Hu Jintao (March 10, 2004)
At present, 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 adhere to the important thought of "Three Represents" and the spirit of the 16th National Congress, firmly establish and conscientiously implement the people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development concept, and effectively grasp development, which is 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.
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 a people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development concept is a major strategic thought we put forward based on the overall development of the party and the country's cause in the new century and new stage, guided by Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of "Three Represents". The Scientific Outlook on Development summarizes my country’s successful experience in reform, opening up, and modernization over the past 20 years, draws on the experiences and lessons learned from 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 deeply understand the significance of establishing and implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development from the strategic perspective of implementing the important thinking of the "Three Represents" and the spirit of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and from the strategic perspective of ensuring the realization of the grand goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.
To establish and implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, we must first comprehensively 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 all-round social progress and all-round 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 continuously 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 timely conditions. 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. Economic development must fully consider the carrying capacity and endurance of nature, and resolutely prohibit excessive 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.
