Counter-financial crisis
The international financial crisis has exerted a huge impact on China.
It has exerted a big impact on the real economy. We may recall that between the end of 2008 and the first half of 2009, global trade tumbled by 26 percent, and Chinese exports also fell substantially. The Baltic Sea Crude Oil index once dropped to zero.
When I paid an inspection trip to a container port in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, the local manager told me not a single order had been received. At one point, China's GDP fell to as low as 3.8 percent in its growth. A large number of businesses had to close and a large number of migrant workers had to go back to their rural home.
It is under such tough circumstances that we adopted a stimulus package that has four key components. They include: A massive increase in government investment and structural tax cuts to restore business growth. Second, we improved the social security system in order to stabilize and improve people's livelihood. Third, we vigorously promoted science and technology advances to sustain the momentum of China's economic development. Fourth, we carried out massive structural adjustments in China's businesses, and in particular, encouraged the growth of strategic emerging industries.
All these stimulus measures were designed to not only address immediate problems, but also ensure China's long-term development.
I would like to say that a person who has not experienced difficulty would not be able to fully appreciate the gravity of the difficulty itself. It is with very hard efforts that we managed to make the Chinese economy one of the first in the world to achieve a recovery and rebound, and avoid serious setbacks in China's economic development. I think the achievements of China on this front have been widely recognized.
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