1月7日早间英文播报：Supply-side reform gets greater boost

欢迎收听或订阅主播“中国日报网”在喜马拉雅上的【China Daily 英语新闻】、【24节气英语说】、【寻找功夫三十六计】等专辑，通过我们的节目，不错过世界上发生的趣事！（未经授权，请勿转载）

Employees make auto parts at a foreign-funded company in Anshan, Liaoning province. [Photo/Xinhua]

Measures set to further unlock demand, enhance economic growth momentum

The advantages of China's huge domestic market will become even more prominent in 2021, as efforts to tackle the bottlenecks constraining domestic demand complement the continuous focus on supply-side reforms, a key part of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, officials and experts said.

With the policy measures to unlock the huge potential of domestic demand, the country is likely to head for more than 8 percent economic growth this year and share the benefits of its economic resilience with more foreign businesses and investors, they said.

"To build a strong domestic market, the country will deepen supply-side structural reform to better meet people's growing need for high-quality products and services," said Wang Yuesheng, a professor of international economics at Peking University.

Supply-side reforms to promote industrial upgrading, improve productive efficiency and create new forms of business will all help unlock potential demand and boost economic momentum, Wang said.

Demand-side measures will complement the former in unleashing domestic market potential, Wang said, adding that he expects greater efforts to boost domestic consumption, instead of mainly stimulating investment and exports.

China will pursue supply-side structural reform as the main task while emphasizing demand-side management in 2021, to create a dynamic balance between supply and demand based on higher standards, according to December's Central Economic Work Conference.

Such emphasis on both upgrading supply and expanding demand has ignited heated discussion over Beijing's policy changes in the new year, as this notion differs from what was said at the conference a year ago, when it mainly stressed supply-side structural reform.

Experts said it remains a long-term task for China to press ahead with supply-side structural reform, as the supply system is yet to get fully upgraded to match the changes in the demand structure and realize independent technological innovation.

Meanwhile, the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic has called for new demand-side measures to address sluggish domestic demand, a task that has assumed more significance as the nation embarks on the new development paradigm amid global uncertainties, they said.

"To further improve the quality of economic growth and build the new development paradigm, China will continue to stick to supply-side structural reform in the coming years," said Wang Changlin, president of the National Development and Reform Commission's Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research.

The country has decided to build a "dual-circulation" development paradigm in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, in which the domestic market is the country's economic mainstay and the domestic and foreign markets complement each other.

China's economy has suffered from prolonged structural contradictions and structural problems, Wang said. "We need to solve the coexistence of overcapacity and insufficient supply in the manufacturing sector, balance the supply and demand sides of the service industry, and open more industries in fields such as services, education, healthcare and care for the elderly to more market players."

Though more efforts are needed, Wang acknowledged that the country has made considerable progress in supply-side structural reform during the past couple of years, including deleveraging and reducing excess capacity.

Taking supply-side structural reform as the general goal has been a key part of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era since the thought took shape in 2017 and served to guide the country's economic governance.

First advocated by President Xi Jinping in 2015, supply-side structural reform focuses on improving productive efficiency and promoting advanced industries and innovation, in the pursuit of high-quality development.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has underscored the importance of supply-side structural reform in constructing the new development pattern, which calls for building a stronger domestic market.

The country must stick with the main task of supply-side structural reform with technological innovation as the key, to improve the quality of the supply system and leverage new supply to create new demand, Xi said at a symposium attended by Chinese scientists in Beijing in September.

All this will help strengthen domestic economic circulation and therefore contribute to building the new development paradigm, Xi said.

China will strengthen efforts to pursue breakthroughs in key basic technologies and products to address heavy reliance on external supply, Xiao Yaqing, minister of industry and information technology, said in an interview with People's Daily published on Tuesday.

To modernize the industrial chain, the ministry will also make more efforts to promote the upgrading of traditional industries, nurture clusters of advanced manufacturing and support the development of enterprises, Xiao said.

Find more audio news on the China Daily app.

记者：欧阳诗嘉、周兰序

播报：Andrew Pasek

音频编辑：万月英

原文链接：

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202101/06/WS5ff4f35ca31024ad0baa0ac2_1.html