A press conference on economic affairs was held on March 6 during the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress. Key officials including Zheng Zhanjie, Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, Lan Fo'an, Minister of Finance, Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People's Bank of China, and Wu Qing, Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, addressed questions from domestic and international journalists on topics related to development reform, fiscal budgets, commerce, and financial securities.
Zheng Zhanjie stated that for high-growth industries, the focus will be on long-term planning aligned with the modernization drive. A series of major, large-scale, and long-chain projects will be developed in sectors such as integrated circuits, satellite internet, domestically-produced large aircraft, and the national integrated computing power network. These projects will involve investment scales ranging from hundreds of billions to trillions of yuan, aiming to establish foundational and long-term national assets.
Zheng Zhanjie outlined plans to prioritize the development of six emerging pillar industries and six future industries. The six emerging pillar industries include integrated circuits, aerospace, biopharmaceuticals, low-altitude economy, new energy storage, and intelligent robotics. The output value of these industries was already close to 6 trillion yuan in 2025 and is projected to potentially double or more by 2030, expanding to over 10 trillion yuan. The six future industries comprise quantum technology, biomanufacturing, green hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied AI, and 6G. These sectors are on the verge of technological breakthroughs, with today's future industries potentially becoming tomorrow's emerging pillars. Zheng Zhanjie also expressed hope that these emerging and future industries would provide support for the stock market.
Regarding traditional industries, Zheng Zhanjie indicated that efforts will continue to strengthen and expand them, promoting quality upgrades in key sectors. It is estimated that traditional industries will see an additional vast market exceeding 10 trillion yuan over the next five years.
Lan Fo'an highlighted that this year's fiscal fund arrangements set new highs in three aspects: total expenditure reached a record high, exceeding 30 trillion yuan for the first time; the scale of new government bonds hit a new high at 11.89 trillion yuan, representing the strongest effort in recent years; and central government transfer payments to local governments reached a new high of 10.42 trillion yuan, marking the fourth consecutive year above 10 trillion yuan, thereby enhancing local fiscal security.
Lan Fo'an further stated that fiscal policy has consistently maintained an proactive stance. Last year, a more proactive fiscal policy was implemented for the first time, strengthening macroeconomic controls. This year, the proactive tone continues with undiminished intensity based on last year's expansion. This arrangement fully considers the profound and complex changes in the current domestic and international landscape, balances counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustment needs, promotes continued structural optimization, enhances economic resilience, and provides solid support for a successful start to the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
To address the prominent contradiction of strong supply versus weak demand, insufficient consumer vitality, and weak growth in private investment, Lan Fo'an announced that the central government has specifically allocated 100 billion yuan this year for a package of fiscal and financial policies to stimulate domestic demand. This initiative aims to create a transmission chain involving fiscal guidance, financial amplification, and market operation, leveraging larger-scale social resources towards key areas of domestic demand expansion. Combined with the 250 billion yuan policy for consumer goods trade-ins this year, the overall effort is greater than last year. Preliminary estimates suggest that the hundred-billion-yuan fiscal funds could support and facilitate trillions of yuan in credit, achieving a multiplier effect.
Pan Gongsheng reported that over the past two months, various open market operations have resulted in a net injection of approximately 2 trillion yuan in medium to long-term funds. Overall, social financing conditions remain accommodative, with financial aggregates growing at a reasonable pace.
Pan Gongsheng emphasized that guidance and control of interest rate levels will be based on changes in the economic and financial situation and macroeconomic performance, to keep overall social financing costs low. Strengthening the execution and supervision of interest rate policies, efforts will be made to standardize market behaviors that are unreasonable and could undermine monetary policy transmission. Banks will be required to clearly disclose the annualized comprehensive financing costs of loans to enterprises, and intermediary financing fees will be regulated.
For 2026, Pan Gongsheng stated that the People's Bank of China will implement a appropriately accommodative monetary policy, flexibly and efficiently utilizing various tools including reserve requirement ratio cuts and interest rate reductions. The synergistic effects of incremental and存量 policies, as well as monetary and fiscal policies, will be leveraged. In terms of quantity, short, medium, and long-term policy tools will be comprehensively used to ensure ample market liquidity, aligning the growth of social financing scale and money supply with the expected targets for economic growth and price levels.
Wu Qing noted that with international investors' growing demand for diversified asset allocation, the attractiveness of Chinese assets has significantly improved. The CSRC will focus on creating a first-class market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment, aiming to enhance cross-border investment and financing convenience services, and further promote two-way openness in markets, products, services, and institutions to a new level.
Wu Qing also commented that the narrative logic for technology stocks in the A-share market has become clearer and more concrete, as evidenced by a number of innovative companies efficiently completing IPOs and M&A activities. This reflects the opportunities and resilience brought by high-quality economic development.
When discussing the outlook for the A-share market over the next five years, Wu Qing emphasized the word "stable" 13 times within approximately 8 minutes. He stated that efforts will focus on achieving qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth in the capital market, enhancing its resilience and robustness. Stability is the overarching priority and a prerequisite, essential for the high-quality development of the capital market. The CSRC will continue to promote synergy among all parties, improve market mechanisms and ecosystems for long-term investment, enrich the development of stability mechanisms with Chinese characteristics, and enhance tools and mechanisms for cross-cycle and counter-cyclical adjustments to further strengthen the market's inherent stability.
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