Full Text: Premier Li Keqiang Meets the Press(5)

I sense some elements of concern in your question about China's economic growth and when the journalist from Bloomberg asked his questions, there was also such a worry about slowing growth in China. I have said on many occasions that under this new normal, we need to ensure that China's economy operates within a proper range. And if the growth speed comes close to the lower limit of the proper range and affects employment and increase of people's income, we will step up targeted macro economic regulation to boost the current market confidence while maintaining the continuity of our macro economic policies to anchor long-term market expectations. The good news is that in the past couple of years, we did not resort to massive stimulus measures for economic growth, and that has given us ample room to exercise macro economic regulation and we still have a host of policy instruments at our disposal.

The latter part of my remarks is about a hypothetical situation. At the same time, I recognize that there is considerable downward pressure on China's growth and we still face multiple risks. This requires that the government strike a proper balance between maintaining steady growth and making structural adjustments. In Weiqi, a chessboard game invented by the Chinese, one needs to both plan on the big side and get key moves right. When it comes to the economy, we must meet both ends of maintaining steady growth and making structural adjustments. And this way, we can get a handle on the big situation. This requires that we have vision, perseverance and courage. I have confidence that with joint efforts, we are able to maintain the long-term positive fundamentals of the overall Chinese economy.

China Business News: Mr. Premier, you have stressed the importance of mass entrepreneurship and innovation on many occasions, and see it as a new engine fueling China's economic growth. But some people say that it is a personal decision to start a business and it is a market behavior. So why should the government spend so much time and energy on this?

Li Keqiang: I appreciate your good intention of saving the government time and energy, but this is something the government must do. Mass entrepreneurship and innovation is in itself a reform endeavor. This reform is inspred by the experience we have drawn from the past. Over the past more than 30 years, it is the introduction of household contract responsibility system that has brought into full play the initiative of the vast number of Chinese farmers. It is because our people could move freely across provinces and cities that several hundred million farmers have migrated into cities to find jobs. This has created the miracle of China's economic development.

Last year when the government launched the reform of the business system to streamline its administration, I recall that I paid a visit to one of the local venues for business registration where I talked with a woman who has retired. As you may know, the government has replaced the paid-in capital registration requirement with subscribed capital registration. This has boosted our people's enthusiasm to start their own businesses. This woman is one of them. She told me that she wanted to register a wedding service company because she was well-versed in the local traditional wedding customs. She told me that some couples wanted to have a traditional wedding, so she believed that though she had not attended university, she had a competitive edge in providing such services. I also visited some ventures cafes and makerspaces where I see that the young people there all have brilliant ideas. When their ideas are put into practice and produce actual products, they are boosting market demand. I believe there are a large number of such people with outstanding talent in China. We must lift all the restrictions so that they can put their talent to best use.