6) We will ensure energy security. We will make steady progress in developing the production, supply, storage, and sales systems of coal, petroleum, natural gas, electricity, and petroleum reserve bases, and better regulate the operations of energy companies. We will improve our contingency plans in response to major changes in supply and demand at home and abroad, ensuring an overall balance of supply and demand and the stable operation of our markets. We will continue to support petroleum and natural gas exploration and exploitation, and press ahead with competitive trading of mining rights for oil- and gas-bearing zones. We will pick up the pace in developing oil and gas transmission pipelines and reserves projects, improve pipeline operation mechanisms, and encourage the opening up of pipeline facilities to all eligible users. We will push forward with the upgrading of coal-fired power plants, actively yet prudently develop hydropower, safely develop advanced nuclear power facilities, and maintain optimal development of wind and photovoltaic power, thus making non-fossil fuels the major contributor to energy consumption growth. We will refine the long-term mechanism to absorb electricity generated from renewable energy sources into power grids, and actively promote a new model for the absorption of electricity into local power grids. We will build trans-provincial and trans-regional power transmission routes in an orderly manner, and enhance energy transmission and adaptation capacities. We will continue the construction of the electricity emergency response system, and enhance our ability to respond in a timely fashion. We will support the independent and procedure-based operations of electricity trading agencies, build a national unified electricity market, lift restrictions on the generation and consumption of electricity by commercial consumers, and ensure effective implementation of trial reforms for raising the number of electricity distributors. We will deepen reform with regard to equipment manufacturing, designing, construction, and other competitive operations of power grid enterprises.

5. Staying committed to the innovation-driven development strategy and allowing technology and innovation to play a larger role in underpinning economic development. We will give full play to the role of innovation as the primary driver of development and the role of human resources as its primary resource, encourage the scientific spirit and the pursuit of fine workmanship, ensure that taking pride in one’s work becomes a social norm and seeking excellence is valued as a good work ethic, and step up efforts to turn China into a country of innovators.

1) We will work faster to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields. We will build a new type of system which, under the conditions of a socialist market economy, allows for the pooling of the nation’s resources in order to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields. We will facilitate the replacement and transitioning of major science and technology programs and speed up the implementation of major projects of the Sci-Tech Innovation 2030 Agenda. We will support the development of basic platforms for promoting wholly domestic manufacturing in a particular industry. We will refine systems and mechanisms for encouraging and supporting basic research and original innovation, develop new types of market-based R&D institutions, and encourage enterprises and other non-governmental sectors to increase R&D spending. We will work faster to help enterprises enhance their capacity for technological innovation, and work on including technological innovation in the assessment mechanisms of SOEs. We will step up efforts to build platforms for newly-developed major technological equipment, for R&D on new materials in short supply in China, and for key generic technologies. We will refine the policy for supporting the application of innovative products through government procurement. We will pool resources across multiple disciplines to crack tough research problems, and intensify study of the infection sources and transmission and pathogenic mechanisms of covid-19, while redoubling our efforts in drug and vaccine R&D and enhancing our emergency production capacity. We will take solid steps to develop bio-security infrastructure, and coordinate efforts to achieve technological breakthroughs in bio-security. We will work quickly to refine the national technological security management list.

2) We will enhance our innovation capacity. We will draw up plans for a new phase of national scientific and technological development over the medium and long term, as well as development plans for national major science and technology infrastructure. We will strengthen basic research, original innovation, and innovation in disruptive technologies, accelerate construction of national laboratories and also restructure key national laboratories, and speed up the establishment of a basic platform for collaborative innovation in order to promote greater, more intensive interdisciplinary cooperation. We will move forward with the construction of science and technology innovation centers and comprehensive national science centers, and carry out well-conceived planning for projects concerning key science and technology infrastructure and science and education infrastructure, as well as for national industrial innovation centers, engineering research centers, technology innovation centers, manufacturing innovation centers, and supply chain technology and innovation centers. We will introduce an open competition mechanism to select the best candidates to lead key research projects. We will reform the mechanism for applying scientific and technological advances, ensure the smooth operation of innovation chains, and create an enabling environment for scientific research that encourages innovation and tolerates failure. We will formulate policies to support the industrial application of the results of major science and technology projects, and refine mechanisms and policies to support the development of innovative talent, and improve the category-specific human resource evaluation system. We will promote the innovation-driven development of national innovation demonstration areas and new- and high-tech development zones.

3) We will promote high-quality innovation, business startups, and manufacturing. We will carry out a new round of pilot reforms for comprehensive innovation, and establish a technological innovation system in which enterprises are the main players, that is guided by the market and integrates the efforts of enterprises, universities, and research institutes. We will support integrated innovation efforts by businesses of all sizes and entities of all types. We will set up a group of innovation and business startups demonstration centers and build a series of platforms to support innovation and business startups. Dedicated campaigns will be carried out to develop innovation and business startups demonstration centers in enterprises and colleges, while systemic and institutional reforms regarding venture capital will be pushed forward. Furthermore, we will increase policy support for innovation and business startups service organizations such as incubators and maker spaces. We will increase assistance and support for enterprises which have suffered from the epidemic, increase the number of business startups eligible for guaranteed loans, relax counter-guarantee requirements for high-quality projects, and increase support for key groups in finding their niche when starting their businesses.

6. Advancing market-based reforms and further stimulating the vigor and dynamism of economic development. We will lose no time in introducing measures to deepen reforms, remove institutional obstacles that hold back development, and uphold and improve the basic socialist economic system.

1) We will deepen reforms to streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services. We will faithfully enforce the Regulations on Improving the Business Environment, and summarize and publicize the experiences and practices of local governments in providing efficient services for businesses during epidemic prevention and control. We will refine the standards and methods for assessing the business environment, and regularly conduct such assessments in some of the cities at or above the prefecture level as well as in state-level new areas. We will encourage local governments to set up online platforms on which all the documents required for starting a business are processed, further simplifying business approval and registration procedures, and thereby moving all of these procedures online. We will relax restrictions on the registered place of operations for micro and small businesses and self-employed individuals, so as to make registration and operation more convenient for all types of people to start businesses and allow them to enjoy the benefits of supporting policies in a timely manner. We will make further progress with the reform to separate out the business license from the certificates required for starting a business. We will further reduce the number of items subject to administrative approval, filing, registration, annual review or verification by central or local authorities. We will advance reform of the investment approval system, establish a sound list-based system for investment approval, and improve the unified code system for investment projects. We will extend combined review and approval, and work on a commitment-based approval model, thereby increasing the efficiency with which a project goes from paper to reality. In accordance with the policy of rolling separate urban plans into one single plan, we will proceed with the reform to reduce the number of reviews and certifications required for land use planning, and integrate multiple surveys or inspections into a single one. We will accelerate revision of the Government Procurement Law and the Public Bidding Law. In the relevant agencies of market regulation, the oversight model of random inspection by randomly selected personnel and prompt release of inspection results will cover all business activities. With regard to the trading of public resources, we will promote the healthy, orderly development of the market, and introduce online trading across the board. In order to increase the efficiency of government services, we will push on with the Internet plus government services model. This includes establishing an integrated network of government services across the country, further reducing the procedural items and time required for filing and paying taxes, as well as integrating various registration systems for chattel and chattel mortgage. Meanwhile, we will vigorously promote the credibility commitments system, advance the initiative for granting loans based on good credit, and ensure that our social credit system becomes more law- and procedure-based. The reform to delink industry associations and chambers of commerce from the government will be essentially completed.

2) We will build a high-standard market system. We will implement the guidelines on speeding up the improvement of the socialist market economy in the new era, and formulate an action plan for building a high-standard market system. We will develop sound institutions and mechanisms for the market-based allocation of production factors, and pilot comprehensive reforms in this regard. With regard to the issue of market access, we will implement the negative list system across the board, carry out trials to ease restrictions mainly in the service sector, and look into conducting online oversight and comprehensive assessment of business permits approval based on the negative list. We will urge local governments to keep track of hidden barriers to market access and give priority to dismantling these barriers for private enterprises, especially micro, small, and medium-sized ones. We will formulate the guidelines on competition policies, and revise and refine the rules for implementing the review system for fair competition. We will tighten the laws and regulations regarding equal protection of all types of property rights. We will cultivate a positive legal environment for the development of the private sector, and protect the legitimate property rights and management rights of private businesses and their owners. We will strengthen and improve enforcement of anti-monopoly and anti-unfair-competition laws, and strengthen the protection of commercial secrets. We will also set up a strong punitive damages system for intellectual property rights (IPR) infringements, intensify the enforcement of IPR laws, and step up the commercialization and application of patents.

3) We will speed up reforms of state assets, SOEs, and key industries. We will formulate and implement a three-year action plan for SOE reform, step up improved distribution and structural adjustment of the state-owned sector of the economy, improve the modern corporate structure, and strive to create a system for state-owned assets oversight with the focus on state capital. In actively deepening mixed-ownership reform of SOEs, we will devote substantial efforts to the four groups of pilot reforms, and issue guidelines for this reform. We will work to increase both the scale and quality of market-based debt-to-equity swaps in more areas and guide financial asset investment companies in participating in the market-based reorganization of traditional industries. We will work quickly to put SOE retirees under community-based social insurance management, and essentially relieve SOEs of their obligations to run social programs and help them resolve other longstanding issues.

4) We will deepen reform of the fiscal, tax, financial, and pricing systems. We will move forward with the reform to define the respective fiscal powers and expenditure responsibilities of central and local governments, improve local tax systems, take gradual steps to collect excise tax during a further downstream stage of the production-to-consumption process, and steadily hand over collection of such taxes to local governments. We will explore an approach of zero-based budgeting in order to make the structure of government spending flexible and adaptable. We will further raise the proportion of funds allocated to general public budgets from state capital operations budgets. In the financial sector, we will advance supply-side structural reform, optimize the composition of financing, improve the systems of financial institutions, markets, and products, and alter the benchmark for pricing existing floating-rate loans in an orderly manner. We will formulate a general plan for reforming the ChiNext stock market and piloting a registration-based IPO system, and further increase the scale of direct financing, particularly equity financing. In deepening pricing reform for public utilities, we will complete electricity transmission and distribution pricing reform during the second regulatory period, overhaul and regulate charges for water, electricity, gas, and heating in urban areas, reform the pricing mechanism for electricity from coal-fired power plants, encourage localities to introduce a policy of differentiated charges for urban household waste treatment where conditions allow, and push forward the reform of electricity and water prices. We will also improve the pricing mechanism of oil and gas pipeline transportation.