On September 24, the press center to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China held its first press conference in Beijing. Ning Jizhe, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission and director of the National Bureau of Statistics, pointed out that China's economy and society have achieved leapfrog development over the past 70 years and laid a solid material foundation. Among them, from 1952 to 2018, China's per capita GDP increased from 119 yuan (RMB, the same below) to 64,600 yuan, an actual increase of 70 times. He said that China is currently working hard to promote the formation of a strong domestic market, hedge against the risk of the current slowdown in world economic growth, promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of the Chinese economy, and promote the stable development of the world economy.

Ning Jizhe said that China’s economic and social development achievements are mainly reflected in five aspects: a leap from standing up, getting rich, and becoming strong; comprehensive national strength, social productivity, and people’s lives have been greatly improved; economic construction, social construction, and ecological civilization construction have been coordinated and promoted; industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization have developed simultaneously; and the role of a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of international order has been highlighted.

GDP jumped to more than 90 trillion yuan

Statistics show that from 1952 to 2018, China's GDP jumped from 67.91 billion yuan to 90.03 trillion yuan, a real increase of 174 times; per capita GDP increased from 119 yuan to 64,600 yuan, a real increase of 70 times. At the same time, in 2018, the per capita disposable income of Chinese residents actually increased by 59.2 times compared with 1949, and the per capita consumption expenditure of Chinese residents actually increased by 28.5 times compared with 1956. The proportion of food expenditure in residents’ consumption expenditure dropped to less than 30%.

New growth poles are accelerating to form

Ning Jizhe specifically mentioned that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a series of major regional strategies such as the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the regional integration of the Yangtze River Delta, the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin have been promoted in an orderly manner, and the formation of new economic growth poles is accelerating.

The current global economic recovery is sluggish and external uncertainties are also increasing. Ning Jizhe pointed out that China's promotion of the formation of a strong domestic market is conducive to maintaining sustained and healthy economic development, better ensuring and improving people's livelihood; it is conducive to promoting the dynamic balance of supply and demand, and promoting high-quality industrial development; it is conducive to hedging the risk of the current slowdown in world economic growth and promoting the stable development of the world economy.

He stressed that to this end, active and effective measures must be taken to intensify the "six stability" work, stabilize investment, promote consumption, expand employment, increase income, and achieve a virtuous cycle of the national economy. This requires four “focuses”.

First, focus on expanding effective investment. Accelerate the pace and progress of project construction while stimulating the vitality of private investment; second, focus on promoting the improvement and expansion of consumption. It is necessary to remove restrictions on automobile consumption, encourage green consumption, and support service consumption.

Cultivating strategic industrial clusters

"The third is to focus on making up for the shortcomings of urban and rural regional development. Tap the development potential of the four major sectors of western development, northeast revitalization, central rise, and eastern leadership, and give full play to the effect of the five strategic new growth poles." Ning Jizhe said that the fourth is to focus on promoting industrial upgrading, improving new infrastructure such as 5G and artificial intelligence (AI), and in-depth promoting the development project of strategic emerging industry clusters. It is necessary to vigorously promote the construction of information network, digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of traditional manufacturing industry.

On the same day, Finance Minister Liu Kun and People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang also introduced at the press conference the brilliant achievements of China's economic and social development over the past 70 years and the policies and measures to continue to promote the stable and healthy development of China's economy.