Speech at the Central Symposium on Population, Resources and Environment

(March 10, 2004)

Hu Jintao

Just now, several comrades made very good speeches. These speeches tell us that it is not easy to do a good job in population, resources and environment work. But as long as we pay attention to it, strengthen leadership, act in accordance with the law, persevere and work hard, we will definitely achieve significant results.

Currently, my country's reform and development is in a critical period. To achieve the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and create a new situation in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we must persist in implementing it"Three Represents"The important thoughts and the spirit of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, firmly establish and conscientiously implement the people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development concept, and earnestly grasp the development, the party's top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country. The new situation and new tasks have put forward new requirements for doing a good job in population, resources and environment work. Next, I would like to make three points.

1. Deeply understand the important guiding significance of the Scientific Outlook on Development in doing a good job in population, resources and environment work

Experience shows that what kind of development concept a country adheres to will have a significant impact on the country's development. Different development concepts often lead to different development results. Adhering to the people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development concept is our principle based on Deng Xiaoping Theory and"Three Represents"This is a major strategic thought guided by important thoughts and based on the overall development of the party and the country's cause in the new century and new stage. The Scientific Outlook on Development summarizes the successful experience of my country's reform, opening up, and modernization over the past two decades, draws on the experiences and lessons of other countries in the world in the development process, summarizes the important revelations from the victory over the SARS epidemic, reveals the objective laws of economic and social development, and reflects our party's new understanding of development issues. All comrades in the party must implement"Three Represents"From the strategic perspective of the important thoughts and the spirit of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, from the strategic perspective of ensuring the realization of the grand goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, we must deeply understand the significance of establishing and implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development, unswervingly establish and implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, and better complete the historical tasks we shoulder in the new century and new stage.

To establish and implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, we must first fully and accurately grasp the profound connotation and basic requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development. Adhering to a people-oriented approach means aiming to realize the all-round development of people, pursuing and promoting development based on the fundamental interests of the people, constantly meeting the people's growing material and cultural needs, effectively protecting the people's economic, political and cultural rights and interests, and allowing the results of development to benefit all people. Comprehensive development means taking economic construction as the center, comprehensively promoting economic, political, and cultural construction, and achieving economic development and comprehensive social progress. Coordinated development means coordinating urban and rural development, coordinating regional development, coordinating economic and social development, coordinating the harmonious development of man and nature, coordinating domestic development and opening up to the outside world, promoting the coordination of productivity and production relations, economic base and superstructure, and promoting the coordination of all links and aspects of economic, political, and cultural construction. Sustainable development means promoting the harmony between man and nature, achieving coordination between economic development and population, resources, and the environment, adhering to the civilized development path of production development, affluent life, and good ecology, and ensuring sustainable development from generation to generation. To establish and implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, we must pay attention to the following issues.

First, to establish and implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, we must always adhere to economic construction as the center, concentrate on construction, and pursue development wholeheartedly. The scientific outlook on development is used to guide development and cannot be separated from the theme of development. It is meaningless without the theme of development. Development must first focus on economic development. Our country is and will be in the primary stage of socialism for a long time. Under the increasingly fierce competition in international comprehensive national strength, it is of great strategic significance for a large developing country like us to accelerate the realization of modernization by insisting on economic construction as the center, firmly seizing and making good use of important strategic opportunities, and vigorously liberating and developing social productive forces. Only by adhering to economic construction as the center and continuously enhancing comprehensive national strength can we lay a solid material foundation for development, the party's top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country, and lay a solid material foundation for comprehensive and coordinated development. Only by adhering to economic construction as the center and continuously enhancing comprehensive national strength can we better solve the contradictions and problems on the way forward and successfully achieve the grand goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and socialist modernization. Therefore, the entire Party and the country must enhance the sense of urgency to promote development, firmly focus on economic construction at any time and under any circumstances, fully mobilize and effectively protect the enthusiasm of the broad masses of cadres and the masses to accelerate development, and unswervingly promote sustained, rapid, coordinated and healthy economic development.

Second, to establish and implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, we must promote comprehensive social progress and comprehensive human development on the basis of economic development, and promote the coordinated development of socialist material civilization, political civilization, and spiritual civilization. Economic development, political development, cultural development and all-round human development are interrelated and influence each other. Without the continuous advancement of political development, cultural development and all-round human development, purely pursuing economic development will not only make it difficult to sustain economic development, but also make it difficult to achieve final economic development. We must insist on focusing on economic construction as the center, and at the same time effectively prevent one-sidedness and one-sidedness, comprehensively promote the construction of socialist material civilization, political civilization, and spiritual civilization, and prevent the situation where development is restricted by unbalanced development.

Third, to establish and implement the scientific outlook on development, we must strive to improve the quality and efficiency of economic growth, strive to achieve the unity of speed and structure, quality, and efficiency, coordinate economic development with population, resources, and the environment, and constantly protect and enhance the sustainability of development. Economic development requires quantitative growth, but economic development cannot simply be equated with quantitative growth. It is necessary to make full use of my country's institutional resources, human resources, natural resources, capital resources, technological resources and foreign resources and other favorable conditions and factors to promote economic development to a new level. At the same time, development must be sustainable so that we can ensure that we achieve our long-term development goals. This requires us to fully consider the affordability of resources and the environment when promoting development, coordinate the needs of current development and future development, actively achieve current development goals, and create favorable conditions for future development, actively develop a circular economy, achieve a virtuous cycle of natural ecosystems and social and economic systems, and leave sufficient development conditions and space for future generations.

Fourth, to establish and implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, we must adhere to the integration of theory and practice, and integrate the requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development into all aspects of work in accordance with local conditions and the times. The Scientific Outlook on Development reveals the universal laws of development and has important guiding significance for the whole country. All regions and departments must conscientiously implement it. At the same time, we must fully consider the development differences and situations between regions and departments, insist on proceeding from reality in everything, and take focused and step-by-step measures based on actual conditions and development needs. We cannot insist on uniformity, one-size-fits-all, and one-size-fits-all. The key is to implement the Scientific Outlook on Development in light of one's own actual situation, focus on resolving outstanding contradictions and problems in one's own development, and promote the development of various undertakings faster and better.

Party committees, governments and leading cadres at all levels must consciously establish and implement the scientific outlook on development and the correct outlook on political performance, and insist on planning development plans in accordance with scientific laws. We should go all out to do whatever is in line with the scientific outlook on development, and correct it without hesitation if it does not, so that all work to promote development can truly stand the test of history and the people.

In insisting on using the Scientific Outlook on Development to guide population, resources and environmental work, we must pay attention to the following points. First, we must firmly establish a people-oriented concept. Population, resources and environmental work are all tasks that involve the vital interests of the people, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people must be the starting point and foothold. We must focus on fully mobilizing the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the people, focus on meeting the needs of the people and promoting the all-round development of people, focus on improving the quality of life and health of the people, and effectively create a good production and living environment for the people, and create good conditions for the long-term development of the Chinese nation. The second is to firmly establish the concept of resource conservation. Natural resources can only be utilized sustainably if they are conserved. It is necessary to establish the concept of saving resources in the whole society and cultivate the social custom of saving resources among everyone. It is necessary to establish a full-process and comprehensive conservation management system in resource extraction, processing, transportation, consumption and other links, establish a resource-saving national economic system and a resource-saving society, gradually form an industrial structure and consumption pattern that is conducive to resource conservation and environmental protection, rely on scientific and technological progress to promote fundamental changes in resource utilization methods, continuously improve the economic, social and ecological benefits of resource utilization, resolutely curb the waste of resources and destruction of resources, and achieve sustainable use of resources. The third is to firmly establish the concept of protecting the environment. A good ecological environment is an important foundation for the sustainable development of social productivity and the continuous improvement of people's quality of life. We must completely change the extensive growth model that sacrifices the environment and destroys resources. We must not exchange temporary economic growth at the expense of the environment, we must not harm long-term interests with immediate development, and we must not harm overall interests with local development. It is necessary to create a good atmosphere of caring for the environment, protecting the environment, and building the environment in the whole society, and enhance the environmental protection awareness of the entire nation. Fourth, we must firmly establish the concept of harmony between man and nature. Nature is the cradle of all living things, including humans, and is the basic condition for human survival and development. Protecting nature means protecting human beings, and building nature means benefiting human beings. We must cherish and protect nature and respect the laws of nature. When it comes to nature, we cannot just focus on extortion but not investment, and we should not focus only on utilization but not construction. When developing the economy, we must fully consider the carrying capacity and endurance of nature, and resolutely prohibit transitional grazing, predatory mining, destructive logging and other practices that plunder and destroy nature. It is necessary to study green national economic accounting methods, explore the inclusion of resource consumption, environmental losses and environmental benefits in the development process into the evaluation system of economic development levels, and establish and maintain a relatively balanced relationship between man and nature.

2. In accordance with the requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development, further improve population, resources and environment work

Doing a good job in population, resources and environment work is an inevitable requirement and important content for establishing and implementing the scientific outlook on development. After years of unremitting efforts, my country's population, resources and environment work has made great achievements. The momentum of excessive population growth has been effectively controlled. The natural growth rate dropped to 6.01 per 1,000 in 2003. The total fertility rate of women has stabilized below the replacement level. New progress has been made in establishing a benefit-oriented mechanism for family planning and implementing incentive and support policies. Resource protection and development management have been strengthened, the destruction of resources, indiscriminate occupation and abuse of resources have been initially curbed, and progress has been made in the protection of cultivated land, the investigation and evaluation of mineral resources, and the construction and improvement of land and resources markets. Environmental protection and ecological construction have been strengthened, environmental governance in key watersheds and regions has been continuously promoted, the total amount of pollutant emissions has been controlled to a certain extent, ecological environment protection and construction projects such as returning farmland to forests and grasslands, and natural forest protection have been gradually launched, the construction of circular economy and ecological provinces has begun to take off, and the people's environmental protection awareness has been significantly enhanced. The construction of key water conservancy projects is progressing smoothly, and the construction and water resources control capabilities of key water conservancy projects such as the management of large rivers and lakes have been strengthened. These important achievements have laid a good foundation for further improving population, resources and environment work.

At the same time, my country’s population, resources and environment work still faces many problems and challenges. Although the birth rate remains at a low level, due to the large base, the total population will continue to increase in the next few decades, putting increasing pressure on labor and employment. The task of improving the quality of the population is very arduous, and the problem of population aging is becoming increasingly prominent. The contradiction of resource shortage is becoming increasingly prominent. Some mineral resources related to the national economy and people's livelihood, especially oil, are in serious shortage. The phenomenon of indiscriminate appropriation and misuse of cultivated land and indiscriminate mining and mining of mineral resources still exists in some places. The overall deterioration trend of the ecological environment has not been fundamentally reversed, and the task of environmental governance is still quite arduous. The flood control system for large rivers is not yet complete, and rural water conservancy infrastructure is relatively weak. The contradiction between water supply and demand is very acute and has become a prominent constraint affecting economic and social development and people's lives. We must be soberly aware that our country’s national conditions of large population and low per capita resources will not change, and the trend of decreasing reserves and availability of non-renewable resources will not change. The resource environment has an increasingly restrictive effect on economic growth, and the people’s requirements for the quality of the ecological environment will inevitably become higher and higher. In the long run, the contradiction between economic development and population, resources and the environment will become more and more prominent, and the pressure for sustainable development will increase. We must attach great importance to these outstanding contradictions and problems. In accordance with the requirements of establishing and implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development, we must always place population control, resource conservation, and environmental protection in important strategic positions, and work hard and tightly, and do it practically and practically.

At present and in the future, the tasks of population, resources and environment work remain arduous and onerous. We must adhere to Deng Xiaoping Theory and"Three Represents"As the guidance of the important thoughts, grasp the overall situation, highlight the key points, promote comprehensively, focus on accelerating the solution of population, resources and environmental issues that are related to the vital interests of the people, and strive to make new progress every year.

Population and family planning work must focus on three major issues. First, we must strengthen research on population development strategies and formulate medium- and long-term population development plans. On the basis of stabilizing the low fertility level, we must seriously study and solve the outstanding contradictions and problems of population development, study the relationship between population and economic development, social progress, resource utilization, and environmental protection, and propose scientific predictions and response plans. Establish an indicator system that meets the requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development and establish a national comprehensive decision-making support system for population and development. Each region must also formulate regional population development plans. The second is to innovate the ideas and mechanisms of family planning work and establish and improve a system of rewards and support for some rural family planning families. Since the current level of rural productivity is still relatively low and social security capabilities are fragile, some people still have a strong desire to have boys and have more children. To do a good job in the work of these masses, in addition to relying on publicity, education and guidance, we must also innovate the ideas and mechanisms of family planning work, organically combine in-depth and detailed ideological work with solving the practical difficulties of the masses, and provide incentives and assistance to rural family planning families. It is necessary to actively explore the establishment of a rural social security system that is compatible with the level of economic development and conducive to family planning, focusing on rewarding rural one-child and two-child families, and providing support to families in need due to the disability, death of the only child and complications from family planning surgery. Continue to organize the western region"Be born less and get rich faster"Increase support for project pilot work and continuously expand the scope of the pilot project. Third, we must attach great importance to the issue of rising sex ratio at birth and carry out necessary special management activities. Data from the fifth national census show that the sex ratio at birth in my country continues to increase. The sex ratio of the population has its own inherent laws, and long-term imbalance will cause social problems. It is necessary to increase publicity efforts and carry out in-depth"Care for Girls Action", advocating the new social trend of equality between men and women and the promotion of fewer and fewer children. Improve the policy system to relieve the worries of families giving birth to girls. Strengthen the accountability system, unify the assessment of population indicators and sex ratio indicators, and strive to curb the rising sex ratio at birth through three to five years of efforts.

(Not finished, please click below[Page 2 of this article]Continue reading)