Premier Li Keqiang Meets the Press.docx

1、Premier Li Keqiang Meets the PressPremier Li Keqiang Meets the PressThe Third Session of the 12th National Peoples Congress held a press conference at the Great Hall of the People on the morning of 15th March 2015. Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council met with Chinese and foreign press and answer

2、ed questions at invitation of spokeswoman of the NPC session Fu Ying.At the start of the press conference, Premier Li Keqiang said: Friends from the press, ladies and gentlemen, you have made tremendous efforts to cover the NPC and CPPCC sessions. The two sessions have come to a close, but your work

3、 has not. Today is Sunday yet you cannot take the day off. I want to use this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to you all. Now I would be happy to answer your questions.Financial Times: Last year, Chinas real estate market has been in decline. This has prompted a large number of Chines

4、e to start buying homes overseas. Currently, Chinese customers have become the largest group of home-buyers in New York, Sydney and London. And this has significantly driven up local home prices. Some people have called into question the legitimacy of the money spent there. Are you concerned about a

5、 backlash to such massive home-buying by the Chinese overseas? And will the Chinese government introduce new policy measures to boost the domestic real estate market this year?Li Keqiang: China is working towards full convertibility of renminbi under capital accounts. This shows that China is taking

6、 further steps to open up its capital market. You talked about the phenomenon of a large number of Chinese buying homes overseas and said that they have become the largest home-buyers in a number of international metropolises. I suppose more evaluation needs to be done here as to whether that is tru

7、e. And Im not in possession of solid information about this. But what I know is that China is still the largest destination of foreign direct investment. And the number last year was 120 billion US dollars. At the same time, the Chinese government will continue to encourage Chinese companies and nat

8、ionals to make investment and do business overseas. And in doing so, they need to abide by Chinas relevant laws and the laws of host countries.You have a Westerners face, but you speak Chinese so well. I wonder if you have bought home in China. You are welcome to do so. China is still a large develo

9、ping country. Housing is not just an economic issue, but also one that concerns peoples livelihood. The Chinese government needs to help the low-income people resolve housing difficulty. The government will take more steps to rebuild urban rundown areas and dilapidated homes in urban and rural areas

10、. And the plan this year is an additional one million units each. It is the governments responsibility to meet the peoples basic housing needs.The real estate market is governed by its own laws. China is such a large country. There are mega cities, medium- and small-sized cities as well as small tow

11、nships in this big country. Conditions of these different cities and townships vary significantly from one to another. Hence, the central government has required that local governments fulfill their responsibility to exercise appropriate regulation of real estate markets. Differentiated policies wil

12、l be adopted in the light of local conditions. At the same time, urbanization is still picking up speed in China. Hence the housing demand in China is here to stay. We also encourage Chinese people to buy homes for personal use or improved living conditions. We hope to see steady and sound growth of

13、 the real estate market in the long run.Beijing News: Mr. Premier, on many occasions, you have expressed your strong support for new forms of business, like e-commerce and express delivery service. So Im very curious. Have you ever shopped online? And, what did you buy? Some people are worried that

14、online shopping will adversely affect physical stores. What is your view about this?Li Keqiang: I suppose that each and every one of you here has had experience of shopping online. And Im no exception. Yes, I have bought things on the Internet. Actually, I bought a few books recently. As for what bo

15、oks, I dont think it will be a good idea for me to spell them out here. No advertisement. Having said that, I would be happy to advertise for those new forms of business like online shopping, express delivery services and e-commerce, because these new forms of business give a strong boost to employm

16、ent and consumption. And people seem to get quite excited when they shop online.I am aware of the worry that online shopping will adversely affect physical stores. It was only natural to have such worry at the beginning. But I recall a field trip that I paid to a local village in China. Its a villag

17、e home to about 800 families who have opened some 2,000 shops on the Internet. One can well imagine how vast the space for business entrepreneurship there is. And after that I went to a close-by place where theres a large number of physical stores. And I asked one of the shop-owners that if he was c

18、oncerned about any adverse effect from online shopping. The owner showed me that he has also opened an online shop and even uploaded a video of his physical shop online to show that the store is real and competitive. Such sound interaction between online and offline has only boosted the vitality of

19、market.To borrow a popular idea on the Internet that everyone stands a chance to fly when there is a favorable wind blowing from behind, I believe with the tailwinds generated by our “Internet+” strategy, we will be able to get the Chinese economy off to a higher level.Today, March 15th, is the day

20、for protecting the rights and interests of consumers. I hope all stores, be it online or offline, will do honest business, put quality of products before everything else and protect the rights and interests of all consumers.Bloomberg News: You once said that the government needs to show utmost deter

21、mination in reforming itself and this process could be a quite painful one. As the Chinese economy comes under increased downward pressure, do you still have as firm determination as before to carry out this reform, and will the Chinese economy continue to slide? Is more pain to come in the future?L

22、i Keqiang: You asked about the pain caused by the governments self-imposed reform to streamline administration and delegate powers. Let me tell you that the pain is still there. Actually the pain is becoming more acute and is being felt in more places. This is a reform targeted at the government its

23、elf. As the government sheds its own powers, vested interests will be upset. This is not nail-clipping, but taking knife to ones own flesh. But however painful it may be, we are determined to keep going until our job is done.The reform of streamlining administration and delegating government powers

24、helps us get the relationship right between the government and the market. It helps boost market vitality, and puts us in a stronger position to cope with downward pressures on economic growth. Last year, in spite of economic slowdown, we managed to add more urban jobs. Much is attributable to this

25、reform.We have completed the five-year task of canceling and delegating State Council review items by one third within just two years. With the reform of the business system, on average, up to 10,000 new businesses get registered each day, an increase of 50%. This fully shows that our people represe

26、nts the largest source of vitality for economic growth, and this reform, by reducing the powers held in the hands of the government, has actually helped us to tackle the downward pressures on economic growth.We also recognize that some measures have yet to be fully implemented, and new problems have

27、 surfaced. A couple of days ago, I came across a proposal during the two sessions which said that although government review items have been slashed, to get one project approved, which needed up to 100 stamps from different government departments, still requires some 50 to 60 steps nowadays. The lon

28、g procedures have driven up the cost of business start-up and dampened peoples enthusiasm for making innovations. That is why the government must step up its efforts to streamline administration and delegate more powers.New steps will be taken this year and our focus is on the following three areas.

29、 First, all non-governmental review items will be canceled. We must ensure that government power will not be exercised when it is not stipulated by the law. There are currently over 1,200 review items at the local governments level, mandated by the central governmental departments. Our goal is to cu

30、t this number by over 200 this year. The government must not secretly hold on to powers that should be delegated, just like releasing the hand brake but still keeping the foot brake on. Second, all provincial-level governments will be required to release their list of powers and list of responsibili

31、ties this year. And this task will be assigned to governments in cities and city-level counties next year. We must keep our people well-informed of what powers their governments hold and put government power under public oversight to prevent the abuse of office. And third, we will explore new models

32、 for strengthening ongoing and ex-post regulation. We will expand the trials for integrated law-enforcement and we will establish effective models for exercising regulation over such acts as cheating and swindling of marketplace, violating intellectual property rights, making and selling fake and su

33、bstandard goods, and cases involving food safety.Just as shoes must suit the feet, our administration must meet peoples needs and deliver real benefits.China National Radio: Chinas anti-corruption campaign in 2014 brought down several “big tigers” or high-ranking corrupt officials. I would like to know what more steps will be taken to enha