The National Business Work Conference was held in Beijing on December 28, 2014. The main tasks of the conference were to fully implement the spirits of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the 3rd and the 4th Plenary Sessions of the 18th National Congress, and the Central Economic Work Conference, summarize the business work of 2014, conduct in-depth analysis of the international and domestic situations faced by the development of business and study and deploy the work of 2015. The conference conveyed important instructions on business work written by Vice Premier Wang Yang. Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng delivered a work report.
Gao said that facing a complex and volatile international environment and arduous and heavy tasks of domestic reform and development, the commerce departments across the country have carefully implemented the decisions and deployment of the Central Party Committee and the State Council and done related works well over the year. The domestic market has been stable, the circulation industry has made more contributions to the society, the status of a great trading country has been more consolidated, the level of using foreign investment has been continuously raised, outbound investment and cooperation has enjoyed rapid development, the opening up has shown a new situation, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone has obtained a series of institutional innovation achievements, the practical negotiations on the China-ROK and China-Australia Free Trade Areas were concluded, the China-U.S. Investment Agreement text negotiations were practically completed, great breakthrough has been achieved in China-Russia energy cooperation, and the APEC economic leaders’ meeting obtained such important trade and economic fruits as the APEC Roadmap.
Gao said that over the year, MOFCOM has promoted stable growth and adjusting structure of the business industry, pushed forward the transformation and upgrading of domestic trade circulation, maintained stable increase of foreign trade, optimized the foreign investment structure and vigorously implemented the “going abroad” strategy. Efforts have been made to fully deepen various reforms in the business field, support the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone to experiment with various reforms, implement the dominant roles of overseas investment of enterprises, promote the reform of the foreign investment management system, optimize the foreign trade management system and push forward the construction of a big market with uniform opening up and orderly competition. Economic diplomacy has obtained great breakthrough, the Belt and Road Initiatives have moved on steadily, the layout of free trade areas has been accelerated, efforts have been made to actively participate in the formulation of trade and economic rules, bilateral trade and economic cooperation has been deepened, foreign aid has been strengthened from a strategic height, the working style of all business departments has been improved, and great importance has been attached to great events, dealing with prominent problems, streamlining administration and delegating power to lower levels and transforming government functions.
Gao pointed out that during the central economic work conference of this year, President Xi Jinping scientifically discussed new normal issues of economic development. Under the new normal state of economic development, the development of business is entering a new stage with reconstructed increasing power and transformed development modes. Facing the new normal state, the business departments of the country should accurately grasp new changes of domestic and overseas economic situations, analyze and judge the tendencies appearing in the development of business in time, make the best use of the circumstances, be brave in reform and innovation, accelerate the transformation of development modes, convert motive force of development practically and start a new situation for business work at a new historical starting point.
Gao emphasized that 2015 is the key year to comprehensively deepen reform, the beginning year to fully promote ruling the country by law and the ending year to comprehensively complete the 12th “Five-Year Plan”. The general requirements of the business work are to fully implement the spirits of the 18th National Congress, the 3rd and the 4th Plenary Sessions of the 18th National Congress and the Central Economic Work Conference, take Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Important Thought of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development as the guidance, stick to the general tone of seeking improvement in stability, actively adapt to new normality of economic development, deepen the reform of the business field, implement a new round of high-level opening up, highlight innovative drives, cultivate new advantages of competition, maintain stable and sound development in domestic and overseas trade and international economic cooperation and better serve the general situation of economic and social development. Efforts should be made to focus on such five jobs as improving market environment and expanding household consumption, promoting foreign trade to stabilize growth and adjust structure and cultivating new advantages of competition, improving foreign investment environment and improving the quality of foreign capital introduction, optimizing global resource allocation and improving the level of going abroad, planning multilateral and bilateral and regional cooperation and creating a sound outside environment, and such sixteen important special jobs as standardizing and promoting the development of e-commerce, the standardization of commercial logistics, the transformation and development of the service industry, the construction of a backbone network of national agricultural products circulation and the promotion of the construction of the business credit, enhancing the cooperation between law enforcement and judicial departments, increasing the market renovation force, export growth of self-owned brands, China-Africa industrialized partnership, the revitalization of the service trade, the improvement of competitiveness of service outsourcing, the market integration of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the leading role of the Yangtze River Economic Zone, the innovative development of national economic zones, the zooming and integration of the construction and operation of the global value chain and the innovation of overseas trade and economic cooperative zones.
About 170 representatives from relevant departments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and the commerce authorities of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, cities with independent planning status, and provincial capitals at the vice-provincial level attended the two-day national business work conference.
