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SCIO press conference on ensuring stability a priority while making new progress in high-quality development

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21st Century Business Herald:

The Report on the Work of the Government notes that China will continue expanding effective investment this year. In this regard, new infrastructure is one of the key aspects. For example, the east-to-west computing resource transfer project launched in February has caught the attention of many market players. What progress has China made in the construction of new infrastructure facilities? What are the key tasks this year? Thank you.

Lian Weiliang:

Mr. Lin will take these questions.

Lin Nianxiu:

Accelerating the construction of new infrastructure facilities is a major decision made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and also a key task stipulated in the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development. It is of paramount significance to the promotion of the digital transformation of economy and society and realizing high-quality sci-tech self-reliance. The new infrastructure we proposed mainly consists of three categories concerning information technologies, integrated development, and sci-tech innovations. In recent years, the NRDC has worked with relevant government bodies to carry out a series of projects focusing on these three categories. We have seen sound progress and made new achievements in the following three aspects.

First, a new development foundation has been built for the digital economy. In recent years, China's construction of information infrastructure has sped up remarkably. We established the world's largest and most advanced network of information and communication. China's 5G network has covered all of its prefecture-level cities, the majority of counties, and most townships and villages. The gigabit fiber-optic networks have been rolled out across the country, which is able to cover 300 million households. The overall layout for the national integrated big-data center system has also been completed. Since 2021, the NDRC has approved the construction plans of eight national computing hubs and has comprehensively launched the east-to-west computing resource transfer project. The project aims to give full play to the respective advantages of the east and west regions and translate the demand for computing capacity in the east into a growth momentum in the west so as to further realize nationwide coordination of energy and computing capacity. The civil space infrastructure has also witnessed rapid development. Currently, China's remote-sensing satellite system has realized global observation. In major fields, the self-sufficiency rate of data collected by domestic satellites exceeds 90%.

Second, new pillars have been created to support high-quality development. Regarding the construction of infrastructure that promotes integration, China's capacity of using information technologies has been greatly enhanced in advancing the intelligent transformation of traditional infrastructure facilities, facilitating economic upgrading and transformation, and improving people's livelihood. For instance, in terms of smart transport, we have seen remarkable progress in the intelligent transformation of ports and freeways. Digital map achieved full coverage, and the e-tickets have been rollout out comprehensively. Electronic waybills have been applied to more than 90% of express delivery services. People's traveling experiences and other logistic services have been greatly facilitated. In terms of the intelligent transformation of the energy sector, China introduced the world's first high-reliability 5G network for coal mines. After renovation, these coal mines have extensively adopted unmanned operating systems, and the number of employees working at high-risk posts has been reduced by more than half. This has effectively safeguarded people's possessions and lives. In terms of industrial internet, more than 2,000 "5G plus industrial network" projects have been carried out across China, which became a crucial pillar supporting the recovery of work and production and maintaining stability of industrial and supply chains. To sum up, 5G network not only facilitates online shopping activities but also improves the efficiency of industrial manufacturing and makes it more intelligent.

Third, new advantages have been fostered for high-level self-reliance. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has made many breakthroughs in the innovation of infrastructure. In terms of the number of projects, China has already made plans and established a total of 57 major sci-tech infrastructure facilities. With a group of high-level infrastructure projects set to be built in the next five years, the number of large-scale infrastructure projects in China will rank among the top globally. Compared with the rest of the world, China's major sci-tech infrastructure has seen remarkable improvement. We were mostly left behind five years ago, but the gap nowadays keeps narrowing down, and we have even become a world-leading force in certain fields. For instance, our Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), also dubbed the "China Sky Eye," has made many important astronomical discoveries. China's experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST), or the Chinese "artificial sun," has achieved a reproducible, stable, and continuous plasma operation for the first time. It achieved a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds, which is truly remarkable.

Regarding the application of sci-tech achievements, a group of strategic industrial technologies has been developed in recent years, and a number of major issues associated with society and people's livelihood have been addressed. For example, the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility has explored new solutions for the efficient use of natural gas and shale gas, which provides a strong basis for our future exploitation work of the two resources. The Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou has developed a heavy ion device for cancer treatment, which is a major breakthrough in high-end medical instruments. In this sense, these seemingly highly-advanced major sci-tech infrastructure facilities are actually closely associated with us and are profoundly changing the way of production and life.

The Central Economic Work Conference for 2022 proposed that infrastructure investment should be implemented in advance in a moderate manner. In accordance with relevant arrangements and requirements, the NDRC will ramp up efforts in the following three aspects:

First, the NDRC will speed up the construction of projects in major fields. To begin with, efforts will be made to accelerate the improvement of internet facilities. We will work to carry out the project that improves basic internet facilities in small and medium-sized cities in central and western China as well as the demonstration projects featuring 5G integration and application. By doing so, we can narrow the digital divide and strengthen weak links in application. We will also unify the efforts in rolling out the construction of node-like facilities. We will accelerate the building of ten national data center clusters and implement, in a stable and orderly manner, the construction of the new National Internet Exchange Center and key junctions of direct internet connection. In addition, we will deploy forward-looking facilities in advance. We will accelerate the efforts to implement the preparatory work of projects, speeding up the launch, execution and construction of major sci-tech infrastructure projects that are stipulated in the 14th Five-Year Plan. We will also launch a group of pre-research projects in a timely manner and continuously enhance China's capacity of the original innovation.

Second, the NDRC will fully mobilize the initiative of investment among market entities. We need to make sufficient efforts in three aspects. For starters, we will leave enough room for private capital. Since new infrastructure facilities are invested and established mainly by market entities, we will further expand market access and lower the entry threshold of investment in a bid to fully leverage the role of private capital in the sector. We will also provide sufficient policy support. We will boost credit support for the construction of new infrastructure, innovate financial tools, and expand the channel of financing, providing more favorable conditions especially for private businesses that participate in the construction of new infrastructure. In addition, we will ramp up efforts to accelerate the reform in relevant sectors, support enterprises to carry out technical and business model innovation, create a market environment featuring fair competition, and foster new growth momentum for the economic and social development.

Third, we will realize our carbon peak and neutrality goals and advance green development. The period covered by the 14th Five-Year Plan will be the first five years since China set its carbon peak and neutrality goals. In line with the deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the NDRC issued an implementation plan for the green and high-quality development of new infrastructure such as data centers and 5G at the end of last year. The implementation plan made comprehensive arrangements for improving computing power and energy efficiency, optimizing energy-saving models, facilitating innovations in energy efficiency technology, and promoting economic transformation and upgrading. We will focus on the plan and step up efforts in energy conservation and emission reduction in the next step. In terms of energy conservation, we will support breakthroughs in high-efficiency energy conservative technologies, improve energy efficiency standards for ultra-large data centers, and carry out demonstration projects for energy-saving in 5G networks. In terms of emission reduction, we will promote the coordinated development of 5G facilities, computing resources, and renewable energy, support the transfer of more data centers to the western regions rich in renewable energy, and gradually reduce carbon emissions while increasing the supply of computing capacity. Thanks!

China Development and Reform News:

My questions are about new urbanization. According to the 2021 statistical communiqué, China's urbanization rate of permanent residents registered 64.72%. Will the previous rapid growth rate be sustained? What are the key tasks for new urbanization this year? Thanks.

Hu Zucai:

Thank you for the questions. Urbanization is essential for modernization and holds the greatest demand potential in China. It plays a vital role in promoting steady and healthy economic and social development, fostering a new development paradigm, and building shared prosperity. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that a uniquely Chinese approach to urbanization will continue to guide the people-centered new urbanization process. Over the past year, we have implemented the plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and achieved fresh progress in new urbanization. Improvements have been made in five aspects.

First, the level and quality of urbanization have steadily improved. By the end of 2021, China's urbanization rate of permanent residents reached 64.72%, and the rate of the registered population rose to 46.7%, a year-on-year increase of 0.83 and 1.3 percentage points, respectively. The gap between the two rates narrowed for the first time since the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Second, the provision of public services for migrant workers has steadily improved. We worked across the board to ensured that children living with their migrant worker parents in cities have access to compulsory education. As a result, 81.8% of such children studied at public schools of mandatory education, increasing 1.8 percentage points over the previous year. When considering those studying in private schools with their tuition fees covered by the government, the figure was 90.9%, a year-on-year increase of 5.1 percentage points. In addition, we organized extensive vocational skills training for rural migrant workers. Third, the carrying capacity of city clusters and metropolitan areas has steadily improved. Solid progress has been made in the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta, and the development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The development of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle maintained powerful momentum. The development of city clusters in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River picked up the pace. Plans for developing metropolitan areas, including Nanjing, Fuzhou, and Chengdu, were issued. Fourth, the quality of urban development has steadily improved. We began the renovation of 56,000 old urban residential communities and accelerated the development of elderly and child care service systems. Fifth, the integrated development of urban and rural areas has steadily improved. As a result, the gap between urban and rural areas has been narrowed. The ratio of urban income to rural income per capita dropped to 2.5 from 2.56 in the previous year.

At present, China's urbanization is already in the middle and late stages of rapid development and entering a new stage of comprehensive quality improvement. Nevertheless, the driving force behind urbanization is still strong, promising substantial domestic demand and development momentum. We will advance a new people-centered urbanization strategy featuring high-quality development for some time to come. This year, we will steadily improve the quality of new urbanization and fully play its role in stimulating consumer spending and effective investment. We will focus on the following four aspects.

First, we will improve residency status for rural migrants who were granted permanent urban residency, which is the top priority of urbanization. We will continue deepening the reform of the household registration system, widening channels for rural migrants who have stable jobs and have lived in urban areas for a long time to gain urban residency, and at the same time protect their rights in rural areas. We will move faster to ensure that all urban residents access essential public services. With the new generation of migrant workers as the focus, we will ensure that children who moved from rural to urban areas along with their parents receive compulsory education. We will also improve employment service and vocational skills training. In 2022, we plan to offer at least 6 million subsidized training opportunities for migrant workers.

Second, we will promote the coordinated development of large, medium-sized, and small cities and towns. We will transform the development model of megacities. These cities should solve urban maladies; relieve their central areas of non-essential functions; appropriately control the scale, development intensity, and population density; promote multi-center, multi-level, and cluster development; and drive the growth of surrounding cities and counties to form a modern metropolitan area. We will advance the integrated development of urban clusters and metropolitan regions; accelerate the construction of highly connected rail transit in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area; promote the development of Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle; move faster to build modern metropolitan areas; and release development plans for Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan, Xi'an, and Chongqing metropolitan areas. We will promote county-level urbanization by supporting a group of counties with favorable conditions to speed up development and taking targeted measures to shore up weak links in counties. We will better meet the growing demand of rural residents to work and settle in counties. We will improve urbanization in border areas and promote characteristic towns' standardized and healthy development.

Third, we will improve livability and working conditions in cities. China's urban population has exceeded 900 million, and the number is expected to increase year by year. Therefore, we should make our cities more attractive and function better. We will create high-quality living spaces and provide more inclusive and convenient public services for urban residents. We will increase the supply of education, healthcare, childcare, elderly care, domestic, sports, and public culture services and create 15-minute community-life circles. We will promote urban renewal in an orderly manner, improve public facilities to cope with storms and droughts, initiate the upgrading of urban pipelines, including those for gas supply, improve living conditions for 8.4 million households living in old residential areas and increase urban safety and resilience. We will pay more attention to the urban ecological environment and support Chengdu in building into a demonstration park city that follows the new development philosophy. We will strengthen the conservation of historical and cultural heritage, put an end to large-scale demolition for grandiose projects, and prohibit large-scale migration and felling of old trees.

Fourth, we will drive the integrated development of urban and rural areas. Even when China basically achieves its urbanization goal, around 400 million people will still live in rural areas. We will take coordinated measures to promote urban and rural modernization, channel more urban public services to rural regions by taking counties as the basic units, promote the extension of urban utilities to rural areas according to local conditions, advance modernization of agriculture and rural areas, and provide a better living environment for rural residents. Thank you.