The Two Sessions, the annual meetings of the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body, were convened in Beijing from March 4 to March 11, 2022.

As a platform for observing China’s development and an embodiment of Chinese democracy, the Two Sessions review the progress of the goals previously set by the country’s leaders and formally introduce the new goals for the year ahead.

The development goals of 2022 were unveiled on March 5 in the Report on the Work of the Government delivered by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on behalf of the State Council. The report is the most important document during the Two Sessions, as it sets out a wide range of economic and development tasks in the coming year, including GDP growth.

Targets set for 2022

The fundamentals of China’s economy remain unchanged, and they will maintain long-term growth. There is no doubt that our economy will withstand any new downward pressure and continue growing steadily long into the future.

The main projected targets for development this year are as follows:

• GDP growth of around 5.5%
• Over 11,000,000 new urban jobs
• A surveyed urban unemployment rate of no more than 5.5%
• CPI increase of around 3%
• Growth in personal income that is basically in step with economic growth
• Steady increases in both the volume and quality of imports and exports
• A basic equilibrium in the balance of payments
• Grain output of over 650,000,000 metric tons
• Further improvement in the environment
• Continued reduction in the discharge of major pollutants
• Energy consumption per unit of GDP to be assessed with appropriate flexibility within the framework of the 14th Five-Year Plan; and the exclusion of newly added renewable energy and coal, petroleum, and natural gas consumed as raw materials in the total amount of energy consumption.