China’s Economic Stimulus Package
Much as been made of the package that Beijing announced last week. There has been debate about whether it is all “new” money or re-hashed and re-presented programs already under way. There has been some discussion about whether the package is going to save the Chinese economy from a hard landing, and whether the package will sufficiently replace the falling export numbers. And there has been debate about just how much good the package will bring to the rest of the world.
Here at AZ China, we believe strongly in a fact-based approach. To help you in your efforts to develop your own position on these and other questions, we present for you a translation of the “Ten Measures” announcement. While it’s true that no values were placed against each item, it is interesting to see where the Government has placed its focus.
We invite you to both draw your own conclusions and to comment on the measures here.
Note, this is our own translation of the document, not the official version. Thanks to Charlene Qu.
1. Speed up the construction of housing projects. Increase support for building low-cost housing, speed up the transformation of shanty towns, implement a project to settle nomadic people, enlarge the program to repair dangerous buildings in rural areas.
2. Speed up the construction of projects for basic facilities in rural areas. Expand the construction of rural area marsh gas, drinking water safety project and rural area roads ,improve and perfect the rural electricity network, speed up projects for diverting water from the south to the north, important water conservancy project construction, speed up to reinforce weak and dangerous reservoirs, strengthen water saving for large-scale irrigated areas. Expand “help the poor” development.
3. Speed up the construction of railways, roads and airports and other important basic facilities. Key construction projects are a patch of passenger transport special line, coal transport tunnel project and western China main line railway. Improve and perfect highway and express networks, arrange the construction for central and western regions main airports and branch airports, speed up the transformation of urban electricity network.
4. Speed up the development of medical health, cultural and educational undertakings, basic medical construction, speed up the transformation of central and western regions’ rural area schoolhouses. Promote the construction of central and western regions` special education schools and villages and towns comprehensive cultural centres.
5. Strengthen ecological environment construction projects. Speed up the construction of urban waste water and refuse dispose installations ,and key area water pollution prevention. Strengthen the protection of important shelterbelt and natural forests, support key energy conservation and discharge decreasing project construction.
6. Speed up ” independent innovation” and ” structural adjustment”. Support high technology industrialization construction and industrial technology improvement, support the development of service industries. Support the “three rural”, small and medium enterprises and technological transformation, credit support of mergers and acquisitions, consolidate consumer credit growth.
7. Speed up all the after-earthquake rebuilding works in those earthquake-stricken areas.
8. Improve urban and rural residents` income. Improve next year`s lowest purchasing price for grain, Improve the comprehensive agricultural subsidies, subsidies for high quality seeds, agricultural equipment subsidies and other standards, and increase peasant’s income. Improve the treatment for low income groups and other targets of social security, increase urban and rural low social security subsidies. Continue to improve the basic old-age pensions for retirees and also subsistence allowances standards for people being given special care.
9. In all domestic areas, all industry have to fully implement value-added tax reform and restructuring to encourage technological upgrading of enterprises, reduce 120,000,000,000 Yuan burdens on enterprises.
10. Strengthen financial support to economic growth. Cancel the restrictions on the size of commercial bank`s credit, a reasonable scale of credit expansion, increase support on important programs.