On December 27, Counsellors’ Office of the State Council (COSC) held an enlarged meeting of the Party Group to study and implement the guiding principles of Premier Li Keqiang’s important speech at the Forum for Counsellors of the State Council and Researchers of China Central Institute for Culture and History (CCICH). Gao Yu, Secretary of Party Group and Chairman of COSC, presided over the meeting, and three members of the Party Group and Vice Chairmen of COSC, Wang Weimin, Zhao Bing and Zhang Yantong, and officials in charge of departments and affiliated public institutions attended the meeting.

It was pointed out at the meeting that Premier Li Keqiang, in his important speech and interaction with the Counsellors, Researchers and Researcher Fellows, spoke highly of the work of COSC and CCICH, made favorable comments on their irreplaceable contributions to national reform and development and economic and social development, and also put forward many new and higher requirements for their work that they should carefully sort out the items of work, make a list of them and implement them one by one to ensure that all work is taken to the next level.

It was stressed at the meeting that COSC and CCICH should continue to make suggestions and recommendations for economic and social development, and put forward more practical and useful suggestions in the areas of macroeconomic regulation and control, protecting market players and ensuring basic people’s livelihood. They should make sure that macro policies are prudent and effective, micro policies can stimulate the vitality of market players, structural policies can ensure smooth flow of economic activity, policies on science and technology are solidly implemented, reform and opening policies can activate the momentum of development, regional policies can enhance the balance and coordination of development, and social policies can hold fast to the bottom line of people’s livelihood, and strengthen the “stability on six fronts”, and “security in six areas”. Efforts should be stepped up to carry out research in the areas of ensuring employment, livelihood and market players. In terms of fiscal policy, they should continue to study and propose new combined and phased tax and fee reduction policies around further reducing taxes and fees precisely and adequate burden alleviation for market players; and step up their efforts in research and advice on the design of active fiscal policy and effective synergy between active fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy. In terms of monetary and financial policies, research should be carried out in promoting the implementation of sound monetary policies and other aspects, and policy suggestions should be made to help market players relieve their difficulties by focusing on how to transfuse blood to them and solve problems such as difficulties in financing for market players, especially small, medium and micro enterprises and individually-owned businesses. On the price front, they should focus on how to keep the CPI stable, study targeted measures to strengthen cross-cycle regulation and ease the pressure of rising prices of bulk commodity transmitted to downstream Small Medium and Micro Enterprises. In terms of reform policies, they should take well-targeted steps to break the institutional and mechanical barriers that restrict the development of market players, and conduct in-depth research on how to effectively protect market players and enhance their activity; they should, by revolving around the continuous promotion of the “reform to streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services”, optimize the business environment, maintain fair competition, create a good environment for the survival and development of market players, and stimulate their vitality. In the area of safeguarding the basic livelihood of the people, in addition to continuing to pay attention to education, basic medical care, basic housing and protection for low-income groups, they should also focus on safeguarding the basic livelihood of the people, take advantage of the extensive contacts of Counsellors, Researchers and Researcher Fellows to fully perceive public opinion, investigate mass condition, and identify the most pressing difficulties and problems which are of great concern to the people in their livelihood, and provide timely advice.

The meeting stressed the need to continually contribute to cultural development and to carry out more creative and innovative work in terms of tapping into cultural heritage, interpreting historical revelations and bringing into play the function of aesthetic education of artistic influence. In terms of digging deeper into Chinese cultural heritage, they should organize Researchers and Research fellows to do a good job of research publications, and strengthen the work on publications. The topics for Chinese Culture Lecture Hall should be carefully selected to further improve the quality and enhance the dissemination effect. They should adhere to the bimonthly cultural symposium for researchers and constantly improve the working mechanism of regular cultural discussion and suggestion, so as to effectively play a good role. In the area of in-depth research and interpretation of historical inspiration, they should focus on the project of compiling and publishing a commented edition of the A Concise and Readable General History, and actively coordinate with collaborating organizations to complete the relevant work on time, with both quality and quantity guaranteed. They should also actively promote the project of the series of books of The Red Memory: Pilgrimage to Old Revolutionary Base Areas, and mobilize the strength of various local institutes for culture and history to jointly carry out compilation work, which should play a role in the study of general history, dynastic history and modern history. In promoting the display and exchange of artistic creation, they should build a platform for the exchange and display of artistic creation to provide support for Researchers and Research Fellows to carry out artistic creation; they should also give full play to the role of journal of the Office, Chinese Calligraphers and Painters, and be open-minded in selecting contributions.

Work in other areas was also arranged at the meeting.