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He Jueyuan, reporter from Securities Times: On March 8, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference. Ning Jizhe and Hu Zucai, vice ministers of the National Development and Reform Commission, along with Zhao Chenxin, the secretary-general, provided information on how to fully implement the new development concepts in order to ensure a good start for the 14th Five-Year Plan period. At the meeting, Ning Jizhe said that this year, to keep the economy operating within a reasonable range, it is necessary to further leverage the key role of investment, intensify efforts to address weaknesses, expand opportunities for investment, strengthen the momentum for investment growth, and appropriately increase effective investment. In terms of new infrastructure, a plan for the development of such infrastructure during the 14th Five-Year Plan period will be introduced this year. Efforts will be made to boost the digital economy, expand the use of 5G, and accelerate the development of industrial Internet platforms and data centers. Ning Jizhe noted that the setting of the main goals for economic and social development in 2021 took into account the recovery of economic activities. It is certain that, with the support of macroeconomic policies and the efforts of market entities, the goals and targets for economic and social development for the whole year can be achieved. Ning Jizhe said that this year, to keep the economy operating within a reasonable range, it is necessary to further leverage the key role of investment. Effective investment should be expanded reasonably from five aspects: First, give full play to the **guiding and driving role of investment ； Second, increase investment to address weaknesses and adjust the structure ； Third, accelerate the development of the “two new and one heavy” projects ； Fourth, promote the better development of private investment ； Fifth, strengthen project reserves and ensure the availability of financial resources. Regarding the acceleration of the development of \"new infrastructure, new industries, and major projects,\" Ning Jizhe said that in terms of new infrastructure, a plan for its development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period will be introduced this year. Efforts will be made to develop the digital economy, expand the use of 5G, and accelerate the construction of industrial Internet platforms and data centers. In terms of new-type urbanization, urban renewal initiatives are carried out to comprehensively upgrade old urban neighborhoods, and urbanization is promoted with county towns as key hubs. In terms of major projects, timely progress should be made on key transportation and water resources projects such as the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, the Xining-Chengdu Railway, and the Datengxia Water Control Project. Regarding the promotion of private investment, Ning Jizhe said that three \"further\" measures will be taken this year. First, it is to further stimulate private investment by continuing to ease market access for private enterprises, supporting their innovative development, and encouraging private capital to participate in projects related to the \"two new and one heavy\" initiatives as well as those aimed at addressing weaknesses in infrastructure. Second, further enhance the capacity for private investment, encourage banks to provide greater credit support to private enterprises, and implement policies to reduce costs for small, medium, and micro enterprises. Third, further innovate methods of private investment, standardize and promote the public-private partnership (PPP) model, cautiously carry out pilot projects for real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the infrastructure sector, and revitalize existing infrastructure assets. Regarding the policies to be implemented in the consumption sector this year, Ning Jizhe believes that it is necessary to fully tap into consumer potential. At present, it is especially important to promote household consumption under the conditions of regular pandemic prevention and control, while also making efforts to expand consumption of goods – including bulk commodities – as well as consumption of services, health-related products, information services, online purchases, and green products. In terms of automobiles, it is necessary to promote the distribution of cars to rural areas and programs for trading in old cars for new ones, and to encourage certain regions and cities to further lift restrictions on the purchase of new energy vehicles and increase the quotas allocated for them. Regarding the strategy for new-type urbanization, Hu Zucai said that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, three key tasks will be focused on: deepening reforms to the household registration system and advancing the urbanization of rural migrants in an orderly manner. Optimize the layout of urbanization and promote coordinated development of large, medium, and small cities. Comprehensively improve the quality of cities to foster environments suitable for living and working. Regarding the further reform of the household registration system, Hu Zucai stated that it is necessary to give priority to existing households while also encouraging the growth in the number of households, to advance both the reform of the household registration system and the provision of universal access to basic public services, thereby accelerating the full integration of rural migrants into cities. On the one hand, continue to lower the requirements for settling down, ensuring that those who wish to do so can do so. Lift and relax the restrictions on household registration in cities, with the exception of a few mega-cities; pilot a system for registering household status based on place of regular residence, and facilitate the orderly settlement of agricultural migrants who have stable employment and living arrangements. On the other hand, it promotes equal access for the permanent resident population to basic urban public services, ensuring \"equal treatment and full coverage of what is necessary.\" At the same time, it is necessary to improve the mechanism for integrating agricultural migrants into urban society and promote the linkage between people, land, and funds. “Stabilizing foreign investment still faces many challenges. ”Ning Jizhe said that in 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission will promote greater-scale, broader-ranging, and deeper-level opening up to the outside world, accelerate the establishment of a new system for an open economy at a higher level, thoroughly implement the Law on Foreign Investment, strengthen the promotion and protection of foreign investment, and continuously improve the environment for foreign investment. This includes further reducing the negative list for foreign investment access, continuing to expand areas that encourage foreign investment, making efforts to facilitate the implementation of major foreign investment projects, fully implementing national treatment after foreign investment is granted, and strengthening supervision of enterprise services. In addition, Hu Zucai also responded to the question of why no economic growth target was set for the 14th Five-Year Plan period. Hu Zucai said that the absence of an economic growth target does not mean that there should be no target for GDP growth rates. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee set a goal of achieving a per capita GDP at a medium-developed level by 2035, which implies that China’s GDP growth rate needs to remain within a reasonable range over the next 15 years. “Other key indicators in the draft 14th Five-Year Plan, such as the unemployment rate, energy consumption intensity, and carbon emission intensity, are also related to GDP. These indicators provide specific figures, implying that our country must strive to keep the economic growth rate in line with the potential economic growth rate. Source: DataBao