First Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress March 5, 2008

National Development and Reform Commission

 

Fellow Deputies,

The National Development and Reform Commission has been entrusted by the State Council to report on the implementation of the 2007 plan for national economic and social development and on the 2008 draft plan for national economic and social development for your deliberation and approval at the First Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress (NPC), and also for comments and suggestions from members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

I. Implementation of the 2007 Plan for National Economic and Social Development

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the people of all our ethnic groups thoroughly applied the Scientific Outlook on Development, followed the plan for national economic and social development adopted at the Fifth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress, strengthened and improved macroeconomic regulation, promoted reform and opening up, and sped up the pace of change in the pattern of economic development in 2007, enabling China's economy to continue the positive trends of rapid growth and continued improvement in structure and efficiency accompanied by improvement in the lives of the people. The plan for 2007 was satisfactorily implemented on the whole.

1. The quality and efficiency of economic growth improved.

Economic performance continued to improve markedly. Total national revenue for 2007 was 5.13 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.25 trillion yuan or 32.4 percent. Large industrial enterprises generated 2.2951 trillion yuan in profits from January through November 2007, an increase of 36.7 percent. Energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by 3.27 percent in 2007, a significantly better achievement than that of the year before. Water consumption per 10,000 yuan of added value of industry dropped by 9.5 percent. For the first time in recent years, sulfur dioxide emissions and chemical oxygen demand both decreased, with SO2 dropping by 4.66 percent and C.O.D. by 3.14 percent. Initial results were achieved in efforts to slow down the sharp decline in the total amount of farmland.