Plans for 2009 and achievements of 2008

China's National Development and Reform Commission on Thursday submitted a report on the implementation of the country's 2008 national economic and social development plan and on the 2009 draft development plan to the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

It said that China's 2008 GDP increased by 9 per cent according to government work report of China on March 5.

Achievements in 2008

China's GDP topped 30 trillion yuan in 2008, a year-on-year increase of 9.0 percent, more than five percentage points higher than the average world economic growth rate.

Fixed asset investment across the country totalled 17.23 trillion yuan, up 25.5 percent while national revenue reached 6.13 trillion yuan in 2008, up 19.5 per cent year on year.

Energy consumption per unit of GDP continued to decline in 2008, down 4.59 per cent. while water consumption per 10,000 yuan of value-added by industry dropped by 7.0 per cent.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 5.9 per cent for 2008 whilecentral government funding to agriculture, rural areas and farmers rose 37.9 percent to 595.55 billion yuan in 2008. The total grain production rose 5.4 per cent to 528.5 million tons, a record high for both total output and yield per unit area, the fifth consecutive annual rise.

Nearly 100,000 kilometres of highways, including 6,433 kilometres of expressways, were opened to traffic in 2008 while a total of 1,719 kilometres of newly built railway lines, 1,935 kilometres of double-track rail lines, and 1,955 kilometres of electric rail lines were put into operation.

China's direct investment in overseas in 2008 (excluding those in the banking, securities and insurance sectors) amounted to 92.4 billion U.S. dollars, 23.6 per cent more than the previous year while foreign exchange reserves reached 1.95 trillion U.S. dollars.

Rural per capita net income reached 4,761 yuan and urban per capita disposable income came to 15,781 yuan, rising by 8 per cent and 8.4 per cent in real terms respectively of 11.13 million new jobs were created for urban residents, and the registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.2 per cent at the end of 2008.

A total of 17.53 million people were newly covered by urban basic old-age insurance, 93.87 million by urban basic medical insurance,7.55 million by unemployment insurance, 16.37 million by workers' compensation and 14.06 million by maternity insurance while the natural population growth rate stood at 0.508 per cent.

Targets for 2009

Maintaining steady and fairly rapid economic growth and keeping GDP growth at around 8 per cent and creating 9 million or more jobs for urban residents to keep the rate of registered urban unemployment under 4.6 per cent.Rural per capita net income and urban per capita disposable income should both rise by 6 per cent in real terms while the number of rural people living below the poverty line should be reduced by more than two million.

The natural population growth rate should stay within 0.7 percent while

keeping the CPI increase stable at about 4 per cent.

Total imports and exports should grow by 8 per cent while the RMB exchange rates will be kept basically stable.

The broad money supply in 2009 will be increased by about 17 per cent. A total 4 trillion yuan of investment, including 1.18 trillion yuan from the central government, will be made from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the end of 2010, primarily on housing for low-to moderate-income families, projects to improve the well-being of rural residents, infrastructure, social programs, environmental protection, economic restructuring and technological upgrading, as well as on post-earthquake reconstruction while

total investment in fixed assets will grow by 20 per cent.Total retail sales of consumer goods will rise by 14 per cent.

The central government will allocate a total of 716.1 billion yuan to support agriculture, rural areas and farmers, an annual increase of 120.6 billion yuan.

China is striving to keep the country's grain output stable at 500 million tons while allocating a fund of 20 billion yuan to promote technological transformation of enterprises.

The country is also striving to raise government spending on R&D up to 1.58 per cent of GDP in 2009.

Foreign loans and foreign direct investment in China in 2009 are expected to reach 25.8 billion and 92.4 billion U.S. dollars respectively while China's direct investment overseas is expected to grow by 13.2 per cent.

The percentage of treated urban sewage is expected to reach 69 per cent and percentage of urban household waste safely handled should reach 67 per cent.

The country is also planning to shut down backward iron foundries with a total capacity of ten million tons, backward steel mills with a total capacity of six million tons, backward paper mills with a total capacity of half a million tons and backward power plants with a total capacity of 15 million kilowatts. Water consumption per 10,000 yuan of value-added by industry is expected to drop by 5.6 per cent, while the percentage of industrial solid wastes that are comprehensively utilized will reach 65.9 per cent.

The number of urban residents participating in the basic old-age insurance program is expected to grow by 4.2 per cent.