1、李克强总理答记者问英文版Text of Premier Lis press conferenceQ: I am with The Financial Times. Last year, Chinas real estate market has been on the decline. This has prompted a large number of Chinese nationals to start buying homes overseas.Currently, Chinese customers have become the largest group of homebuyer
2、s in New York, Sydney and London and this has significantly driven up the local home prices. Hence some people have called into question the legitimacy of the money spent on buying these homes overseas from China.Are you concerned about the possible backlash to such massive home buying by Chinese ov
3、erseas? And will the Chinese government introduce new policy measures to boost the domestic real estate market this year?A: China is advancing the full convertibility of renminbi under the capital account. It shows that China is taking further steps to open up the capital market. You talked about th
4、e phenomenon of large number of Chinese buying homes overseas and said that they have become the largest home buyers in a number of key international metropolises.I suppose that more evaluations need to be done here as to whether that is true. And as far as Im concerned, I am not in possession of so
5、lid information about this. But what I know is that China is still the largest destination of the inflow of foreign direct investment and the number now stands at $120 billion.As the same time, the Chinese government will also encourage Chinese companies and Chinese nationals to go overseas, to make
6、 investment, and do business. In doing so, these Chinese companies and Chinese nationals need to abide by Chinas relevant laws and regulations and also observe the local laws.You have a Westerners face but you speak Chinese so well. I wonder if you have bought home in China but you are welcome to do
7、 so.China is still a large developing country. Housing is not just an economic issue but also one that concerns peoples livelihood. The Chinese government needs to meet the basic housing needs of the low-income people in China. And the government will take more steps this year to rebuild urban rundo
8、wn areas and the dilapidated homes in urban and rural areas.The plan for such efforts this year is to increase such the building and rebuilding rundown areas and dilapidated homes by 1 million units each. The Chinese government has the responsibility to provide for the daily necessity in terms of ho
9、using for our people.The real estate market is governed by its own laws. China is such a large country with vast land that expands. There are mega cities and medium and small-size cities as well as small townships in this country. And the conditions of these different cities and townships vary signi
10、ficantly from one to another.Hence the central government has required the local governments enhance their responsibility to exercise their regulation of their local real estate markets.And differentiated policies need to be adopted in the light of local conditions. As the same time, urbanization is
11、 still picking up speed in China hence the housing demand in China is here to stay. We also encourage Chinese people to buy homes for their personal use or their second home. We hope to see there will be steady and sound growth of Chinas real estate markets in the long run. Q: I am with the Beijing
12、News. Mr Premier, on many occasions, you have expressed your strong support about new forms of businesses, like e-commerce and delivery service, so I am very curious, have you ever shopped online, and what did you buy?Some people are worried that online shopping will adversely affect physical stores
13、, whats your view about this?A: I suppose each and everyone of you here has had the experience shopping online and I am no exception. Yes, Ive bought things on the Internet.Actually I have bought a few books, no so long ago, but as for what books, I dont think it will be a good idea for me split dow
14、n here, no advertisement here.But I have said that I will be happy to advertise for new forms of businesses, like online shopping, express, delivery service and e-commerce, because these new forms of bossiness gave a strong boost for employment and consumption in this big country, and people are get
15、ting quite enthusiastic when they try to buy something online.Ive heard such a worry that online shopping will adversely affect to physical stores. At the beginning, such a worry was only natural, but I recalled unexceptional trip that I paid to a local village in China. Its a village with 800 house
16、holds, but these people have opened about 2,000 shops on the Internet.One can while imagine how vast the space for business entrepreneurs there.And I also after that visited a close by city where there is a large number of physical stores and I asked one of the shop owners that if he is concerned th
17、at the physical stores will be adversed by online shopping, but the owner showed me that he also opened an online shop and he even uploaded a video of the physical store on the Internet to show that the store is very competitive, so such the sound interaction between the online and offline has only
18、boosted the vitality of market.To borrow a popular idea on the Internet that everyone stands a chance to fly when there is favorable wind blowing from behind. I believe with the tail wind generated by our Internet Plus strategy we will be able to bring Chinese economy off to a new level.I cannot hel
19、p but remember that today, March 15th, is the day for the protection of rights and interests of consumers, so I believe all the stores no matter online and offline are honest to do the business and put the quality of products before everything else. So they protect rights and interests for consumers
20、. Thank you.Q: I am with Bloomberg. You once said the government needs to show the utmost determination in reforming itself and this process could be a quite painful one.As the Chinese economy comes under increased downward pressure, do you still have as firm a determination as before? And will the
21、Chinese economy continue to slide? What will the future for the Chinese economy look like?A: You asked about the pain caused by the government self-imposed reform. Let me tell you that the pain is still there. Actually, the pain is becoming more acute, and it is being felt in more places.This is a r
22、eform the government has taken on itself. During the cause of the reform, vested interests will be upset, as the government will shatter its own powers. Its not nail-clipping. Instead, its like taking a knife to ones own flesh. So pain is only natural, but, however painful it may be, we are determin
23、ed to keep going until our job is done.The reform of streamlining administration and delegating government powers helps us to get the relationship right between the government and the market. It helps to boost vitality of the market, and put us into a stronger position to cope with downward pressure
24、 on economic growth.Last year, despite of economic slowdown, we managed to add more new urban jobs and this reform on government itself has played a very important role. We have completed the five-year task of cutting State Council review items by one third within just two years.With the reform of b
25、usiness system, on average each day, up to 10,000 new businesses have got registered, and increased of an over 50 percent over the preview year. This fully shows that our people represent the largest source of vitality for economic activity. And this reform by reducing the powers held in the hands o
26、f the government has actually helped us to tackle downward pressures on economic growth.At the same time, we recognized that some measures have yet to be fully implemented, and some new problems have surfaced.A couple days ago, I came across a proposal during the Two Sessions which said that it is t
27、rue that government review items have been slashed.In the past to get one project approved, one needs to collect up to over 100 stamps from different governmental departments, but the number has been brought down to about 50 to 60, but still, all those long procedures have driven up the costs of bus
28、iness start-up and dampened peoples enthusiasm for making innovations. Thats a reason why the government is resolved that it will step up its efforts to streamline its administration and delegate more powers.New steps will be taken this year in this reform, and our focus is on the following three ar
29、eas. First, all non-governmental review items will be canceled. We must be sure that governmental power will not be exercised when it is not stipulated by the law. There are currently over 1,200 review items by the local governments as mandated by central governmental departments.Our goal is to cut
30、this number by over 200 in 2015. The government must not secretly hold onto powers that should be delegated, just releasing the hand brake but still keeping the foot brake on. Second, all provincial-level governments will be required to release their list of powers and list of responsibilities this
31、year.And this task will be assigned to governments in cities and city-level counties next year. We must keep our people well informed of what powers their governments hold and put government power under public oversight to prevent the abuse of office.Third, we will explore new models for exercising
32、better ongoing and exposed regulation. We will expand the trials for integrated law enforcement, and we will also ensure that there will be effective models for exercising regulation over such acts as cheating and swindling of market place, violating intellectual property rights, making and selling of fake or sub-standard goods, or cases involving food safety. Just as shoes must suit the feet, our administration must meet peoples needs and deliver well benefits. Thank you.Q: I am with China National Radio. My question is about 2014 Chinas anti-corruption
