[Ministers' Corridor]

　　On March 11, the third "Ministers' Corridor" of the Second Session of the 14th National People's Congress was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Heads of relevant ministries and commissions of the State Council answered reporters' questions on topics including the cultural and tourism market, foreign trade, financial regulation, building a sporting powerhouse, and intellectual property protection.

　　Sun Yeli, Minister of Culture and Tourism:

　　Culture and tourism have achieved strong recovery and vigorous development

　　In 2023, culture and tourism achieved strong recovery and vigorous development, and have become an important part of the people's aspiration for a better life.

　　Sun Yeli introduced that in 2023, domestic tourists made nearly 4.9 billion trips nationwide, with total tourism spending of nearly 5 trillion yuan. The boom in tourism has played a very important role in boosting domestic demand, promoting employment, energizing the market, and shoring up confidence.

　　Sun Yeli said that high-quality cultural life promotes the formation of high-quality consumer demand, high-quality consumer demand drives and promotes high-quality development, and high-quality development in turn provides the people with higher-quality cultural and tourism product supply. This interaction and cycle will powerfully advance China's modernization process.

　　"We will work with localities and departments to further step up the construction of cultural and tourism infrastructure, improve the quality of cultural and tourism services, raise the level of standardization in the cultural and tourism market, and meet the people's growing needs through high-quality development of culture and tourism," Sun Yeli said.

　　Yu Jianhua, Director of the General Administration of Customs:

　　Imports and exports get off to a good start

　　"Since the beginning of this year, China's imports and exports have continued their positive momentum and got off to a good start," Yu Jianhua said.

　　Yu Jianhua introduced that in terms of scale, a new high for the same period in history was set. In January and February this year, China's imports and exports reached 6.6 trillion yuan, up 8.7 percent, with exports up 10.3 percent.

　　In terms of quality, the value content has continued to rise. China's trading partners have become more diverse and stable, with good performance in both traditional and emerging markets. In particular, imports and exports with Belt and Road partner countries grew by 9 percent, higher than the average growth rate. China's role as a "manufacturing powerhouse" remains prominent, with exports of intermediate goods up 8 percent, playing an important role in stabilizing global industrial and supply chains. New business forms and models have strong momentum, with cross-border e-commerce and market procurement exports both achieving double-digit growth. "National trend" products such as electric vehicles, cultural and creative products, and cosmetics have gone viral overseas.

　　In terms of trend, favorable factors are accumulating. Customs monitoring of leading indicators shows that in January and February, the volume of customs declarations increased by more than 10 percent, the total number of inbound and outbound transport vehicles grew even more, enterprises' operating confidence continued to strengthen, and the activity of domestic and overseas consignors and consignees rose markedly. A customs survey found that the proportion of enterprises planning to expand exports and imports increased by 23 percentage points, the highest value since last year.

　　Yu Jianhua believes that overall, China's foreign trade has gotten off to a good start this year, and there is a foundation and the conditions for achieving steady growth in volume and rising quality in foreign trade.

　　Li Yunze, Director of the National Financial Regulatory Administration:

　　Preventing and defusing financial risks is the primary duty

　　"Preventing and defusing financial risks is the eternal theme of financial work." Li Yunze summed up the question of "how to view the current financial risk situation" in three sentences: first, China's financial risks are currently generally controllable; second, there are sufficient resources and conditions to respond to risks; and third, development, especially high-quality development, is the fundamental solution to preventing and defusing risks.

　　"As the financial regulatory authority, preventing and defusing financial risks is the primary duty of the National Financial Regulatory Administration," Li Yunze said. He stated that preventing and defusing financial risks should focus on enhancing the forward-looking, targeted, effective, and coordinated nature of regulation.

　　"We will further improve a full-process prevention and control mechanism covering source governance, early correction, and recovery and disposal, so as to identify, warn about, expose, and handle risks early. At the same time, we will accelerate the building of a regulatory big data platform to create 'clairvoyance' and 'clairaudience,' further raising the digital and intelligent level of regulation," Li Yunze said.

　　Li Yunze said it is necessary to comprehensively strengthen the "five major regulators," focus on promoting the building of the basic legal framework for financial regulation, accelerate efforts to remedy institutional shortcomings and weaknesses, and comprehensively enhance the effectiveness of regulatory enforcement. In particular, close attention should be paid to "key matters," "key people," and "key behaviors," and serious investigation and handling should be carried out of violations of laws and regulations that affect financial stability, disrupt market order, and cause major risks.

　　Gao Zhidan, Director of the General Administration of Sport:

　　Continue to advance the building of a sporting powerhouse

　　"The building of a sporting powerhouse is underway, and various goals are being continuously realized," Gao Zhidan said.

　　Over the past year, China's sports undertakings have continued to develop in a healthy way. Mass sports activities such as New Year climbing, Walking the Grand Canal, National Fitness Day, and the Mass Ice and Snow Season ran through all seasons of the year and covered both north and south of the country. Folk events such as the "Village Super League" and "Village BA" went viral, and "national ball into parks" and "national ball into communities" enriched and improved sports facilities near the people, serving "big livelihoods" through "small entry points" with good results. In 2023, China's per capita sports venue area reached 2.89 square meters, and national fitness trails reached 371,000 kilometers, up 107 percent from 2019.

　　"At present, there are only 11 years left until the building of a sporting powerhouse is completed, and we are also clearly aware that there are still many shortcomings and deficiencies that urgently need to be addressed. Next, we must focus on key and difficult points and continue to intensify efforts to advance the building of a sporting powerhouse," Gao Zhidan said.

　　Gao Zhidan said it is necessary to thoroughly implement the national strategy for national fitness and continuously enrich sports events and national fitness venue facilities and services near the people; vigorously develop the sports industry and actively promote the positive role of sports in promoting economic structural transformation, rural revitalization, and common prosperity. It is necessary to coordinate the forces of the government, the market, and society to form consensus and vitality for advancing the building of a sporting powerhouse, encourage localities to carry out diversified exploration, and turn grassroots innovation and creativity into common practice in building a sporting powerhouse.

　　Shen Changyu, Director of the National Intellectual Property Administration:

　　Strengthen the transformation and application of patents

　　"Strengthening intellectual property protection is an important aspect of shaping a sound innovation environment and business environment. Last year, the central government advanced a new round of institutional reform in intellectual property, deliberated and introduced policies and regulations such as the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law, and rolled out a set of 'combined measures' in the intellectual property field, further increasing the intensity of intellectual property protection," Shen Changyu said.

　　Shen Changyu said that this year the intensity of intellectual property protection will be further increased, with efforts focused on four areas: first, further strengthening the building of the intellectual property protection system; second, further improving intellectual property laws and regulations; third, further strengthening source protection of intellectual property; and fourth, further improving the platforms and mechanisms for intellectual property protection.

　　Shen Changyu pointed out that strengthening the transformation and application of patents plays an important role in developing new quality productive forces and promoting high-quality development. By the end of last year, the number of valid invention patents in China had exceeded 4 million.

　　"Next, the National Intellectual Property Administration will accelerate the sorting and revitalization of existing patents in universities and research institutions to form a patent pool that can be transformed, and through tiered and categorized management, strengthen precise docking with enterprises and do a good job of precise push. At the same time, we will implement a patent industrialization plan to promote the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, effectively resolving the dilemma of difficult patent transformation in universities and research institutes and difficult technology acquisition for the vast number of small and medium-sized enterprises, and cultivate more specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises that grow by relying on patented technology," Shen Changyu said.