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E-mail China.org.cn, April 23, 2024
CCTV:
Good morning, Mr. Xu. You just mentioned that during this year's "two sessions," when General Secretary Xi Jinping participated in the deliberations of the Jiangsu delegation, he emphasized that Jiangsu, as a developed province in east China and an economic powerhouse, should better leverage its strength to drive the development of the whole country. Moving forward, how will Jiangsu leverage its strength to consolidate and bolster the positive trend of economic recovery? Thank you.
Xu Kunlin:
Thank you for your question. This year, our goal is to achieve a GDP growth rate of over 5%, and we are committed to putting in more effort in practical work to aim for even better results. Last year, Jiangsu's GDP growth rate was 5.8%, 0.6 percentage point higher than the national rate. Both its economic aggregate and increment accounted for one-tenth of those of the nation, making further contributions to the development of the whole country. This year, we hope to maintain this momentum. With confidence, we will exert our utmost efforts and courageously shoulder great responsibility to seize all favorable opportunities, utilize all favorable conditions, and act in a timely manner to make greater contributions to the country's overall development. Our top priority is to seamlessly integrate the strategy of expanding domestic demand with supply-side structural reforms. With such efforts, we can better coordinate consumption, investment, and foreign trade, thereby promoting sound economic flows.
First, we will strive to expand productive investment. Investment plays a vital role in stimulating economic growth. In 2023, investment contributed 34.1% to Jiangsu's economic growth, with investment in manufacturing accounting for 44.6%, playing a significant role. Private investment accounted for 66.5%. We place great emphasis on leveraging the driving role of major projects, focusing on industrial investment projects, and fully stimulating the vitality of private investment. In the first two months of this year, Jiangsu's value-added of industries above the designated size grew by 9.6%, 2.6 percentage points higher than the national average, and its fixed assets investment rose by 5.1%, 0.9 percentage point higher than the national level. Another positive trend is that the growth rate of private investment has overcome the low-level growth that had persisted since June 2022, with a 5.6% increase in the first two months of this year, demonstrating that confidence in development and investment across the whole society is growing. China is pushing forward with large-scale equipment renewals, which, with huge investment, will stimulate new growth drivers. Based on our investigation, Jiangsu needs 900 billion yuan to update its equipment across the entire province this year. As such, we have introduced a loan interest subsidy policy for the manufacturing sector: provincial finance authorities will offer a 1-percentage-point discount on loan interest rates for manufacturing-related equipment procurement and renovation projects. At the same time, city- and county-level governments are encouraged to provide an additional 1-percentage-point discount. The first batch of loans will be subsidized with 30 billion yuan, and when this fund is used, we will offer more.
Second, we will stimulate potential consumption. Consumption is fundamental in promoting economic growth, contributing 79.8% to last year's GDP growth. Our provincial finance department has allocated a certain amount of funds for two consecutive years to host promotion activities to encourage people to buy green and energy-saving household appliances, achieving positive effects. We plan to continue the promotion this year. In the first three months of this year, we held more than 2,600 promotion events and issued vouchers and digital RMB red packets to benefit consumers. During the Spring Festival, Jiangsu's cultural and tourism market flourished. Statistics from cultural and tourism departments showed that spending in Jiangsu during the holiday accounted for 11.2% of the national total, ranking first in the country. We estimate that this year, spending on consumer goods replacements in Jiangsu will reach around 70 billion yuan. Therefore, we are moving faster to formulate policies and lists to support trade-ins for automobiles, household appliances, and home furnishings. We will also organize promotional activities in the countryside to encourage local people to buy new home appliances and automobiles. We will try to create more spending scenarios, attract more consumers, and stimulate market vitality. In the first two months of this year, the total retail sales of consumer goods increased 6.1%, 0.6 percentage point higher than the national average.
Third, we will strengthen dynamic foreign trade. Last year, Jiangsu's imports and exports fell short of expectations in the first three quarters. In response, we conducted a thorough analysis, identified the root cause, and implemented targeted measures to stabilize our international market share. As a result, we achieved positive growth for three consecutive months in the fourth quarter, registering a growth rate of 7.3%, 5.7 percentage points higher than the national average. Cross-border e-commerce development has been a weak point in Jiangsu. To address this issue, we formulated an action plan last year to promote the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce and organized corresponding training sessions. Our efforts paid off, resulting in an annual growth of 13.4% in cross-border e-commerce. This year, we aim to cultivate more than 110 provincial-level cross-border e-commerce industrial parks and 15 cross-border e-commerce industrial belts with local features. Additionally, we have promoted the merger and restructuring of five provincially administered trading companies, including Jiangsu SOHO Holdings Group Co., Ltd. Following the restructuring, these enterprises' total import and export volume surpassed $11 billion. Currently, we are expanding our global trade layout and striving for further growth. This year, we are committed to achieving positive growth in imports and exports. In the first two months of this year, our imports and exports increased by 13.4%, 4.7 percentage points higher than the national average.
In summary, as a developed province in eastern China and one of the country's economic powerhouses, we have the confidence and capacity to shoulder more responsibilities to make greater contributions to the nation's overall development. Thank you.
