President Premier Congress Chairman
Hu Jintao Wen Jiabao Wu Bangguo
since
15 March 2003		 since
16 March 2003		 since
15 March 2003
Website
2012 NPC official website

The 5th Session of the 11th National People's Congress held its annual meeting in March 2012 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. The event opened on 5 March and concluded on 14 March. Premier Wen Jiabao delivered his work report as Premier.[1]

Government work report

Premier Wen delivered the central government's work report on 5 March, stating GDP growth would be at 7.5 percent.[2][3][4] This was slower than the 8 to 10 percent of preceding years and decades.[5] The government was targeting inflation to be around 4 percent.[2][3] Wen also indicated about 9 million new jobs would be created in towns and cities.[3] The official urban unemployment rate was expected to be 4.6 percent or lower.[2] He mentioned China's volume of total exports and imports had been projected to be about 10 percent.[2][3] The central government would need to make further reforms in industrial restructuring, innovation, energy conservation, and emissions reduction, and real income increases for the people that are in line with economic growth.[2][3]

The work report reflected the growing challenges of managing growth and subduing inflation while the Communist Party mapped out a leadership transition and at the same time maintaining high employment and a high emphasis on safeguarding stability.[2][6]

Premier Wen's press conference

In that year's National People's Congress convention, there were intense domestic and international media interest on Premier Wen and his views as this was his last year in office, home stretch to retirement.[7] The media also wanted to hear Premier Wen's assessment of his term in office, insights to the challenges to the future, and the legacy he would be leaving behind.[7]

In the premier's last official press conference for his work report, he emphasized China required further economic and political reforms to keep the gains from over the years and keep on improving people's livelihoods.[8] Wen alluded to the Cultural Revolution which was a travesty for the Chinese people and political reforms should still continue.[8] He reflected there was a lot of unfinished business and regrets in his nine-year stint as premier.[8] Wen was apologetic for the social and economic problems over the last decade and conceded there was room for improvements and took responsibility for it.[8]

Wen also reiterated poignantly the investigation into the Wang Lijun incident in Chongqing had yielded significant progress and local authorities should ponder and learn from the incident.[8][9] On 15 March 2012, Bo Xilai, the Chongqing party chief, had been replaced.[10]

The premier stressed the new leadership will need to press on with political structural reform which are necessary to implement successful structural economic reforms.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "The National People's Congress: Satisfy the People". The Economist. 11 March 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Zhou, Xin; Yao, Kevin (4 March 2012). "China sets 2012 growth target at 7.5 percent, stability key". Reuters.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Highlights: Premier Wen's government work report". English.news.cn. Xinhua, english.news.cn. 5 March 2012. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Bruce Einhorn (5 March 2012). "Why China Is Suddenly Content With 7.5 Percent Growth". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012.
  5. ↑ English.news.cn (5 March 2012). "Premier Wen's government work report". Xinhua. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012.
  6. ↑ Wei Gu (6 March 2012). "Chinese leaders pick stability over reform". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  7. 1 2 Cui Jia (15 March 2012). "Premier Wen Jiabao takes his final bow". China Daily.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 BBC (14 March 2012). "China's Wen Jiabao says 'reforms urgent'". BBC.
  9. ↑ "HIGHLIGHTS-China Premier Wen Jiabao's comments at NPC press conference". Thomson Reuters. 14 March 2012.
  10. ↑ BBC News (15 March 2012). "China removes Bo Xilai from Chongqing leader post". BBC. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  11. ↑ Philip Wen (15 March 2012). "Wen Jiabao gets ready to leave the stage – with profound apologies". The Sydney Morning Herald.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.