5. We firmly pursued the strategy of expanding domestic demand, and facilitated the faster development of a strong domestic market.

We worked hard to maintain dynamic circulation in order to ensure that market supply meets demand. We tapped into and unlocked the demand potential of the domestic market, and steadily stimulated domestic demand as a driver of economic growth.

1) Consumption played a more fundamental role.

We supported the leading role of new forms and models of business in accelerating the development of new types of consumption. We worked faster to develop a number of cities into international consumption centers. We oversaw the careful implementation of pilot and demonstration schemes to boost the consumption of information goods and services and spending in the cultural and tourism sectors. We improved the quality and expanded the scale of consumption in elderly care and childcare services, and moved forward with comprehensive demonstrations for introducing e-commerce into rural areas.

We both stabilized and expanded the purchase of automobiles and spending on other big-ticket items. We boosted consumption in the catering sector, and further unleashed the consumption potential of rural areas. We stepped up the building of a recycling system for old home appliances to boost purchases of new home appliances. In 2020, total retail sales of consumer goods reached 39.2 trillion yuan, and total online retail sales nationwide reached 11.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.9%. Sales of goods online increased by 14.8% and accounted for 24.9% of the total retail sales of consumer goods.

2) Greater play was given to the key role of investment.

We issued the guidelines on promoting high-quality infrastructure development and the guidelines on accelerating the development of intra-city (suburban) railways for metropolitan areas. We invested more in new infrastructure and new urbanization initiatives and major projects, and began the construction of a number of major projects including the Chengdu-Lhasa Railway.

We sped up releasing the central budgetary investment plan for local governments and improved the structure of investment at pace, pooling more resources to accomplish major, challenging, and urgent national goals. We prioritized public health and other weak areas exposed during the Covid-19 response while emphasizing the development of railways, highways, waterways, airports, and major water conservancy projects, as well as key science, technology, and energy infrastructure. We also gave precedence to the renovation of old residential communities in cities.

We expanded the usage scope for local government special bonds in order to support the construction of major national strategic projects. We successfully implemented the long-term mechanism for opening projects to private capital, and welcomed private investment in major projects. We also launched real estate investment trusts (REITs) trials for infrastructure in order to release the value of idle assets. We deepened reform of the investment approval system, actively explored an investment project commitment system, and made steady progress on ensuring that multiple approval procedures can be initiated, reviewed, and completed simultaneously. The fixed-asset investment for the year (excluding investment by rural households) rose by 2.9%, thus significantly contributing to economic recovery and growth.

3) We accelerated the establishment of a modern distribution system.

To advance the development of high-quality, modern logistics, we made plans to build another 22 national logistics hubs. To create an enabling environment for the distribution of fresh agricultural products, we made plans to build 17 national pivotal cold-chain logistics bases which will serve areas producing local specialty agricultural products and agricultural product distribution centers. We also moved faster to create a modern logistics operation system that incorporates logistics gateways, hubs, and networks. To introduce new models for logistics services, we encouraged the healthy and well-regulated development of new forms of Internet Plus freight transportation businesses, and promoted full integration between logistics and manufacturing to boost their innovative development. To lower costs and increase efficiency in the distribution process, we made coordinated efforts to bring down both technology costs and government-imposed transaction costs.

6. Continuous progress was made in supply-side structural reform, and new headway was made in industrial restructuring.

We kept the focus of efforts in economic development on the real economy, and steadily improved the quality, performance, and core competitiveness of our economy.

1) We made solid progress in promoting high-quality development of manufacturing.

We launched projects to enhance the core competitiveness of the manufacturing sector, implemented pilot and demonstration programs for fostering advanced manufacturing clusters, and made effective use of the investment fund for advanced manufacturing. We pushed forward integrated development between next-generation information technology and manufacturing, and continued to improve industrial internet platforms in order to facilitate the development of manufacturing. We encouraged enterprises to transform themselves into smart, eco-friendly, and quality service providers, and established a number of high-quality smart manufacturing demonstration plants and green manufacturing demonstration projects. These initiatives have propelled safe, green, intensive, and efficient development in traditional industries.

We continued to consolidate our achievements in cutting overcapacity and improved the distribution of major productive forces. By approving larger mining projects, suspending smaller ones, and increasing the number of efficient and responsible producers while eliminating those not up to standard, we slashed outdated production capacity last year by more than 100 million tons, thereby optimizing China's coal production capacity. In the iron and steel industry, we refined the measures for production capacity replacement and registration, accomplished all the targets for cutting crude steel production capacity during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, and encouraged enterprise acquisitions and reorganizations. We optimized the planning for the petrochemical industry, pressing ahead with major projects while advancing the relocation and renovation of hazardous chemical plants in densely populated urban areas.

We promoted the high-quality development of strategic mineral resources such as rare earths, and improved the regulation of resource exploitation. We also boosted the innovative development of intelligent vehicles and successfully organized a series of activities for the 2020 Chinese Brands Day.

2) We pushed forward the development of the modern service industry.

In endeavoring to develop a quality, efficient, and competitive service industry, we formulated the guidelines on advancing reform, opening up, and the development of the service sector. We launched the first group of trials for integrated development between advanced manufacturing and modern services, and stimulated development in producer services, including industrial generic technologies R&D, industrial design, integration management, general contracting, lifecycle management, inspection, testing, and certification.

3) We effectively ensured food security and the adequate market supply of agricultural and sideline products.

We maintained stability in grain output, which exceeded 650 million metric tons for the sixth year in a row. This ensures both our basic self-sufficiency in cereal grains and absolute food security.

Based on a more precise analysis of supply and demand, we further improved the grain reserves regulation system. In an effort to refine the system for coordinating grain production, purchase, storage, processing, and sales, we optimized the types and locations of stockpiled grain varieties, established a dynamic mechanism for adjusting the size of government stockpiles, supported the construction of 234 grain storage, logistics, and emergency response facilities, and steadfastly increased grain storage capacity and distribution efficiency in order to systematically reduce grain loss in all links of the post-production process.

With regard to pork supplies, we tracked, studied, and assessed hog market developments, built up infrastructure for animal epidemic prevention and control, and implemented routine preventative measures against African swine fever. We facilitated the strong recovery of hog production and released frozen pork from central government reserves at key times of the year, thus effectively ensuring the supply of pork and other essential commodities. An adequate quantity of vegetables and fruits is available on the market, indicating a marked improvement in our capacity to provide a balanced food supply.

4) We further enhanced China's capacity to safeguard energy security.

We vigorously developed systems for the production, supply, storage, and sales of coal, electricity, petroleum, and natural gas. We improved China's ability to ensure self-sufficiency in those mineral resources which are in short supply, increased the reserves, storage capacity and output of petroleum and natural gas, and stepped up work on major electricity projects. Major power grids across the country were largely connected up. The capacity for west-to-east electricity transmission reached 260 million kilowatts. China's installed capacity for wind power, solar power, and hydropower remained the world's largest, with its installed capacity for electricity generated from non-fossil energy rising to 980 million kilowatts. We also proceeded with the transformation of power systems to make them more flexible, and raised the utilization rate of wind power, photovoltaic power, and hydropower to over 96%.