Full text of Premier Li’s address at opening ceremony of Summer Davos

Ladies and Gentlemen,

China has been an active facilitator of inclusive growth. More inclusive growth in our country has been an important reason why the Chinese economy has maintained steady growth in recent years despite the sluggish world economy. In keeping with the principles of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development and the trend of economic globalization and the new industrial revolution, we have highlighted inclusiveness in our development strategies, and worked to promote inclusive growth through providing institutional guarantee and policy support. This has helped us to blaze a path of inclusive growth with distinctive Chinese features. Naturally, we are still feeling our way forward along this path.

We have given priority to employment in pursuing development. Employment is the foundation for achieving inclusive growth. Without relatively full employment, inclusive growth would not be possible, and there would be no solid foundation for generating greater income and wealth. China has a workforce of over 900 million. Every year, about 13 million students graduate from colleges and secondary schools and a large number of rural surplus labor migrate to towns and cities. We see employment as a key indicator of economic performance and promoting steady growth is mainly for the purpose of securing employment. 

We have implemented a proactive employment policy to boost total employment, address key employment issues and help vulnerable people. We encourage the creation of jobs by business start-ups. We have launched targeted employment programs for college graduates, supported migrant workers in starting up businesses back in their hometowns, and provided employment assistance to laid-off workers from industries with excess capacity, vulnerable urban residents and people with disabilities. The aim is to make sure that each family has at least one person on a stable job. Over the past few years, over 13 million new urban jobs have been created on a yearly basis, and surveyed urban unemployment rate has been kept at around 5%. A recent survey conducted by an authoritative international organization on various development indicators has ranked China’s performance on employment at the very top of the world. In the meantime, people’s income has been rising in tandem with economic growth, the Gini Coefficient is gradually going down and the ranks of middle-income earners have steadily swelled. This is a truly remarkable achievement for a major developing country with more than 1.3 billion people and an important contribution to inclusive growth.

We have encouraged more people to go for entrepreneurship and innovation. It also helps broaden the channel of employment. To make sure that everyone takes part, contributes and shares the benefits is the essence of inclusive growth. It is also what drives entrepreneurship and innovation in today’s China. In recent years, China has earnestly implemented the strategy of innovation-driven development, and promoted mass entrepreneurship and innovation by fostering enabling conditions. These efforts have yielded better-than-expected results. 

China’s entrepreneurship and innovation are based on extensive public participation. Not only enterprises and research institutions are engaged in this effort, but more and more ordinary people are also joining in to make the best of their creative capabilities. This is aptly described by a Chinese idiom: Eight immortals crossing the sea, each with their own magical power. For the past three years since 2014 when we first put forward this initiative, an average of 40,000 new market entities have been set up every day, including some 14,000 newly registered enterprises. Business activity rate has stood at around 70%, and in May, the daily count of newly registered enterprises even reached 18,000. 

China’s entrepreneurship and innovation are driven by cooperation among different market entities. We have built open and sharing platforms of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, where innovation players of various kinds interact online and offline. Pooling their wisdom and efforts has made entrepreneurship and innovation more efficient, less costly and faster. The Global Innovation Index 2017 issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization and others a few days ago put China at 22nd place, 13 spots higher from 2013 and topping the middle-income economies. China’s entrepreneurship and innovation have delivered benefits to all. The Chinese government has adopted an accommodating and prudent regulatory approach toward new industries, new business forms and models, such as e-commerce, mobile payment and bike-sharing, which have enabled their fast and healthy development. As a result, people’s lives are made more convenient and a large number of jobs are created. Of all the new jobs created last year, about 70% were contributed by new growth drivers.

Mass entrepreneurship and innovation have given more people the opportunity to better their lives and thus improved opportunities for vertical social mobility. China’s entrepreneurship and innovation have greatly advanced economic transformation and upgrading and raised our competitiveness. It has brought about fast growth of emerging industries and re-energized traditional ones, boosting new driving forces for development. Last year, the market value of China’s sharing economy reached 3.5 trillion yuan, growing by more than 100% year-on-year, and 600 million people got involved in sharing. Thanks to the large population involved, China’s entrepreneurship and innovation have gained a fast and strong momentum and provided an effective means to achieve inclusive growth.