Says country will continue with proactive fiscal policy, prudent monetary policy. PHOTO: REUTERS
BEIJING: Premier Li Keqiang has underlined the importance of fostering new growth engines and expanding effective investment to stabilise economic growth and job market.
The country will continue with a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy, Li said as he presided over a symposium on the economy on Monday.
Li called for efforts to create favourable conditions for more successful, private unicorn start-ups, high-growth gazelle companies and new champions and to accelerate the transition between old and new growth engines.
Unicorns are privately held start-ups valued at over $1 billion whereas gazelles are fast-growing, often small and hi-tech businesses.
More work must be done to speed up building major programmes, eliminate hidden barriers to private investment and promote the upgrading of industries, he said.
China’s GDP rose 6.2% in the second quarter from a year earlier, below the 6.4% expansion in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
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The bureau said the economy grew by 6.3% in the first half of the year and over 7.3 million new jobs were created in urban areas.
Li said some economic indicators in the first quarter were better than expected, and the economic performance did not come easy.
The country is faced with a sluggish global economic growth, weakening world trade and rising protectionism, which, coupled with domestic factors, has brought mounting downward pressure, he said.
He called for continuous efforts to promote reforms and opening up, better use of countercyclical policies and stabilise expectations of businesses.
It is important to improve the transmission mechanism of monetary policy and reduce financing costs of small and medium-sized enterprises and microbusinesses, he said.
The quality of consumer goods must be further improved and the supply of high-quality services in elderly care, day care for infants, education and health should be increased, and Internet Plus life services must be expanded, he said.
Internet Plus refers to the policies aimed at promoting advanced digitalisation.
He also underscored the significance of adopting measures to stabilise and expand employment.
Li reaffirmed China’s commitment to develop a business environment which is in line with market principles, international standards and the rule of law, adding that the country will expand opening-up more proactively.
This article originally appeared on the China Economic Net
Published in The Express Tribune, July 18th, 2019.
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