We will deepen the reform of the household registration system. This year, at least 13 million new urban residents will be registered as permanent urban residents. We will speed up work to introduce the urban residence card system nationwide. We will support the development of small and medium cities and small towns with distinctive local features. We will help a number of counties and very large towns that meet the criteria to steadily develop into cities, and we will make city clusters better play their role in driving the development of their surrounding areas.
We will take more steps to reform and develop the construction industry, and raise the standard of design and the quality of construction projects. We will promote coordinated urban development above and below the ground, and begin construction on at least another 2,000 kilometers of underground utility tunnels in cities. A three-year initiative will be launched to remove the risk of flooding in highly vulnerable urban areas; and further progress will be made in the development of sponge cities. All these efforts will make our cities more attractive and function better.
4. Transforming and upgrading the real economy through innovation
The real economy has always been the foundation of China's development; the task we now face is to speed up its transformation and upgrading. We will do more to implement the strategy of innovation-driven development, upgrade the structure of the real economy, and improve its performance and competitiveness.
We will strengthen our capability for making technological innovations.
We will improve mechanisms for providing continued long-term support for fundamental research and original research, build major national infrastructure projects for science and technology and set up technological innovation hubs, and establish platforms for sharing R&D resources.
We will continue piloting reforms for all-around innovation. We will see our universities and research institutes truly operate with autonomy, ensure that incentive policies like stocks, options, and dividends are implemented, and implement the reform of the systems for managing research funding and projects. These steps should keep our scientists and engineers from being distracted and allow them to focus on their research.
We will begin piloting reforms to conduct integrated management of intellectual property rights and improve the system for creating, protecting, and applying intellectual property rights.
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