At 9 a.m. on March 5, the Fifth Session of the 12th National People's Congress opened at the Great Hall of the People, hearing and deliberating the State Council's report on government work delivered by Premier Li Keqiang, reviewing the State Council's report on the implementation of the 2016 national economic and social development plan and the draft 2017 national economic and social development plan, and reviewing the State Council's report on the implementation of the 2016 central and local budgets and the draft 2017 central and local budgets.

The following is a live transcript:

[Li Keqiang] The main projected targets for development this year are as follows: GDP growth of around 6.5%, or better if possible; CPI growth of around 3%; over 11 million new urban jobs, and a registered urban unemployment rate within 4.5%; a stable and improving balance of payments and basic equilibrium in the balance of payments; personal income growing basically in step with economic growth; a reduction of at least 3.4% in energy consumption per unit of GDP, and continued reductions in the emission of major pollutants.

This year's target for economic growth is in keeping with economic laws and objective reality, helps guide and stabilize expectations and adjust the structure, and is also consistent with the requirements for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. An important purpose of maintaining stable growth is to ensure employment and improve people's wellbeing. As employment pressure grows this year, we will continue to give top priority to employment and implement a more proactive employment policy. The projected target for new urban employment is one million more than last year, highlighting a greater emphasis on employment. Given the fundamentals of the economy and its capacity to absorb employment, this target can be achieved through hard work.

This year, we will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy, strengthen targeted and timely regulation on the basis of range-based regulation, improve foresight, precision and effectiveness, and pay attention to the coordination of policies on consumption, investment, regions, industry and environmental protection, so as to ensure that the economy performs within a reasonable range.

The fiscal policy should be more proactive and effective. The deficit ratio is set at 3% this year, with a fiscal deficit of 2.38 trillion yuan, an increase of 200 billion yuan over last year. Of this, the central government deficit is 1.55 trillion yuan and the local government deficit is 830 billion yuan. We will arrange 800 billion yuan of special local government bonds and continue to issue local government replacement bonds. The deficit ratio remains unchanged this year mainly to further cut taxes and fees, reducing the tax burden on enterprises by around 350 billion yuan and fees charged to enterprises by about 200 billion yuan for the whole year, and we must make market entities truly feel the difference. Fiscal budget arrangements should highlight priorities, ensure certain items while cutting others, and step up efforts to shore up weak links and improve people's wellbeing. General transfer payments to local governments will grow by 9.5%, with priority given to increasing equalization transfer payments and financial support to areas in difficulty. Non-priority expenditures will be cut, and budget arrangements for projects with low performance will be reduced. Governments at all levels should tighten their belts, with central departments taking the lead, cutting general expenditures by no less than 5%, and under no circumstances increasing spending on official overseas visits, official vehicles, and official hospitality, so as to free up more funds for tax and fee cuts and adhere to the right path of frugality for the benefit of the people.

The monetary policy should remain prudent and neutral. The projected growth rates for M2 and the balance of social financing are both around 12% this year. We will use a mix of monetary policy tools to maintain basic stability of liquidity, reasonably guide market interest rates, unblock transmission mechanisms, and promote the flow of more financial resources to the real economy, especially to support agriculture, rural areas and farmers and small and micro businesses. We will continue to follow the direction of market-based exchange rate reform and maintain the stable position of the renminbi in the global monetary system.