Thirty eight government targets met in 2019

China has met 38 targets set in last year's government work report, the State Council said Tuesday.

The State Council, China's cabinet, released a table on the implementation of quantitative targets listed in last year's government work report.

China's top legislature and political advisory body will hold annual sessions this week, more than two months after this key political event was postponed due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

The 2019 government work report set a target of 6 to 6.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth from the previous year.

Last year, China's GDP reached 99.09 trillion yuan, up 6.1 percent from the previous year, in line with the annual target.

The report aimed to create more than 11 million urban jobs in 2019 and keep the registered urban unemployment rate within 4.5 percent.

Both targets were met, as about 13.52 million urban jobs were created last year and the registered urban unemployment rate stood at 3.62 percent.

In terms of cuts in taxes and fees, the report proposed axing businesses' burden in taxes and social security payment by nearly 2 trillion yuan in 2019. It also aimed to bring the tax rate down to 13 percent from 16 percent in sectors such as manufacturing.

Last year's tax cut and fee reduction exceeded 2.3 trillion yuan, and the 16-percent tax rate in industries such as manufacturing went down to 13 percent.

In terms of people's livelihood, the report aimed to lift more than 10 million rural people out of poverty, build and renovate 200,000 kilometers of rural roads, and cut the average charge for mobile network traffic by more than 20 percent.

In 2019, China lifted 11.09 million rural people out of poverty, built and renovated 290,000 kilometers of rural roads, and cut the average charge for mobile network traffic by 41 percent from the previous year.

In terms of environmental protection, the report set targets that emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides will drop by 3 percent, while chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions will shrink by 2 percent in 2019.

It turned out that the emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides went down by 4.4 percent and 3.5 percent respectively, while chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions shrank by 3.2 percent and 3.3 percent respectively last year from the previous year.

The 38 targets achieved in 2019 also involve a reduction of more than 5 percent in the general expenditure of the central government and a cut of about 3 percent in spending on official overseas visits, official vehicles, and official hospitality.