China Institute of Our Hong Kong Foundation today held its second forum in 2017 of “Learn about China, understand the Nation and care for Hong Kong” series, focusing on “China Government’s economic policy direction in 2017”. The Foundation has invited Mr. Yang Weimin, Vice Minister of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Finance and Economic Affairs, to decode the China Government’s Central Economic Work Conference, and explore the country’s economic policy direction.

“Central Economic Work Conference” was attended by the senior government officials at the end of every year to determine the economic policy of the coming year. As one of the researchers and planners of the Central Economic Work Conference paper, Mr. Yang considered the current economic situation in China as “stabilise the economy amid the slowdown, improve the economy amid the stability.” Under the new normal of China’s economy and its potential decline in economic growth, despite the slight slowdown of the China’s economy last year, the overall economic development has maintained rapid growth comparing with the world’s major economic systems.  

Based on this, China's economic work in 2017 will focus on "steady progress", which means that the key of the premise is to achieve breakthrough in crucial fields. Mr. Yang believed that this year's economic task is to deepen the "supply side of structural reform and to prevent financial risks, specific tasks involve advocating five major tasks: (cutting overcapacity, destocking, de-leveraging, reducing corporate costs and improving weak links in the economy), overhauling the supply side of agriculture, reviving the real economy and stabilising the property sector. In particular, the government will focus on curbing speculation on the housing market, and resolving the property overstocking issue in the third and fourth tier cities. At the same time, the China Government will take varied approach to regulate the property market, adopt financial, land, tax, fiscal, investment and regulation measures to curb the real estate bubble, and to prevent the market fluctuation. As for finance and currency, the government will implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy. The monetary policy needs to be maintained stable and neutral, while enhancing the exchange rate flexibility and maintaining the RMB exchange rate above a reasonable level, to prevent systemic financial risks.

Mrs. Eva Cheng, Executive Director of Our Hong Kong Foundation remarked, “We are deeply honoured to have invited Mr. Yang Weimin to share the essence of our country’s economy work this year. The economic development of Hong Kong and China is interconnected. Understanding the country’s economy development direction would be helpful for Hong Kong people and related economic organisations to map out their overall strategy.”