People's Daily Mid year Economic Observation: China's High Quality Development Taking New Steps | Structure | Economy

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This year is the beginning year of fully implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

The recently released semi annual report on the Chinese economy shows that in the first half of this year, the overall performance of the Chinese economy has rebounded and improved. Starting from today, this newspaper will launch a series of "Mid Year Economic Observations" to vividly reflect the new progress and achievements of high-quality development, comprehensively, dialectically, and long-term analyze the economic situation, fully demonstrate the resilience and vitality of the Chinese economy, and further strengthen confidence in doing a good job in economic work.

The first quarter achieved a good start, and the second quarter continued to recover. In the complex and severe external environment, the Chinese economy has shown a rebound and positive trend. The China Economic Half Year Report released on July 17th showed that in the first half of the year, the gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.5% year-on-year, faster than the full year growth rate of 3% last year, faster than the first quarter growth rate of 4.5%, and significantly faster than the world's major developed economies.

"2023 is the beginning year of fully implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, with both hope and challenge coexisting."

"To promote Chinese path to modernization, we must do a good job in the first year."

"In the new journey of building a strong country and national rejuvenation, we must firmly promote high-quality development."

The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core unites and leads the entire party and the people of all ethnic groups in the country to strengthen confidence, work hard, firmly grasp the primary task of high-quality development, and strive to promote the overall improvement of economic operations, and make a good start for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country Good step.

The policy of stabilizing growth, employment, and prices is gradually showing its effects, market demand is gradually recovering, production and supply continue to increase, the overall employment situation is stable, and people's livelihoods are effectively guaranteed. In the first half of the year, the national economy recovered and took new steps towards high-quality development, laying a solid foundation and injecting confidence to achieve the annual development goals.

Restoring resilience and showing resilience

Stable growth rate, excellent structure, strong driving force, China's economy rebounds and shows great development resilience

The production has reached a new high! On July 3rd, as a pure electric vehicle slowly drove off the production line, China's cumulative production of new energy vehicles exceeded 20 million, entering a new stage of large-scale and global development.

Consumption continues to rebound! During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, 106 million domestic tourists traveled, a year-on-year increase of 32.3%. On June 24th, the annual express delivery volume reached 60 billion pieces, 34 days ahead of last year.

Building without stopping! The construction of the Pinglu Canal project has started, the Chongqing Kunming high-speed railway Sichuan Chongqing section has been connected, and the world's first 16 MW offshore wind turbine has been lifted... Major projects have been solidly promoted.

Since the beginning of this year, the economy and society have fully resumed normal operation, and various industries have made great strides. The vast atmosphere of high-quality development has filled observers of the Chinese economy with confidence.

——To observe the Chinese economy, one must look at both the numbers and the scenery. One by one, indicators that release warmth and vibrant images converge into a positive trend of sustained economic recovery in China.

The May Day holiday is filled with tourists. "At around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, there were nearly 100 tables waiting for a table," said Yu Pinghe, a Beijing tourist heading to a well-known restaurant in Wuhan. "I had expected a lot of people, but I didn't expect business to be so hot."

From offline commercial districts to online shopping, from physical goods to life services, consumer scenarios continue to expand, and the growth rate of contact and aggregation service industries has rebounded significantly. In the first half of the year, the total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 8.2% year-on-year, maintaining a rapid growth; The contribution rate of final consumption expenditure to economic growth reached 77.2%, significantly higher than last year.

While consumption is improving, investment is solidly advancing, and foreign trade is stabilizing while improving quality. In the first half of the year, fixed assets investment increased by 3.8% year on year, of which infrastructure investment and manufacturing investment increased by 7.2% and 6% respectively. Effective investment continued to play a key role in stabilizing growth; For the first time in history, the scale of foreign trade imports and exports exceeded 20 trillion yuan, with 540000 foreign trade enterprises having import and export performance, an increase of 6.9% year-on-year.

Powerful and stable chassis. In the first half of the year, the per capita disposable income of residents in China increased by 5.8% in real terms, significantly faster than the whole of last year. The food and energy rice bowl is stable and firm: the summer grain production has reached 146.13 million tons, laying the foundation for stable annual grain production; In the first half of the year, the total production of primary energy increased by 2.7% year-on-year, providing strong support for the demand for production and daily energy.

——To observe the Chinese economy, one must look at both the form and the spirit. While achieving a reasonable increase in quantity, the Chinese economy is experiencing an effective improvement in quality.

Not long ago, SAIC Volkswagen's oldest factory, Shanghai Anting Factory, officially closed down. This is a corner in the overall transformation of the automotive industry. Given the limited local land space, SAIC Volkswagen began upgrading and renovating its second factory in 2017, and started the construction of a new generation electric vehicle platform model factory in 2018. After the adjustment of Anting Factory, the base will focus on the research and development and production of new energy vehicles, and some fuel vehicle production will be relocated to outside Shanghai.

More than 400 kilometers away, Volkswagen is expanding its investment in Hefei, Anhui. The third new factory in China was completed at the end of last year, and the first model is expected to be put into production in the second half of this year; On May 30th, the wholly-owned technology company project was announced to be settled again.

Upgrade the production line here and accelerate the layout there. Based on the vast market space and adapting to the trend of electrification and intelligence, China's automobile industry is moving forward: in the first half of the year, the production and sales of automobiles completed 13.248 million and 13.239 million respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 9.3% and 9.8%, of which 2.14 million were exported, with a year-on-year increase of up to 75.7%.

Transforming methods, adjusting structures, and increasing kinetic energy. In the first half of the year, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 3.8% year-on-year, which was 0.8 percentage points faster than the first quarter. Among them, the proportion of added value in the equipment manufacturing industry reached 32.3%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points from the same period last year.

Innovation drives a surge of vitality. The open-source desktop operating system "Open Qilin 1.0" has been released, and the annual production of 25000 tons of high-performance carbon fiber project has been put into operation. The first domestically produced F-class 50 MW heavy-duty gas turbine has been put into commercial operation, and the "bottleneck" technology has been successively overcome. A total of 2.84 million 5G base stations have been built, and the scale of the core artificial intelligence industry has reached 500 billion yuan, making the "new track" increasingly broad. In the first half of the year, investment in high-tech industries increased by 12.5% year-on-year.

The green transformation is steadily advancing. The world's highest altitude water solar complementary project is connected to the grid for power generation. The 16 million kilowatt units of the Baihetan hydropower station are fully operational for the first time, and the Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant's No. 4 nuclear island has completed the hoisting of a "thousand ton" module, accelerating the adjustment of the energy structure. In the first half of the year, the energy consumption per unit of GDP decreased by 0.4% year-on-year, and the proportion of high-quality sections in the national surface water assessment increased by 2.1 percentage points year-on-year.

We are firmly committed to open development. Against the backdrop of a slowdown in global trade and investment, China is actively expanding high-level opening-up. In the first half of the year, international economic and trade events such as the Consumer Expo, the Canton Fair, and the China Central and Eastern European Countries Expo were showcased, attracting more global goods to enter the Chinese market; The export of "new three types" products represented by electric passenger vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells has accelerated, with a total export growth of 61.6%, driving the overall export growth by 1.8 percentage points.

——To observe the Chinese economy, one must look both internally and externally. In the sluggish global economy, China remains the main stabilizer and power source.

Geopolitical conflicts continue, with inflation in major developed economies remaining high, and some countries experiencing spillover effects of monetary policy contraction. In some countries, household debt is high, the degree of contraction in the manufacturing industry is deepening, and the downward pressure on the economy is increasing; Some countries continue to face challenges from high inflation and high interest rates, with negative GDP growth rates for two consecutive quarters... The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has judged that global economic growth is on a "long and winding path.".

"In the first quarter, the GDP of the United States, the eurozone, Japan, and Brazil increased by 1.8%, 1%, 1.9%, and 4% year-on-year, respectively. Even considering the situation in the second quarter, China's economic growth rate in the first half of the year was still relatively fast among major economies." Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, said that in the first half of the year, China's economy maintained rapid growth, providing important support for global economic development.

The World Bank released its latest Global Economic Outlook report on June 6th, predicting that China's economy will grow by 5.6% in 2023, an increase of 1.3 percentage points from January's forecast. The President of the World Economic Forum, Schwab, said, "The whole world has benefited from China's development."

Foreign funded enterprises have cast a vote of confidence: Airbus is building a second production line in Tianjin; AstraZeneca signs an investment cooperation agreement with Qingdao High tech Industrial Development Zone; The third store in the Chinese Mainland region of the world's famous membership warehouse chain supermarket was opened for trial operation... From January to May, 18532 new foreign-invested enterprises were established in China, with a year-on-year growth of 38.3%. China continues to become an important investment destination for foreign capital.

Firmly promoting high-quality development, China's economy has rebounded and shown tremendous development resilience.

Taking practical actions and taking responsibility to promote development

Each region and department adheres to the overall tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, forming a strong driving force for promoting high-quality development

China's development always involves answering questions directly.

Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese economy has been in a critical period of economic recovery and industrial upgrading, with weak endogenous driving forces and insufficient demand. Economic transformation and upgrading are facing new obstacles, and promoting high-quality development requires overcoming many difficulties and challenges.

Strengthening the concept of political achievements that benefit the people, inspiring the spirit of work and entrepreneurship, and forming a good situation of strict implementation.

——Macro policies should be coordinated to promote sustained improvement in economic performance.

"Starting from this year, we can apply for the additional deduction of R&D expenses in the first half of the year in July, and it is expected to enjoy a deduction discount of about 12.6 million yuan three months in advance." Zhou Xiaofan, the financial director of Jiangsu Jiangyin Liaoyuan Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd., said that the early realization of policy dividends has eased the financial pressure on enterprises, "preparing to purchase more new equipment and increase R&D investment.".

Do not engage in "flood irrigation" and curb "rapid development", adapt to the characteristics of development stages and changes in the economic situation, make timely decisions, and prescribe accurate prescriptions. Faced with a situation of interweaving and overlapping structural problems and cyclical contradictions, various regions and departments have taken into account both current and long-term needs, as well as overall needs and possibilities, and have launched a combination of macroeconomic policies.

The financial department continues and optimizes the implementation of multiple tax and fee preferential policies, ensuring that policy dividends are accurately and directly delivered to business entities. In the first four months, a total of 468.9 billion yuan was added for tax reduction, fee reduction, and deferred tax refunds; The People's Bank of China uses various monetary policy tools such as reserve requirement reduction, medium-term lending convenience, and open market operations to maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity; Financial institutions have increased their support for small and micro enterprises, technological innovation, and green development. In the first half of the year, the amount of RMB loans issued to the real economy increased by 15.6 trillion yuan. Various policies such as finance, currency, industry, science and technology, and society have been coordinated and coordinated to promote the continuous improvement of economic operation, the continuous enhancement of endogenous power, the continuous improvement of social expectations, and the continuous resolution of risks and hidden dangers.

——Supply and demand work together to achieve a virtuous cycle of the national economy.

"The car is compact and easy to charge, and you can also enjoy a discount of 5000 yuan when buying a car." Recently, Wang Dongyan, who lives in Zouma Town, Jiulongpo District, Chongqing, spent less than 50000 yuan to purchase a new energy vehicle from the Celes. "The electricity cost per kilometer is only 4 cents, and the range is also long."

"The implementation of the policy of supporting new energy vehicles to go to rural areas has effectively leveraged the rural automobile consumption market." Zhang Xinghai, Chairman of Sailis Automobile, introduced that in the first half of the year, the company's cumulative automobile sales increased by 20% year-on-year.

Demand drives supply, supply creates demand. Each region and department will organically combine the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand with deepening supply side structural reform, and accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system.

Clear obstacles and break through obstacles, and provide articles effectively. Developing advanced manufacturing clusters, promoting industrial foundation reconstruction and major technological equipment research, deepening the implementation of the high-quality enterprise gradient cultivation project, and carrying out the "Hundred Meetings and Ten Thousand Enterprises" integration and docking activities for large, medium and small enterprises... Through multiple measures, the real economy is thriving.

Establish mechanisms, smooth circulation, and tap into the potential of domestic demand. The implementation of the Outline of the Strategic Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand and the Implementation Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand during the 14th Five Year Plan period has been accelerated. A series of policies have been introduced to support consumption such as housing improvement, new energy vehicles, elderly care services, and home furnishings. Various regions have actively held consumption seasons and issued consumption vouchers, and taken multiple measures to accelerate the release of market demand.

——Reform and opening up are advancing in depth, and the business environment is continuously optimizing.

On June 26th, Li Chaoyu, the relevant person in charge of Zhongke Zhigu Group, rushed to Guangzhou to attend the Guangdong Provincial Conference on Promoting Projects to Private Capital. At the meeting, 101 demonstration projects with a total investment of over 100 billion yuan were promoted one by one. Each project not only listed the total investment amount, construction content, etc., but also provided specific units and contact information, making it convenient for private capital to reach them directly with one click.

From the release of the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting the Development and Growth of the Private Economy" and the introduction of a series of policy measures to promote private investment, to deepening the reform of state-owned assets and enterprises, accelerating the construction of modern industrial chain leading enterprises, effectively implementing the "two unwavering" and continuously boosting the confidence of business entities; From the official launch of the comprehensive registration system reform, accelerating the market-oriented allocation of capital factors, to accelerating the clearance of policies and measures that hinder fair competition, including local protection and market segmentation, and accelerating the construction of a unified national market... We are advancing towards breadth and depth, and comprehensively deepening the reform with rapid and stable steps.

Reform never stops, and opening up never stops. The new version of the Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment will be implemented, with 239 new encouraged items added; Introduce several measures and take the lead in pilot docking with relevant international high standard economic and trade rules in some eligible free trade pilot zones and Hainan Free Trade Port; Six cities, including Shenyang, have launched comprehensive pilot projects to expand the opening up of the service industry. We are steadily promoting institutional openness in areas such as rules, regulations, management, and standards, and the door to openness is getting wider and wider.

——The well-being of people continues to improve, and the achievements of modernization construction are more equitable and beneficial to all people.

The construction of the Yunjingli community renovation project of China Construction Second Engineering Bureau is currently busy in Tongzhou, Beijing. This old community, consisting of 16 multi story residential buildings and more than 2300 people, will showcase its new appearance by the end of this year. "External wall insulation, roof waterproofing, and renovation of water supply and drainage pipes make living more comfortable." Sun Mancheng, a resident of the community, was full of expectations.

In Zhongshan, Guangdong, the recruitment site for "Public Employment Services on Campus" is hot. Xiao Yingzhou, who is majoring in computer science, successfully applied for a management trainee position in a photovoltaic enterprise in Shenzhen. "There are more than 200 classmates who have found jobs together," he said

Benefiting people's livelihoods, warming people's hearts, and following public opinion. Implement a youth employment and entrepreneurship promotion plan with a focus on 10 actions, including improving the quality of employment internships, and make every effort to do a good job in the employment of college graduates; Issue the Opinions on Promoting the Construction of Basic Elderly Care Service System, standardize the construction of "family childcare points", and improve the elderly care and childcare service system; Expanding the centralized and quantity based procurement of pharmaceutical consumables, narrowing the urban-rural education gap within the county, and improving the level of medical and educational security... These practical measures directly point to urgent and difficult needs, and the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security continues to increase.

Stabilize the overall situation, adapt to the situation, and open up new opportunities. By combining policy effectiveness with stimulating the vitality of business entities, China's high-quality economic development has taken a solid step forward.

Steadily moving towards the future with confidence

Maintaining strategic composure and enhancing development confidence are fully capable of promoting sustained and healthy economic development

In the smelting workshop of CITIC Heavy Industry in Luoyang, Henan, hot steel is gurgling into the mold cavity. Separated by a wall, in the forging workshop, the center body forging of a super large impeller is rapidly formed.

"In the first six months, a batch of mining and wind power equipment were delivered on schedule, and the production of machinery and equipment in industries such as building materials and coal increased by 14.4% year-on-year." Wuhan Qi, Chairman of CITIC Heavy Industry, said that demand was hot, orders were sufficient, and key equipment was operating at full capacity. "In the second half of the year, we need to seize the opportunity and start a new 'acceleration run'.".

Many enterprises and experts believe that although China's economy is currently facing many difficulties and challenges, it is important to recognize the accumulated favorable conditions and positive factors.

——The institutional advantages of a socialist market economy provide ample confidence in responding to risks and challenges.

"Thanks to the implementation of the" Regulations on Promoting the Development of Individual Business Owners ", Guan Zhenghua, the person in charge of Longtai Gas Station in Yichun, Jiangxi, successfully achieved the goal of" individual to enterprise transformation "and" transforming from an individual to an entrepreneur ", with even greater enthusiasm. The next step is to strive to become a regulated enterprise as soon as possible."

Macroeconomic governance continues to improve, the framework of macroeconomic regulation policies is becoming more mature, and macro policies designed across cycles and adjusted against cycles are fully utilized. Since the new era, the socialist market economy system has shown strong resilience in resisting risks and responding to tests. By leveraging institutional advantages and implementing a series of targeted, combined, and collaborative policy measures around stabilizing growth, employment, and risk prevention, we are fully capable of effectively solving various development challenges.

——The demand advantage of the ultra large scale market has created huge space for enhancing development momentum.

"The latest released Spark Cognitive Model is applied to intelligent office laptops, achieving real-time transcription of meeting content while quickly generating meeting minutes." Zhao Feilong, Deputy General Manager of iFlytek Reading and Writing, said that after the product upgrade, sales of intelligent office laptops increased by 140% year-on-year in the first half of the year, and future market sales are very promising.

"There are about 48 million small and medium-sized enterprises in China, all of which have the need for digital transformation and are very attractive to solution suppliers," said Bo Leren, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Siemens AG. Recently, Siemens announced that it will invest 1.1 billion yuan in Chengdu to build a Chinese intelligent manufacturing base for industrial automation products.

Demand is the most scarce resource in global economic growth. China has a population of over 1.4 billion, making it the world's largest and most promising market for growth, nurturing a continuous and enormous demand. "In the next stage, the employment situation will continue to improve, and residents' income will continue to increase, which is conducive to driving the improvement of their consumption ability and willingness. Policies promoting consumption such as new energy vehicle sales and green smart home appliances have shown significant effectiveness, and are also conducive to expanding consumption," said Fu Linghui. By leveraging demand advantages and continuously tapping into the potential of the domestic market, the driving force of domestic demand on economic growth will continue to increase.

——The supply advantage of a well-equipped industrial system has laid a solid foundation for building future development strategic advantages.

On July 16th, following the successful completion of the first commercial flight of the C919 at the end of May, the second C919 was added to the China Eastern Airlines fleet, and the research and development, manufacturing, certification, and operation of domestically produced large aircraft were fully integrated. On July 17th, China's first domestically produced large cruise ship unloaded from the dock and began its first sea trial.

The sky has entered the sea, and major innovative achievements have emerged one after another, thanks to the unique advantages of a complete industrial system: a large cruise ship involving over 25 million parts, led by central enterprises, bringing together a strong force of over 4000 suppliers; A C919 large passenger aircraft, consisting of 22 provinces, over 200 enterprises, and several generations of aviation personnel, will continue to tackle the problem.

Looking around the world, we have the most complete industrial system, complete supporting capabilities, and increasingly complete infrastructure network. The deep adjustment of the global innovation chain, industrial chain, and supply chain has formed a historic intersection with China's promotion of high-quality development, bringing favorable opportunities for accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system. By leveraging supply advantages and continuously improving the resilience and security level of industrial and supply chains, the real economy will become more deeply rooted and lush.

——Human resources advantages such as industrious and intelligent workers and entrepreneurs provide strong support for the solid promotion of Chinese path to modernization.

Dedicated to research for over 20 years, we have completed over 300 research and development tasks and achieved over 20 technological innovation achievements. On May 7th, the 16th High Skilled Talent Commendation Conference was held, and Ma Xiaoguang, a CNC milling worker from Beijing North Vehicle Company who won the China Skills Award, was very proud. "The national industrial advantage is becoming stronger, and the stage for technical workers is becoming wider and wider."

Talent is an important indicator for measuring a country's comprehensive national strength. At present, China has the world's largest number of scientific and technological human resources, with over 240 million people receiving higher education, over 80 million professional and technical talents, and over 200 million skilled workers, including over 60 million highly skilled talents. With the growth and improvement of the technical and skilled workforce, the dividend of human capital is accelerating, which is an advantage that many countries do not have. Leveraging talent advantages and promoting high-quality population development will provide strong impetus for economic development.

Strong resilience, great potential, and abundant vitality. The long-term positive fundamentals of the Chinese economy remain unchanged, and the conditions supporting high-quality development have not changed. Maintaining strategic composure and enhancing development confidence, China's economy is expected to continue to recover and improve.

To simplify the road, practical work is essential.