Page 10 - REPORT ON THE EXECUTION OF THE CENTRAL AND LOCAL BUDGETS FOR 2021 AND ON THE DRAFT CENTRAL AND LOCAL BUDGETS FOR 2022

small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in manufacturing as well as
coal-fired power generation and heating-supply enterprises. This played an

important role in stabilizing economic development, supporting sci-tech
innovation, facilitating industrial upgrading, and promoting growth of
employment. Tax and fee cuts proved an effective means of not only helping ease

difficulties faced by enterprises, but also of cultivating sources of tax revenue. Last
year, tax paid by market entities registered in 2013 or later reached 4.76 trillion
yuan. We established the regular mechanism for the direct allocation of

government funds, with 2.8 trillion yuan of funds handled through this mechanism,
and basically saw to it that the central government’s subsidies for public wellbeing
covered all areas concerned. We also optimized procedures, improved the

monitoring system, and raised efficiency in terms of the distribution, pay-out, use,
and oversight of funds, thereby providing fiscal support for prefecture- and

county-level governments in implementing policies to benefit both businesses and
the people. In an effort to fulfill the requirement for belt-tightening, the central
government continued to cut its spending, thus saving funds to upgrade local
fiscal capacity for ensuring public wellbeing and provide solid guarantees for the

three priorities (people’s basic wellbeing, payment of salaries, and normal
government functioning) at the primary level.

 We bolstered innovation-driven development, and worked to stabilize
and optimize industrial and supply chains.

Stepping up efforts to build up our country’s strength in science and technology

In 2021, the central government increased spending on basic research in its
general public budget by 15.3% to provide stronger support in this regard. In an
effort to boost China’s strategic scientific and technological strength, we developed
a mechanism for providing steady financial support for national laboratories, and

the first batch of nine national laboratories came into operation. We supported the
use of mechanisms such as open competition to select the best candidates to lead

key research projects, implemented a number of major scientific and technological
projects, and secured solid progress in research on core technologies in key fields.
We reformed and improved management of central government spending on

research, cutting down on the number of budgetary items significantly and
increasing the proportion of indirect expenses, thus helping researchers devote

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