[新加坡《聯合早報》記者]去年中國領導人頻繁訪問周邊國家，提出了新的周邊外交理念與合作倡議，但本區域仍然存在一些分歧和矛盾。請問您怎么看待中國與周邊關系的前景？謝謝。

Lianhe Zaobao of Singapore: Last year, Chinese leaders visited many neighboring countries and put forward new vision on China’s neighborhood diplomacy and cooperation initiatives. But still there exist some disputes and differences in China’s neighborhood. I would like to ask how do you see China’s future relations with its neighbors?

[李克強]你的中文就更標準了，但是還是需要再翻譯一次。中國是個發展中國家，實現現代化是13億人民的共同意志，這需要有和平穩定的周邊和國際環境。我記得去年記者會快結束的時候，我說過，中國走和平發展道路的決心是堅定不移的，維護國家主權和領土完整的意志也是不可動搖的。兩者歸結起來還是要維護穩定，為發展創造良好環境。早在60年前，中國和一些周邊國家，就共同倡議和平共處五項原則，四鄰周邊有時候難免有磕磕碰碰的情況，但是只要我們相互尊重、管控分歧、互利互惠，碰出的應該是和諧的聲音，而不是刺耳的噪音。

Li Keqiang: You speak mandarin even better. But still we need the translation. I hope to have your understanding. China is still a developing country. To achieve modernization of the country represents the common aspiration of the 1.3 billion Chinese people. This requires a peaceful and stable neighboring and international environment. I recall that approaching the end of last year’s press conference, I once said that China has an abiding commitment to pursuing peaceful development. We also have an unshakable will in safeguarding China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. These two points are both for the sake of upholding stability and creating a favorable environment for China’s development. As early as 60 years ago, China and some of its neighbors had jointly initiated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. When neighbors interact with each other, it’s only natural that sometimes they will run into problems of one kind or another. But as long as they respect each other, properly manage differences and pursue mutual benefit, there will be harmonious sounds instead of jarring noises.

你的問題讓我回想起去年訪問東盟國家，比如到越南，我和越南領導人達成海上共同開發、陸上合作、金融合作三頭并進的原則共識以后，也想聽聽民間的反應。我就晚上趁工作之余，到了一家小店，那個女店主當時就認出我了，她說歡迎中國客人來，我想這也是給她帶來生意啊。我就問她你怎么看鄰國的關系？她說還是和平友好吧。和平友好、和平共處，我想這是四鄰百姓的愿望，我們需要一起努力，來擴大利益的交匯點，縮小矛盾點，這樣就可以和睦相處，也是造福民眾。謝謝。

Your question reminds me of my visit to some ASEAN countries last year. During my visit in Vietnam, I reached principled consensus with the Vietnamese leaders about China-Vietnam cooperation in maritime joint development, on the land and in the financial sector. I was curious about how the ordinary people would think about this. So later in the evening, I took some time out of the schedule and visited a small local shop. The shopowner instantly recognized me and she said that she would like to have more Chinese customers. They would bring more businesses to her shop. I asked her how she thought about China’s relationship with its neighbors. She said there should be peace and friendship. Peace, friendship and peaceful co-existence, I believe, represent the common aspirations of all people in China and its neighbors. As long as we all work together to expand common interests and narrow differences, we can live with each other in harmony, bringing greater benefits to our people.

[英國路透社記者]想請教總理，有一個經濟問題。中國經濟去年增長7.7%。請問總理，您上任一年最大的挑戰、最大的困難是什么？再有就是您覺得亟待解決的問題還有哪些？謝謝。

Reuters: China’s economy grew at 7.7% last year. In the past year since you became Chinese premier, what do you think is the biggest challenge and difficulty and what are the pressing issues that need to be resolved?

[李克強]我確實很佩服你們這些駐華記者，能這么流利地說中文。要說去年最大的挑戰，那還是經濟下行壓力加大的挑戰。一度中國的中央財政收入出現負增長，金融領域還有所謂“錢荒”，銀行間隔夜拆借利率超過了13%，而且用電量、貨運量的增幅也大幅回落。國際上也出現了一些輿論，說中國經濟可能要硬著陸，還給出了指標，說增長可能只有3%到4%。而對我們來說，財政和貨幣政策運用空間又很有限，宏觀調控確實面臨多難選擇。怎么辦？遇萬難還須放膽。當然破困局要用智慧，我們保持定力，創新宏觀調控的思路和方式，明確了經濟運行的合理區間，就是增長和就業不能越出下限，通脹不能突破上限，而且著力促改革、調結構，讓市場發力。正是在以習近平同志為總書記的黨中央領導下，經過全國人民的共同奮斗，我們頂住壓力，實現了經濟社會發展的主要預期目標。

Li Keqiang: I truly admire all these resident journalists of foreign media in China for speaking Chinese so well. The biggest challenge last year was the increased downward pressure on our economy. Central government revenue registered negative growth at one point. There was the so-called “money squeeze” in the financial sector last June. Inter-bank lending rate exceeded 13%. And there was a slump in the growth of electricity consumption and cargo transport volume. There was this view in the international community that the Chinese economy would suffer a hard landing and China’s growth would drop to 3-4%. Moreover, we had only very limited room for manoeuvre in carrying out fiscal and monetary policies, and we were faced with multiple tough choices in exercising macro-control. Under such conditions, what should we do? When confronted with mounting challenges, one needs to show guts. To tackle a difficult situation, one needs to have wisdom. We held our ground. We pursued creative thinking and ways in exercising macro-control and set a proper range for China’s economic operation. That is to say, we worked to ensure that GDP growth and employment would not slide below the lower limit and inflation would not exceed the upper limit. We focused our efforts on boosting reform and making structural adjustment to ensure that the market will play a strong role. Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as General Secretary and thanks to the concerted efforts of the entire Chinese people, we faced the pressure down and met our targets.

現在我們看得更多的是困難和問題。今年挑戰依然嚴峻，而且可能會更加復雜。我們既要穩增長、保就業，又要防通脹、控風險，還要提質增效，治理污染，多重目標的實現需要找一個合理的平衡點，這可以說是高難度的動作。但凡事不患難，但患無備。所謂磨好了斧子才能劈開柴。我想只要我們正視困難、直面挑戰、趨利避害，就是遇事克難的成功之道。我們有去年應對經濟下行的經歷，中國經濟又有著巨大的潛能和韌性，我們有能力也有條件使今年經濟運行保持在合理區間。謝謝。

Now what is on top of our mind is the existing difficulties and problems. We will confront serious challenges this year, and some may be even more complex. We need to keep steady growth, ensure employment, avert inflation and defuse risks. We also need to raise the quality and efficiency of China’s economic development and tackle pollution. So we need to strike a proper balance amidst all these goals and objectives. This is not going to be easy. But the thing we have to fear is not the difficulty itself, but lack of preparedness, just as only a sharpened axe can cut through firewood. We will face up to the difficulties and challenges and make the most of the favorable conditions while averting unfavorable ones. This holds the secret to our success. Moreover, we gained good experience from handling the economic downturn last year, and the Chinese economy has tremendous potential and resilience. So I believe we have the ability and conditions to keep the economic operation within a proper range this year.

[中央電視臺、中國網絡電視臺記者]總理您好。我注意到您在之前回答記者提問的時候說到今年要繼續推進簡政放權，所以我想就這個話題請您展開來給我們具體談一談。因為我們看到這個話題也是您在去年的記者會和今年的報告當中特別強調的一點，關于這一點在采訪的時候我聽到大家對這項改革有很多的好評，但是說實話我們也聽到了不少的抱怨，比如說現在在有的部門依然還存在著辦事難的現象，有的部門可能是把次要的權放出去了，但是重要的權還留著。所以我特別想請問總理，關于簡政放權的措施您認為怎么樣才能真正地落到實處，要減到什么樣的程度這項改革任務才算是基本完成了？謝謝。

CCTV: In last year’s press conference and this year’s government work report, you laid special stress on streamlining administration and delegating powers. In our reporting activities we have heard much praise from the society about this reform initiative. Yet at the same time we have also heard complaints among the people that it is still difficult to get things done in some governmental departments. And some governmental departments may have released some less important powers, but still hold on to those more important ones. How to ensure that this reform initiative will be fully implemented? And to what extent can we say this reform task has been completed?

[李克強]去年，中央政府把簡政放權作為改革的先手棋，我們確實下了不少的力氣，到現在一年的時間，僅中央政府下放取消的審批事項就有416項。更重要的是它釋放了一個強烈的信號，給企業松綁、讓市場發力。結果企業找政府的少了，地方跑北京的少了，有個統計數字也可以表明這激發了市場的活力。去年新注冊企業增加了27.6%，其中私營企業新增30%，這是十多年來最高的。這也表明簡政放權是激發市場活力、調動社會創造力的利器，是減少權力尋租、鏟除腐敗的釜底抽薪之策。十八屆三中全會提出，要讓市場在資源配置中發揮決定性作用和更好發揮政府作用，我想簡政放權是重要的突破口、切入點。

Li Keqiang: Last year, the Chinese government took streamlining administration and delegating power as the top priority on its reform agenda. With tremendous efforts, the central government has abolished or delegated to lower-level governments 416 items subject to State Council review and approval. This has sent out a very strong signal that we will loosen the straitjacket over enterprises and let the market play a strong role. As a result, fewer enterprises find it necessary to turn to the government and fewer local governments find it necessary to turn to the central government. This reform initiative has tremendously boosted market dynamism as shown in the following statistics: The number of newly registered businesses last year increased by 27.6%, among which the number of newly registered private businesses increased by 30%, the highest in over ten years. This shows that streamlining administration and delegating power is a powerful tool in energizing the market and stimulating social creativity. It is also the fundamental solution for cutting rent-seeking behavior and uprooting corruption. It was decided at the Third Plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee that the market will play a decisive role in allocating resources and the government should better play its role. Streamlining administration and delegating powers is an important starting point in this direction.

當然，放并不是說政府就不管了，我們講的是放管結合。要讓政府有更多的精力來完善和創新宏觀調控，尤其是加強事中事后的監管。對一些搞坑蒙拐騙、假冒偽劣、侵犯知識產權、蓄意污染環境，違背市場公平競爭原則的行為，那就要嚴加監管、嚴厲懲處。放管結合都要體現公平原則。當然，我們在推進簡政放權當中，也確實遇到了像避重就輕、中間梗阻、最后一公里不通暢等問題。開了弓哪還有回頭箭？我們只能是一抓到底、一往無前。我們還要繼續去啃“硬骨頭”，至于說到什么程度滿意，那就是正確地處理好政府和市場的關系，市場經濟也是法治經濟，我們要努力做到讓市場主體“法無禁止即可為”，讓政府部門“法無授權不可為”，調動千千萬萬人的積極性，為中國經濟的發展不斷地注入新動力。謝謝。

Delegation of power does not mean that the government will stay out of everything. What we need is both power delegation and tightened oversight. This way, the government can have extra energy to focus on pursuing creative and better macro-control. In particular, supervision over these delegated matters should be tightened when these matters are being handled and after they have been handled. Such behaviors as cheating and swindling of marketplace, making and selling of fake or substandard goods, violation of intellectual property rights, polluting activities and those activities that obstruct fair market competition will be put under rigorous oversight and severely punished. The principle of equity should be reflected in both power delegation and tightened oversight. I am aware that in the course of power delegation there have been such problems as a perfunctory attitude, midway obstruction or power delegation getting stuck in the last mile. But how can an arrow shot be turned back? We are determined to see this reform through. We are prepared to take on tough challenges in pursuing this reform initiative. As to what extent will we feel satisfied, we will keep up this reform until there is a proper relationship between the government and the market. The market economy is one based on the rule of law. We need to ensure that market entities can do anything which is not prohibited by the law, and government departments cannot do anything unless it is mandated by the law, so as to mobilize the initiative of all sides and add new impetus to the growth of the Chinese economy.