On January 24, during the ongoing Jiangxi Provincial Two Sessions, Huang Ping, Director of the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Finance, delivered a written report on the implementation of Jiangxi's 2023 provincial and provincial-level budgets and the 2024 provincial and provincial-level budget drafts. He stated that in 2024, Jiangxi will add 22.22 billion yuan in new project expenditures at the provincial level, mainly for seven areas including increasing efforts to safeguard and improve people's livelihoods and increasing subsidies to difficult cities and counties.

On January 23, the second session of the 14th Jiangxi Provincial People's Congress opened in Nanchang. Photo by Liu Lixin

"In 2023, on the basis of sustained economic recovery and steady improvement across the province, Jiangxi's fiscal departments vigorously strengthened budget revenue and expenditure management and deepened fiscal and tax system reform, with overall fiscal operations remaining stable," Huang Ping introduced. Last year, Jiangxi's general public budget revenue was 305.96 billion yuan, an increase of 3.8%, and general public budget expenditure was 750.06 billion yuan, an increase of 2.9%.

In 2023, Jiangxi implemented a proactive fiscal policy with enhanced intensity and effectiveness, focusing on supporting the building of the "Three Highlands" and the implementation of the "Five Major Strategies," pushing the province to take new steps in building a new development pattern and achieve new results in high-quality development.

In terms of investment in key areas, Jiangxi's fiscal authorities focused on the "1269" action plan for modernizing key manufacturing industry chains, allocated 1.03 billion yuan to support digital industrialization and other efforts, advanced the upgrading of the industrial base and modernization of industrial chains, and newly arranged 200 million yuan specifically for digital economy development to promote the optimization and strengthening of the digital economy. At the same time, 1.82 billion yuan in special science and technology funds were arranged, and 550 million yuan in special talent development funds were allocated to implement key talent projects and advance major talent initiatives.

In terms of safeguarding and improving people's livelihoods, Jiangxi's fiscal authorities implemented the employment-first policy, introduced preferential tax and fee policies to support entrepreneurship and employment for key groups, issued 35.13 billion yuan in entrepreneurship guarantee loans, and fully exempted six key groups—including returning migrant workers who start businesses, college graduates, people lifted out of poverty, and demobilized military personnel—from the interest portion they would otherwise bear; 10.7 billion yuan was arranged to guarantee the basic living needs of people in difficulty, with assistance standards for urban and rural subsistence allowances, extremely poor persons, orphans, disabled persons, and other groups in difficulty raised for the 17th consecutive year, and greater price subsidies for people in difficulty were provided.

Huang Ping stated that in 2024, Jiangxi will persist in expanding domestic demand, stimulate consumption with potential, cultivate and strengthen new types of consumption, stabilize and expand traditional consumption, boost major commodity consumption, and drive consumption from post-pandemic recovery toward sustained expansion.

The reporter learned that of the 22.22 billion yuan in new project expenditures in Jiangxi this year, 1.37 billion yuan is arranged for increasing efforts to safeguard and improve people's livelihoods and effectively delivering practical benefits to the people; 2.12 billion yuan is arranged for strengthening guarantees in education, science and technology, and talent, and advancing the integrated building of a strong province in education, science and technology, and talent; 2.98 billion yuan is arranged for increasing investment in areas such as food security, rural revitalization, and ecological and environmental protection; 5.75 billion yuan is arranged to support accelerating the building of a modern industrial system and implementing the project-driven strategy to promote high-quality economic development; 2.57 billion yuan is arranged for coordinating high-quality development and high-level security, preventing and resolving government debt risks, and enhancing the ability to respond to emergencies; 6.03 billion yuan is arranged for increasing subsidies to difficult cities and counties and supporting grassroots governments in firmly upholding the "Three Guarantees" bottom line; and 1.4 billion yuan is arranged to guarantee necessary provincial-level operating expenditures.