuous improvement in development trends. These policies focus on five main areas: strengthening counter-cyclical macroeconomic policy adjustments, expanding effective domestic demand, increasing support for enterprises, stabilizing the real estate market and boosting the capital market.
These measures have garnered widespread attention from economic entities and the public, and are expected to effectively promote sustained economic improvement and growth.The main aspects of this press conference can be summarized by four notable characteristics.
The first keyword is stability. With more than two months of the year remaining and given the stable 5 percent growth rate from the first half, the implementation of the incremental policy package is likely to surpass the full-year growth target of around 5 percent. In addition, stability helps fulfill the goals of the 14th Five-Year Plan. With one year left until its conclusion, implementing more targeted incremental policies and measures now will ensure a successful completion of the 14th Five-Year Plan and lay a strong foundation for the 15th Five-Year Plan.
The second key term is efficiency. From the initial proposal to "step up efforts to roll out incremental policies" at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on September 26, to the arrangements for implementing a series of incremental policies at the State Council executive meeting on September 29, and the introduction of a package of incremental policies on October 8, the process took only 12 days. This not only demonstrates the government's high efficiency but also highlights its determination to promote high-quality development. It is expected that the impact of these policies and measures will be evident within the next few months.
The city view of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, October 30, 2023. /Xinhua
Moreover, the package of incremental policies places greater emphasis on enhancing the quality of economic development. Achieving high-quality macroeconomic growth inevitably depends on the success of numerous high-quality business entities. To this end, the press conference proposed a range of anticipated policies to support enterprises and improve the business environment. These include measures to open the market further by lifting restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector, helping businesses navigate challenges such as intense market competition, high costs, and financing difficulties, and fostering high-quality growth by ensuring fair competition through legal channels. The government also aims to adopt inclusive and prudent regulation, along with flexible law enforcement, to minimize disruptions to businesses and support their sustainable growth.
Coordination is one pivotal aspect that cannot be neglected. Implementing the package of incremental policies is a comprehensive and systematic undertaking. The meeting emphasized the need for coordination in several key areas: aligning high-quality development with high-level security; harmonizing fiscal, financial, consumer, investment, real estate, stock market, employment and livelihood policies; and ensuring the timely alignment of policies between this year and next, as well as between existing and new incremental policies.
From the overall tone and deployment of the meeting, this package of policies is not merely a short-term economic stimulus but one focused on promoting economic structural optimization and high-quality development.
In recent years, China's economy has transitioned from a phase of rapid growth to one of high-quality development, requiring policy guidance to shift from "quantitative expansion" to "qualitative enhancement." This press conference marks a significant milestone in China's pursuit of high-quality economic growth.
As the incremental policies are implemented, continuous and systematic evaluation is essential to assess the relevance, precision and effectiveness of these policies. It is also crucial to respond promptly to the concerns of businesses and the public, ensuring that the benefits of the policies are clearly felt and appreciated.
(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on X, formerly Twitter, to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)