2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and is a crucial year for achieving the goals and tasks set in the "14th Five-Year Plan." By adhering to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through progress, and addressing challenges proactively, efforts will be made to make greater strides in building a new development paradigm, promoting high-quality development, and comprehensively deepening reform and opening up. This will contribute to the continuous consolidation and enhancement of the positive momentum in China's economic recovery.
The economic situation in China is improving, with a shift towards a more favorable structure. The New Year's holiday saw a surge in activities such as snow and ice tourism, "cross-year" travel to different locations, and a booming trend in dining consumption. During the New Year holiday, domestic tourism witnessed 135 million trips, a year-on-year increase of 155.3%. Key retail and catering enterprises across the country experienced an 11% year-on-year growth in sales. The New Year's box office for movies reached 15.33 billion yuan, setting a new record for the holiday period.
The robust start to the consumer market highlights the enormous potential of China's ultra-large-scale market. In recent years, China has adhered to the strategic focus on expanding domestic demand, actively promoting the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, and striving to meet the personalized, diversified, and evolving needs of the people. In the first three quarters of 2023, the contribution rate of domestic demand to economic growth increased to 113%, demonstrating its increasingly pivotal role.
The Central Economic Work Conference emphasized the need to "stimulate potential consumption" and "shift from post-pandemic recovery to continuous expansion of consumption." The driving force for expanding domestic demand comes from various sources. Wang Yiming, Vice Chairman of the China International Economic Exchange Center, mentioned that new consumption patterns, including digital, green, and health-oriented consumption, will create new consumer spaces. Areas such as smart homes, entertainment tourism, sports events, and domestically produced trendy products are expected to become new drivers of consumption growth. With economic stabilization, income growth, and improved expectations, there will likely be noticeable rebounds in large-scale consumption, such as new energy vehicles and electronic products. From a policy perspective, the Central Economic Work Conference has explicitly stated the need to increase the income of urban and rural residents and optimize the consumption environment, contributing to the expansion of consumer trends in the coming year.
Looking ahead, the implementation of measures such as the digital consumer, green consumer, health consumer, and the promotion of domestic trendy products will be significant in promoting continuous expansion of consumption. The focus will also be on stabilizing and expanding traditional consumption, including promoting the entire chain of automobile consumption, expanding home consumption, and promoting home appliance consumption. Additionally, policy documents will be developed to promote the development of service consumption, enhancing both quality and quantity.
In terms of the economic outlook for 2024, it will be a critical year for the realization of the goals outlined in the "14th Five-Year Plan." The strategy includes consolidating and enhancing the positive momentum in China's economic recovery by advancing the construction of a new development paradigm, promoting high-quality development, and comprehensively deepening reform and opening up.
China will continue to deepen reforms in key areas to drive comprehensive innovation in various fields. The focus on reforms in key areas will be a key element in ensuring success in economic tasks for 2024.
High-quality development will be further propelled by continued efforts to expand external demand. Despite the increasing complexity, severity, and uncertainty of the external environment, China's development is faced with more favorable conditions than challenges. As internal demand potential continues to be fully unleashed, economic structure optimization persists, and economic recovery gains momentum, China's new development will provide the world with more opportunities.
2024 is designated as the "Consumption Promotion Year," and the Ministry of Commerce will actively develop digital consumption, expand green consumption, promote healthy consumption, and drive the consumption of domestically produced trendy products. The year will also focus on stabilizing and expanding traditional consumption, promoting the entire chain of automobile consumption, expanding home consumption, and promoting home appliance consumption. Efforts will be made to study and formulate policy documents to support the development of service consumption and enhance the quality and quantity of service consumption.
The economic tasks for 2024 will involve vigorously and systematically advancing 102 major projects outlined in the "14th Five-Year Plan" and other major projects in various economic and social sectors. This will include accelerating post-disaster recovery and reconstruction, enhancing disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities, and promoting the participation of private capital in major national projects and projects that address shortcomings.
Comprehensive deepening of reforms will be a crucial aspect of 2024's economic work. Reforms in key areas will serve as traction for innovative institutional mechanisms across all sectors, being a key factor in successfully addressing the economic challenges for 2024.
2024 will witness the implementation of foundational institutional construction in market access and property rights protection. Regional market integration will be initiated in areas such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta. The pace of building a unified national market will be accelerated.
In terms of regional development, the recently issued "Opinions on Supporting Special Measures to Relax Market Access in the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone" has kicked off the deepening of regional reforms for 2024. Shenzhen, Xiamen, and Pudong will continue to lead comprehensive reform trials. Previously introduced reform measures in regions like Hainan and
Hengqin will be implemented. The goal is to enhance the balance and coordination of regional development continuously.
Comprehensive deepening of reforms is a critical lever for stabilizing, adapting, and advancing the economic landscape. It is essential for achieving high-quality development, pushing forward the modernization of China, and addressing both short-term and long-term economic issues. The focus will be on understanding the rules for economic work in the new era and using reform and development methods to solve problems, boost confidence, and promote sustained improvement in economic structure, enhanced growth dynamics, and continuous positive development trends.
High-level opening up will drive high-quality development in 2024. China's commitment to expanding external opening, actively promoting international economic and trade cooperation, and implementing a series of policies to stabilize foreign investment and foreign trade will continue to yield comprehensive results. In 2024, efforts will be made to consolidate market share in foreign trade, promote the stable scale and optimal structure of imports and exports, and solidify the foundation for expanding high-level opening.
Expanding high-level opening up is one of the important tasks for economic work in 2024. The focus will be on shaping new momentum and advantages for high-quality development through high-level opening up, fully unleashing the enormous potential and strong driving force of China's development.
In conclusion, China will continue to open its doors wider in the coming years, with a shift towards opening up rule-based systems, regulations, management, and standards. The focus will be on steadily expanding institutional opening in areas such as factors, markets, and institutions, transitioning from steady expansion to substantial expansion of rules, regulations, management, and standards. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) plans to focus on institutional opening in key areas, such as investment, trade, finance, and innovation, in 2024. It will effectively coordinate both domestic and international markets, utilize two markets and two resources to the fullest extent, adhere to more extensive and comprehensive opening to the outside world, and promote high-quality development through high-level opening.
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