Second, we need to achieve the right balance in the relationship between maintaining stable growth and guarding against risks, to ensure sustained, healthy economic development. The many risks and potential problems that have built up over the years demand stronger mitigating action, but in doing so we need to observe objective laws and take the right approach. Our approach must be firm, controllable, and systematic, and it should be applied with the right degree of intensity. We need to defuse risks step by step in the course of pursuing development and decisively forestall any systemic or regional risks.

Against the backdrop of mounting downward pressure on the economy, the policies and measures we adopt should ensure stable expectations, stable growth, and structural adjustments. In working to forestall and control risks, we need to get the pace and intensity right. We should see that the effects of tightening are not amplified, and we must never allow economic indicators to slide out of the appropriate range.

At the same time, we must not attend only to immediate concerns or adopt short-term strong stimulus policies that will end up undermining long-term development and generating new risks.

Third, we need to balance the relationship between government and market, and energize market entities through reform and opening up. As long as market entities are energized, we can boost the internal forces driving development and withstand the downward pressure on the economy. We must work hard to advance reform and opening up, speed up the establishment of a unified and open, competitive and orderly modern market system, relax restrictions on market access, ensure impartial regulation, and create a business environment based on rule of law that is internationalized and enabling, in order to energize market entities.

Ultimately, market vitality and social creativity stem from the initiative of hundreds of millions of people being put into action. We must stay true to the vision of people-centered development and do everything within our capacity to meet people's basic needs, resolve key problems affecting living standards, promote social fairness and justice, and help our people achieve better lives.

The Chinese are an industrious and talented people and possess boundless potential for innovation and creativity. All we need to do is unleash that potential and the space for China's development going forward will doubtless be vast.

三、2019年政府工作任务

III. Tasks for 2019

今年经济社会发展任务重、挑战多、要求高。我们要突出重点、把握关键，扎实做好各项工作。

This year, in pursuing economic and social development, we will face weighty tasks, many challenges, and high demands. We must have clear priorities and address crucial issues to deliver a solid performance across the board.

(一)继续创新和完善宏观调控，确保经济运行在合理区间。坚持以市场化改革的思路和办法破解发展难题，发挥好宏观政策逆周期调节作用，丰富和灵活运用财政、货币、就业政策工具，增强调控前瞻性、针对性和有效性，为经济平稳运行创造条件。

1. We will continue to develop new and improved approaches to macro regulation and keep the main economic indicators within an appropriate range.

We will keep using market-oriented reform thinking and approaches to resolve problems in development; make good use of countercyclical macro policy regulation; add to and use flexibly financial, monetary, and employment policy instruments; make regulation more forward-looking, targeted, and effective; and create the conditions for ensuring a stable economic performance.

实施更大规模的减税。普惠性减税与结构性减税并举，重点降低制造业和小微企业税收负担。深化增值税改革，将制造业等行业现行16%的税率降至13%，将交通运输业、建筑业等行业现行10%的税率降至9%，确保主要行业税负明显降低;保持6%一档的税率不变，但通过采取对生产、生活性服务业增加税收抵扣等配套措施，确保所有行业税负只减不增，继续向推进税率三档并两档、税制简化方向迈进。抓好年初出台的小微企业普惠性减税政策落实。这次减税，着眼“放水养鱼”、增强发展后劲并考虑财政可持续，是减轻企业负担、激发市场活力的重大举措，是完善税制、优化收入分配格局的重要改革，是宏观政策支持稳增长、保就业、调结构的重大抉择。

We will implement larger-scale tax cuts.

We will introduce both general-benefit and structural tax cuts, focusing primarily on reducing tax burdens in manufacturing and on small and micro businesses.

VAT reform will be deepened: we will reduce the current rate of 16 percent in manufacturing and other industries to 13 percent, and lower the rate in the transportation, construction, and other industries from 10 to 9 percent, thus ensuring that tax burdens in our main industries are meaningfully reduced; keep the lowest bracket rate unchanged at 6 percent, while adopting supporting measures, like increased tax deductions for producer and consumer services, to see that in all industries tax burdens only go down, not up; and continue making progress toward cutting the number of VAT brackets from three to two and simplifying the VAT system. We will ensure that the general-benefit tax cut policies issued at the start of the year for small and micro businesses are put into effect. Our moves to cut tax on this occasion aim at an accommodative effect to strengthen the basis for sustained growth while also considering the need to ensure fiscal sustainability; are a major measure to lighten the burden on businesses and boost market dynamism; are an important reform to improve the tax system and achieve better income distribution; and are the result of a major decision taken at the macro policy level in support of the efforts to ensure stable economic growth, employment, and structural adjustments.