The 12th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, opened its fifth session Sunday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xie Huanchi/Xinhua]
The 12th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, opened its fifth session Sunday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Premier Li Keqiang is delivering a government work report at the opening meeting.
Highlights of the government work report:
Review of work in 2016
The economy has registered a slower but stable performance with good momentum for growth.
GDP reached 74.4 trillion yuan, representing 6.7-percent growth, and seeing China outpace most other economies. China contributed more than 30 percent of global growth.
A total of 13.14 million new urban jobs were added over the course of the year. The number of college graduates finding employment or starting businesses reached another record high. The registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.02 percent at year-end 2016, the lowest level in years.
Infrastructure became ever-better able to sustain development.
Over 1,900 kilometers of new high-speed rail lines came into service, and more than 6,700 kilometers of expressways and 290,000 kilometers of rural roads were built or upgraded. Construction picked up pace on urban rail transit facilities and underground utility tunnels. Construction began on 21 major water conservancy projects. The number of 4G mobile communications subscribers grew by 340 million and over 5.5 million kilometers of optical fiber cables were added.
Personal per capita disposable income increased by 6.3 percent in real terms. The number of people living in poverty in rural areas was reduced by 12.4 million, including more than 2.4 million people relocated from inhospitable areas. More than 6 million homes in rundown urban areas and over 3.8 million dilapidated rural houses were renovated. In tourism, domestic trips showed rapid growth, and overseas trips exceeded 120 million. People in both urban and rural areas saw a rise in living standards.
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