China's efforts to stabilize economic growth in 2022

A worker checks the operation of a carbon fiber production line at a factory in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province. [Photo by Geng Yuhe/for China Daily]

Editor's note: The just-concluded annual Central Economic Work Conference mapped out a mix of measures to stabilize growth next year. Let's take a look at content related to innovation in science and technology, green development, opening-up, and people's well-being.

Innovation in science and technology

China will firmly advance the implementation of policies related to science and technology in 2022.

According to a statement released Friday after a tone-setting economic meeting, the country will carry out a three-year action plan on the reform of sci-tech management system, and formulate and implement a 10-year plan for basic research.

The statement called for efforts to enhance China's strategic sci-tech strength, give full play to the role of national laboratories, reconstruct key national laboratories, and promote the reform of research institutes.

It also pledged to strengthen the principal position of enterprise innovation, and deepen collaboration among firms, universities and research institutes.

Efforts should also be made to improve the ecosystem for sci-tech innovation, foster a down-to-earth work style, and continue to facilitate international sci-tech cooperation, according to the statement.

Green development
The annual meeting underscored the need for unwavering efforts to move forward with work in peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and attaining carbon neutrality before 2060, while recognizing that it would be impossible for the nation to accomplish everything in one stroke.

Achieving the goals is an intrinsic part of advancing high-quality development.

The phase-out of traditional energy in China should be based on safe, reliable new energy alternatives.

China needs to strengthen the clean and efficient use of coal, increase the capacity of new energy, and optimize the use of coal and new energy.

The meeting also decided that the newly added renewable energy and energy used as raw materials would be excluded from the cap on total energy consumption, calling for an early shift from controlling energy consumption amount and intensity to controlling the amount and intensity of carbon emissions, as well as an early establishment of an incentive and constraint mechanism for pollution control and carbon reduction.

Opening-up
China will vitalize development through polices of reform and opening-up in 2022, according to a statement released after a tone-setting economic meeting.

China will expand high-quality and institutional opening-up, grant foreign-funded enterprises national treatment, attract more investment from multinational companies, and facilitate the early implementation of major foreign-invested projects.

The statement also emphasized the need to promote high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

People's well-being
To ensure that social policies can meet people's basic living needs, the meeting called for improvements to the mechanism under which residents obtain public services based on where they actually live. It is important to give priority to youth employment and refine labor and social security policies for workers employed on flexible payrolls.

In attaining common prosperity, the country underscored that the nation must make the "cake" bigger and better through the joint efforts of all people before establishing a mechanism to ensure its proper distribution.

It is imperative that the employment-first policy is further reinforced, the role of distribution is amplified, and public service policies and mechanisms are improved during the process, they added.