Comprehensive implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development*

（二OOSeptember 19, four years)

Hu Jintao

The primary task of our party in power is to lead the people to promote economic and social development and continuously meet the people's growing material and cultural needs. To improve the party's ability to govern, we must first improve the party's ability to govern, and first of all, we must improve the party's ability to develop leadership. How a big socialist country like ours, which is relatively backward economically and culturally, can achieve rapid and good development is a major issue that the party must make great efforts to solve after it comes to power. Comrade Mao Zedong, Comrade Deng Xiaoping, and Comrade Jiang Zemin have all thought deeply about this and made many important expositions, profoundly clarifying a series of major issues such as our country's development goals, development strategy, development path, and development motivation. The Scientific Outlook on Development is the result of our party's long-term and arduous exploration. It is also a major strategic thought that we inherit and develop the important thoughts of the three generations of the party's leadership core on my country's development and is based on the overall development of the party and the people's undertakings in the new century and new stage. The process of establishing and implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development is a process of vigorously improving the party's leadership development capabilities in accordance with the new requirements for the development of the party and the people's undertakings. It must be noted that in order for the Scientific Outlook on Development to be truly grasped by all comrades in the Party and truly implemented in all work, we will need to make great efforts.

Last year, my country's per capita GDP exceeded one thousand US dollars, reaching an important stage and laying a solid foundation for the next development. The development history of some countries and regions shows that after the per capita GDP exceeds one thousand US dollars, the economy and society enter a critical stage of development. At present, my country's reform and development is at such a critical stage, which is reflected in: the competition in comprehensive national strength is unprecedentedly fierce, and the external environment is becoming increasingly complex and changeable; my country's industrialization and urbanization process is accelerating, economic structural adjustment is accelerating, and a large number of rural surplus labor has been transferred to non-agricultural fields; the economy The degree of marketization has increased rapidly, deepening reforms have further touched upon deep-seated contradictions and problems, and institutional innovation has entered a critical stage; regional development is uneven, economic and social development is unbalanced, and the task of narrowing regional development gaps and promoting coordinated economic and social development is arduous; my country's economic dependence on foreign countries The impact of the world economy on my country's development has been significantly deepened; the people's material and cultural needs have continued to improve and become more diversified, social interest relationships have become more complex, and it has become more difficult to coordinate the interests of all parties; the people's awareness of democracy and the rule of law has continued to increase, and political participation The enthusiasm of the people has been continuously increasing, and new requirements have been put forward for the development of socialist democratic politics and the implementation of the basic strategy of governing the country according to law; the channels through which the people are influenced by various ideological concepts have significantly increased and the degree has been significantly deepened, and the independence, selectivity, variability, and difference of ideological activities have significantly increased. In short, this is a period of great development potential and motivation as well as various difficulties and risks, a period of rare opportunities and severe challenges. Judging from the experience of some countries in the world, at this stage, there are successful experiences in promoting rapid economic development and stable social progress due to appropriate measures, and there are also failed lessons in failure due to mistakes in response, which led to economic stagnation and long-term social turmoil. Whether we can seize new opportunities, solve new problems, and achieve new development is a major test of our party's ability to govern. We put forward the Scientific Outlook on Development in order to better solve various problems encountered during the critical period of reform and development, ensure the coordinated development of our country's economy and society, and ensure that the cause of the Party and the people continues to advance along the right path. All comrades in the party must further enhance their consciousness and determination to implement the scientific outlook on development from the perspective of implementing the important thought of "Three Represents" and ensuring the realization of the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and effectively integrate the scientific outlook on development into the entire process and all aspects of development.

Strengthening and improving macroeconomic control is currently a major measure to implement the Scientific Outlook on Development. Its essence is to optimize the economic structure, accelerate the transformation of the economic growth model, and gradually eliminate institutional and mechanistic obstacles that may lead to economic ups and downs, so as to make full use of important strategic opportunities and achieve fast and good development. We must be soberly aware that the current results we have achieved in strengthening and improving macro-control are still preliminary and phased. Although the outstanding contradictions and problems existing in economic operation have been alleviated, the foundation is not yet solid. The deep-seated contradictions and problems that affect the healthy development of the economy have not been fundamentally resolved. The task of strengthening and improving macro-control is still very arduous. Party committees and governments at all levels must fully understand the arduousness and complexity of macro-control, fully understand and resolutely implement the central government's policies and measures on strengthening and improving macro-control, and remain unwavering in their determination and work. It is necessary to continue to manage the two gates of credit and land, adhere to the principle of differentiated treatment, protection and suppression, resolutely suppress unstable and unhealthy factors in economic operation, and take measures to effectively strengthen some weak links in economic and social development. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the regulation of economic operation, ease the supply and demand tension of coal, electricity and oil transportation, and ensure that the expected goal of strengthening and improving macroeconomic regulation and control is achieved.

Due to the development laws of the market economy and the influence of various factors at home and abroad, it is difficult to completely avoid cyclical changes and fluctuations in economic growth. However, the length of sustained economic growth and the degree of fluctuations depend not only on objective factors, but also on subjective efforts, and on people's understanding of objective laws and their ability to apply them. In the process of my country's economic development, blind investment, low-level duplication of construction and the one-sided pursuit of speed have repeatedly appeared. In the final analysis, it is because the systems in all aspects are not perfect, the laws and regulations are not perfect, and the economic growth method is relatively extensive. We must conscientiously learn from the experience and lessons of my country's development practice, further understand the characteristics and laws of my country's economic development, and continuously improve our ability to control the socialist market economy. The key is to work hard to form a set of systems and mechanisms that are conducive to maintaining the sustained, rapid, coordinated and healthy development of the national economy, preventing ups and downs, fundamentally eliminating the root causes of large economic fluctuations, and promoting the economy to embark on a long-term sound development track. To achieve this, we must unswervingly focus our economic development on structural adjustment, deepening reforms, and transforming the growth model.

First, speed up the adjustment of economic structure. The irrational economic structure is still the main factor restricting the improvement of the quality and efficiency of my country's economic development. Accelerating the pace of economic structural adjustment and promoting structural optimization and upgrading are urgent tasks we face. Agriculture is a strategic industry that stabilizes the world and stabilizes people's hearts, and we must always pay close attention to it. Looking at the development process of some industrialized countries, in the initial stage of industrialization, it is a universal trend for agriculture to support industry and provide accumulation for industry; but after industrialization reaches a certain level, industry will feed back agriculture, and cities will support rural areas, achieving coordinated development of industry and agriculture, cities and rural areas, which is also a universal trend. We must insist on solving the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers as the top priority of the whole party's work. In accordance with the requirements of coordinating urban and rural development, we must stabilize and improve various policies and measures to support farmers' income increase and food production increase, strengthen agricultural and rural infrastructure construction, deepen rural tax and fee reform, and actively explore channels and ways to increase farmers' income. On the basis of the continuous improvement of the country's overall strength, while deeply exploring the development potential of agriculture and rural areas, we must continue to increase support for agricultural development, give full play to the radiating and leading role of cities in rural areas, give full play to the supporting and feedback role of industry in agriculture, and follow a coordinated development path of urban and rural interaction and mutual promotion of industry and agriculture. We must seize the major opportunity of the new round of adjustment and reorganization of the global industrial division of labor and strive to win a favorable position in the international division of labor. At the same time, we must be based on our country's reality, make full use of our own advantages and existing foundation, and strive to form an industrial structure that can give full play to our country's advantages and have strong international competitiveness. It is necessary to vigorously develop capital and technology-intensive industries, improve technical levels and efficiency, and cultivate new economic growth points. At the same time, we must attach importance to the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries with high and new technologies and advanced applicable technologies, and improve the scientific and technological content and quality of products. We must also actively develop labor-intensive industries and make full use of my country's comparative advantages of abundant labor resources and low labor costs. It is necessary to cultivate and develop a group of large companies and large enterprise groups with strong competitiveness, independent intellectual property rights and famous brands to improve the international competitiveness of enterprises. At the same time, attention must be paid to the formation of a group of small and strong, small and sophisticated, small and specialized small and medium-sized enterprises, so as to give full play to their role in activating the urban and rural economy, expanding employment, and meeting the needs of the masses.

Second, further deepen reforms. The root cause of some contradictions and problems that have arisen in my country's economic operation is still problems of the system and mechanism. In accordance with the arrangements of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Third Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, we must unswervingly deepen reforms along the direction of the reform of the socialist market economy, give full play to the fundamental role of the market in resource allocation, and continue to solve the deep-seated contradictions and problems that restrict economic development through institutional mechanisms. It is necessary to uphold and improve the basic economic system in which public ownership is the mainstay and multiple ownership economies develop together, improve the state-owned asset management system, deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises, and enhance the vitality and competitiveness of state-owned enterprises and the state-owned economy. At the same time, it is necessary to further improve and implement policies and measures to encourage and support the development of the non-public economy, and guide and promote the healthy development of the non-public economy. It is necessary to deepen the reform of the administrative management system, further transform government functions, reduce direct government intervention in the micro-economy, accelerate the construction of the market system, and create a fair and just legal environment, a competitive and orderly market environment, and an honest and trustworthy social environment. It is necessary to deepen the reform of fiscal, taxation, financial and investment systems, and solve the problems of industrial structure convergence, extensive growth mode and low-level expansion from the institutional mechanism. It is necessary to deepen institutional reforms in education, science and technology, culture, health, sports and other fields to promote coordinated economic and social development.

Third, effectively transform the mode of economic growth. Since the “Two Fundamental Transformations” were proposed when formulating the Ninth Five-Year Plan, we have made great progress in transforming the mode of economic growth. But frankly speaking, the extensive growth model has not fundamentally changed. If we do not promptly transform this extensive growth model, it will inevitably restrict the sustainable development of our country's economy. The first problem is excessive consumption of energy resources. my country's per capita energy resources are insufficient. The per capita possession of arable land, fresh water, forests, oil, and natural gas is far below the world average, while my country's energy resource consumption per unit of output is significantly higher than the world average. In the future, my country's energy resource consumption will still show a rapid growth trend, and the contradiction between energy and resource constraints will become increasingly prominent. The second problem is serious pollution of the ecological environment. Although my country has made considerable achievements in environmental protection and ecological construction, the trend of overall ecological deterioration has not been fundamentally reversed, and the task of environmental governance is quite arduous. Environmental deterioration seriously affects economic and social development, endangers people's health, and damages the international reputation of our products. If the mode of economic growth is not fundamentally changed, energy resources will be unsustainable and the ecological environment will be overwhelmed. In this way, we will not only be unable to explain to the people, but also unable to explain to history and future generations. All comrades in the Party must fully understand the extreme importance and urgency of transforming the mode of economic growth, adhere to the new path of industrialization, advocate industrial structures and consumption patterns that are conducive to energy conservation and ecological environment protection, vigorously carry out energy and resource conservation activities, comprehensively promote clean production and energy-saving technologies, and accelerate the development of a circular economy. It is necessary to strengthen the protection and construction of the ecological environment, speed up environmental governance in key river basins and key areas, promptly solve environmental pollution problems that seriously threaten the health and safety of the people, and promote the entire society to truly embark on a civilized development path of production development, prosperity, and good ecology. It is necessary to step up research and solve some issues that are restrictive, critical and overall to my country's economic and social development, such as protecting cultivated land, ensuring national food security, ensuring the supply of energy and important resources, and protecting the ecological environment. We must clarify strategic thinking, formulate policies and measures, and actively promote implementation.

Establishing and implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development requires us to not only vigorously develop the socialist market economy, but also vigorously develop socialist democratic politics and advanced socialist culture. The construction of material civilization, political civilization and spiritual civilization are complementary to each other. The construction of material civilization is the foundation, but the construction of political civilization and spiritual civilization are by no means optional. If the construction of political civilization and spiritual civilization is not done well, it will ultimately be difficult to do well in the construction of material civilization. It is necessary to organically integrate upholding the leadership of the party, the people being the masters of the country and governing the country according to law, further develop socialist democratic politics, focus on strengthening system construction, and strive to achieve the institutionalization, standardization and proceduralization of socialist democratic politics. We must vigorously strengthen ideological and moral construction, carry forward and cultivate the national spirit, develop educational, scientific and cultural undertakings, continuously improve the ideological and moral quality and scientific and cultural quality of cadres and the masses, and provide strong spiritual motivation and intellectual support for economic and social development. In short, we must persist in working hard with both hands, and make unremitting efforts to achieve coordinated development and comprehensive progress in economic, political, cultural construction and various undertakings. (End)

﹡This is part of Comrade Hu Jintao’s speech at the third plenary session of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee.