The past two years have seen China emerge as one of the first countries to achieve an economic rebound and maintain steady and relatively fast economic development under extremely difficult and complex circumstances. We owe our achievements to the comprehensive implementation of the stimulus package. At the height of the international financial crisis, China's economic growth rate dropped by a big margin. Many enterprises completely or partially suspended operations, and some even closed down. Many workers lost their jobs and a large number of rural migrant workers had to return to their home villages. In view of this, we acted immediately to introduce a stimulus package. From the second quarter of 2009, the downward trend in economic growth was quickly reversed. The economy grew by 9.1% in 2009 and 11.1% in the first half of 2010. Urban employment has kept expanding, people's income has been increasing, and social stability and harmony has been maintained. As a Chinese saying goes, one would never fully appreciate the difficulty unless he has experienced it in person. For a country like China with 1.3 billion people, without a certain rate of economic growth, full employment and people's well-being can only be empty talk. The stimulus package has enabled us to not only maintain the current economic growth and social stability, but also, and more importantly, secure the sound momentum of economic development. The severe external shock did not cause a big fluctuation in China's modernization process. This is of major and far-reaching significance.

在应对国际金融危机中，我们始终高度重视推动经济发展方式转变和经济结构调整。两年来，国内需求特别是消费对经济增长的拉动作用持续增强，2009年社会消费品零售总额实际增长16.9%，为1986年以来最高增速，今年以来这一势头得到延续，上半年实际增速与去年同期基本持平。产业结构升级加快，今年前7个月，高技术产业增加值同比增长17.7%，高于规模以上工业增加值增速0.7个百分点。基础设施建设得到加强，2008年8月1日，我国第一条具有完全自主知识产权、世界一流水平的高速铁路——京津城际铁路通车运营，全程运行时间只有30分钟，使两大直辖市形成同城效应；去年12月26日通车运营的武广高速铁路又成为目前世界上一次建成里程最长、速度最高的高速铁路。节能减排和环境保护扎实推进，去年关停了小火电机组2617万千瓦，淘汰落后炼钢产能1691万吨、炼铁产能2113万吨、水泥产能7416万吨，今年9月底前将再淘汰落后炼钢产能825万吨、炼铁产能3000万吨、水泥产能9155万吨，“十一五”前四年单位国内生产总值能耗累计下降15.6%。区域发展协调性增强，2009年中部地区、西部地区规模以上工业增加值增速分别比全国快1.1和4.5个百分点，今年上半年中部地区比全国快3.1个百分点，西部地区与全国持平，中西部地区占全国规模以上工业增加值的比重由2008年同期的38.1%上升到38.8%。更为重要的是，我们从全局和战略的高度，对加快经济发展方式转变和经济结构调整做出了全面部署。所有这些都将对我国经济长期稳定健康发展起到重要推动作用。

In tackling the international financial crisis, we have always given top priority to transforming the economic development pattern and restructuring the economy. In the past two years, domestic demand, consumption in particular, has played an increasingly strong role in driving economic growth. Total retail sales in 2009 rose by 16.9 percent in real terms, the fastest since 1986. This good momentum is continuing and retail sales in the first half of this year grew at roughly the same rate as the same period of last year. The upgrading of the industrial structure has been accelerated. In the first seven months of this year, the value added of high-tech industries increased by 17.7 percent year on year, 0.7 percentage point higher than that of the industries above a designated level. Infrastructure development has been strengthened. On 1 August 2008, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway, China's first top-class high-speed rail with full intellectual property, was put into operation, shortening the travel time between Beijing and Tianjin to only 30 minutes and binding the two major municipalities as one. The Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway that went into operation on 26 December 2009 set the world record of the longest and fastest high-speed railway completed on an uninterrupted basis. Solid progress has been made in energy conservation, emissions reduction and environmental protection. Last year, we shut down small thermal power plants with a total capacity of 26.17 million kilowatts and phased out inefficient production capacity of 16.91 million tons of steel, 21.13 million tons of iron and 74.16 million tons of cement. By the end of this month, we will have eliminated an additional amount of inefficient production capacity, including 8.25 million tons of steel, 30 million tons of iron and 91.55 million tons of cement. Energy consumption per unit of GDP has been reduced by 15.6 percent in the first four years of the 11th five-year plan period. Regional development has been more coordinated. In 2009, the growth rates of value added of industries above a designated scale in the central and western regions were 1.1 and 4.5 percentage points higher than the national average respectively. In the first half of this year, such growth in the central region was 3.1 percentage points higher than the national average, and that in the western region on a par with the national average. Also in the first half of this year, the central and western regions' contribution to the value added of industries above a designated level in the national total increased to 38.8 percent from 38.1 percent of the same period in 2008. What is more important is that we have made all-round arrangements for accelerating the transformation of economic development pattern and economic restructuring from a macro and strategic perspective. All these will give a strong boost to the stable and healthy development of China's economy in the long run.

我们实施积极的财政政策和适度宽松的货币政策，刺激力度前所未有，同时又比较好地控制了财政金融风险。这两年，我国财政赤字和国债规模分别控制在国内生产总值的3%以内和20%左右；银行资产质量和抵御风险能力提高，目前资本充足率和不良贷款率分别为11.1%和2.8%，都处于安全范围内。我们清醒地看到财政金融领域的潜在风险，特别是地方政府融资平台的债务风险，这个问题由来已久，但近期风险有所加大。我们已经出台加强地方政府融资平台公司管理的有关办法，正在抓紧落实。面对突如其来的国际金融危机冲击，我们采取超常规的政策措施是必要的，这些政策措施在发挥积极作用的同时，难以避免会带来一些负面影响，关键是要把这些影响控制在可以承受的范围内。从这个角度来说，我们比较好地处理了兴利与除弊的关系，总体上看效果是好的。