英闻天下——417 Reforms "Biggest Dividend" for China

 　　Premier 1 Li Keqiang has pledged to deepen comprehensive reforms in the country, saying that they pay the biggest dividend 2 for China.

 
　　He singled out three areas for continued reform tasks that include maintaining economic growth, improving people's livelihood 3 and safeguarding social justice.
 
　　And yet, reforming the government itself will remain on the agenda.
 
　　The premier said the reform is aimed at curbing 4 centralized administrative 5 power and letting the market and society govern the affairs of their own.
 
　　"The institutional reform is about optimizing 6 the distribution of power within the government and transforming government functions. It is about redefining and rationalizing the relationship between the government on the one hand, and the market and society on the other."
 
　　Li Keqiang admitted that the current governance system lacks efficiency and, and to some extent, caused corruption 7. He said at least one third of the current 1,700 administrative approval mechanisms 8 will be slashed 9 out.
 
　　Furthermore, the new premier promised to work to win the trust from the people through improved governance.
 
　　"First, we will not use government coffers to construct any new offices, halls or guest houses for the government. Second, the number of people on the government payroll 10 will decrease, not increase. Third, spending on official hospitality, overseas trips for official business, and the use, the purchase of official vehicles will decrease, not increase. The central government will lead by example, and all lower levels of the government must follow suit."
 
　　Premier Li Keqiang stressed that any public servant should not harbor expectation of building up person wealth through the government posting, since the primary duty for the government is to see that reforms benefit the entire population.
 
　　Properly handling the urbanization process is another important task for the new government, according to Li. He promised that the government will make sure that the interests of farmers will be guaranteed during the social transition.
 
　　He added that urbanization does not only aim to boost domestic consumption and creating jobs, but also increase the well being of the country's vast rural population.
 
　　"Right now there are over 260 million migrant workers in cities. For those who want to integrate into urban lives, we will gradually make it possible for them to do so. This will be a long term and complex process that requires job creation and provision of services. It's also very important for the new type of urbanization to go hand-in-hand with agricultural modernization 11."
 
　　Premier Li Keqiang admitted that urbanization is a huge and complex issue that will trigger profound changes in the people's lives. Integrated resources from across the society need to be utilized 12 to guarantee its healthy advancement 13.
 
　　"Talking the talk is not as good as walking the walk. We need to pursue market-oriented reforms."
 
　　For CRI, I'm He Fei.