China to press ahead with public finance reform: Premier
18/3/2008 17:34
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said today that he was resolved to press ahead
with public finance reform in his five-year tenure so that the people's money
could be better spent to serve the people's needs.
Wen said that the reform
"rarely talked about in the past" could help readjust economic structure,
optimize economic development pattern, and improve people's livelihood as well
as ecology and environment.
Wen made the remarks at a press conference
following the conclusion of the first annual full session of the 11th National
People's Congress.
After maintaining double-digit growth for five consecutive
years, Chinese economy has embarked on a road of rebalancing toward more
sustained development. This year, the government has coupled its tight monetary
policy with a prudent fiscal policy in the hopes of securing a steady economic
growth while avoiding overheating.
Wang Xiaoguang, economist with the
National Development and Reform Commission, said that fiscal policies would play
a much bigger role than monetary policy in this year's macro-economic control
because the main problems facing Chinese economy was structural.
In an
exclusive interview with Xinhua, Finance Minister Xie Xuren said that a package
of taxes policies would be made to facilitate independent innovation, energy
conservation, ecology and environmental protection this
year.
Agriculture-related taxation policies would be put into place to
strengthen the fundamental role of agriculture in national economy while many
sectors such as imports and exports, real estate, finance and resources
exploitation could allow taxes much bigger leverage in macro-regulation.
The
government would also wield tax tools to stimulate regional economy and
encourage the development of social causes such as culture, education,
sanitation and sports, Xie said.
The priorities of public finance reform will
focus on consumption tax, levies on fuel, energy and resources and the
strengthening of local finance, he said.
Describing the public finance reform
as one of the three tasks of China's governmental institutional reform in the
future, Wen said the government would strive to serve the fundamental interests
of the people by doing its work in the open and being transparent.
Wen
reiterated that the government and all its institutions belonged to the
people.
"Only when the government understands the needs in the community
levels can the government make progress. Only when the people know what the
government really does can they offer stronger support and more constructive
criticism," he said.
"All my colleagues sitting on the podium, including
myself, agree that only when you hold people dear in your heart can they support
you in your office," Wen said.
Xinhua
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