At the 4th session of the 13th Zhongshan People’s Congress on January 14th, 2009

Mayoress Li Qihong of Zhongshan Municipal People’s Government 

Representatives:

I am on behalf of Zhongshan Government giving the work report of the government to Zhongshan People’s Congress for its approval and for advice from Zhongshan People’s Political Consultative Conference and other representatives as well.

Review on the work of 2008 

Zhongshan City took active measures for challenges and made new progress in scientific development in 2008. Under the leadership of Guangdong Provincial CPC Committee, Guangdong Provincial Government and Zhongshan Municipal CPC Committee and with the supervision and support of Zhongshan People’s Congress and Zhongshan People’s Political Consultative Conference, Zhongshan Government held high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, took Deng Xiaoping Theory and “Three Represents” as guidance, implemented the Scientific Outlook on Development and the resolution of the 17th CPC National Congress and the 3rd plenary session of the 17th CPC National Congress and kept emancipating people’s mind and took active measures for challenges in order to effectively change the outdated economic model and keep a stable and rapid economy, progress in social cause and city development and improvement of people’s life. 

Stable and rapid progress was made in economy. The estimated GDP of Zhongshan reached 140.9 billion yuan, an increase of 11.1 percent and per capita GDP of the registered population was 96506 yuan (per capita GDP of permanent residents was 56034). The gross industrial product reached 409.1 billion yuan, an increase of 14.1 percent (at the present price). Revenue and finance remained stable and the local general budget revenue topped 10 billion yuan, an increase of 16.3 percent. The total revenue reached 23.43 billion yuan, an increase of 17.6 percent. The RMB deposit balance reached 176.98 billion yuan, an increase of 17.2 percent over the beginning of the year. Investment and consumption was more reasonably connected. The total social investment in fixed assets was 44.51 billion yuan, an increase of 11.5 percent. The total price of retailed social consumer goods was 47.60 billion yuan, an increase of 20.5 percent.

The modern economic system construction began to take effects and the economic structure was improving. As many as 240 million yuan was put in the overall arrangement of economic development, and as a result, agriculture: industry: the tertiary industry was coordinated to 3.2:60.2:36.6. It was estimated that the industrial added value reached 81 billion yuan, an increase of 12.8 percent (at the present price). The industry accelerated its upgrading and heaviness progress. The proportion of heavy industry rose by 1.3 percent and the proportion of equipment manufacturing in gross industrial product reached 24.5 percent. The construction of large enterprises and large projects was accelerated and Chinese Shipbuilding launched its project in Zhongshan. Besides, the shipbuilding base, South China Modern Chinese Medicine City, etc. accelerated its construction. And projects like Mingyang wind-electrical equipment, and Tianyi Copper Material were put into production. The gross hi-tech product topped 120 billion yuan, at a proportion of 30.5 percent in gross industrial product. Industries with traditional characteristics got consolidated and industry clusters get upgraded. As a result, there were 26 national industrial bases. Service industry made obvious achievement and the added value was estimated to be 51.5 billion yuan, an increase of 14 percent. Traditional service industry kept in stable progress and modern service industry took a larger proportion. A number of strong financial and insurance organizations settled in Zhongshan and the first rural bank in the nation wide was open in Xiaolan Town. There were two more companies listed in the market. The central business area accelerated its construction. Obvious progress was made in exhibition industry and the number of professional exhibition added to 11. Zhongshan held games expo and green expo, promoting the development of new industries. About 5.31 million visitors used to stay over in the city and the income of tourism was amounted to 9.73 billion yuan. Stable growth was achieved in agriculture and rural economy, and the gross agricultural product reached 7.63 billion yuan, an increase of 3.6 percent.

The independent innovation got improving. Nine scientific and research achievements of Zhongshan won the provincial scientific and technological awards. Zhongshan owned 16 research and engineering centers, either provincial or over. Zhongshan had set up the national quality monitoring center for lighting devices and Xiaolan Productivity Promoting Center has become a national demonstration center. The brand strategy was deeply promoted and there were 64 more provincial or over-provincial famous brands and marks. Zhongshan has set up a union that brought production, learning and research together and carried out over 200 projects. There were 16 standards for industry cluster union. Zhongshan would enhance the protection of local geographical brand and promote the standardization of service industry. Zhongshan was elected as the advanced city of national intellectual property demonstration, and it became a “National Advanced City for Technological Progress. 

Both domestic-oriented and export-oriented economy achieved balanced development. Rapid development was achieved in private economy, and gross industrial output of over-scale private economy reached 133.8 billion yuan, an increase of 21.8 percent, or 10.1 percent higher than over-scale gross industrial output in growth rate, obviously making increasing contributions to the municipal economy. The total value of export and import was estimated to be 26.6 billion yuan, an increase of 8 percent, including $19.05 billion total export value, i.e. an increase of 10.1 percent. New achievement was made in investment attraction and the paid-in foreign capital reached 830 million yuan, including ten over-10-million projects. The Stale Council approved the construction of the bonded logistics center in Zhongshan and Zhongshan set up the first special area of custom supervision and administration. Zhongshan first carried out stock investment attraction and the contract brought a capital of 1.32 billion yuan. The transfer of industry and labor forces went in a right order. Zhongshan—Heyuan and Zhongshan—Zhaoqing transferred industrial zones has become the first demonstrating ones in Guangdong Province. More efforts were made to promote inter-city labor force cooperation and employment transferring in Guangdong province. 

Rapid developments were achieved in urban-rural balanced development. Zhongshan stuck to the policy of favoring farmers and the municipal revenue put in 430 million yuan to promote urban-rural balanced development. Zhongshan was one of the cities that offered agricultural insurance according to the policy. The promotion of balanced services in both urban and rural areas was accelerated. In rural areas there were 220 bus-waiting booths, 250 sanitary service stations and 250 km main roads with hard base. 67 percent of the underdeveloped rural areas made a collective income over 1 million yuan. Modern agriculture made rapid progress and 6 agricultural demonstrating zones were finished. Village planning was started and reconstruction of villages was accelerated in the city. As a result, Zhongshan had built 18 farmer communities. Farmers’ living environment is constantly improving and the gap between urban and rural areas has been further narrowed.

Infrastructure construction improved well. 8.13 billion yuan was invested in major projects and fully accomplished the annual goal. Some major projects like Gushen Highway, Zhongshan Expo Center, Pediatrics Building of Boai Hospital, the 2nd People’s Hospital, New Tai’an Market, the first-term construction of Zhenjiashan Sewage Disposal, Jucheng and Baoshan 220 Kilovolts Transformers and the first set of machines of the second-term of Jiaming Power Station as well as its outputting lines were put into production. And some projects like New Qijiang Highway, New Shashui Highway, Fuyuan Road, the second-term of Zhongshan Port, Guangzhou-Zhuhai Light Rail, New Chinese Medicine Hospital, Yang-Guo Enci Building of People’s Hospital, the northern and southern group integrated garbage disposal base, 500 kilovolts Guishan Transformer Project were accelerated. 325 buses were either added or upgraded and highways increased by 55.6 kilometers. About 30-kilometer dams were consolidated. Zhongshan’s achievement in construction of a national ecological city had been approved by Guangdong Province and state technological departments. Sewage Disposal Works was promoted as scheduled. Zhongshan had built the first monitoring system for polluted sources. The energy cost in per unit production reduced by 3.9 percent. The emission of sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen need was reduced by 8.4 percent and 19 percent respectively. About 13,000 mu forestry got improved. As a result, forestry cover rate reached 16.3 percent. The integrated city management got constantly improving.

Remarkable achievement was scored in major field reforms. The reform in state-owned assets made deep progress and the state-owned assets of Zhongshan made a net income of 550 million yuan. The profit rate of net assets was 9.3 percent. The reform in agriculture and countryside was carried further and about 41.1 percent villages (communities) have finished accounting reform. There were 517 items from 41 departments that transact on line. The public financial management system has made remarkable progress. Besides, water supply had adopted the policy of hierarchical prices.

Progress was made in all social causes. The city revenue put 4.9 billion yuan in public products and services, taking a proportion of 57 percent. Zhongshan adopted an active policy to promote employment, adding 71,000 jobs and unemployment rate of urban areas was lowered to 2.1 percent. About 95,000 unemployed and farmer workers accepted business training. The urban-rural social security system was established including 4,500,000 urban residents joining in social insurance and 80 percent of rural residents taking part in basic insurance for old age. The basic medical insurance for the hospitalized covered all urban and rural residents and 235,000 people attended basic urban-rural clinic insurance. City revenue put 1.5 billion yuan in education to improve the welfare and benefits of teachers of primary schools, middle schools and kindergartens. High quality education covers over 85 percent and improvement was made in senior middle schools. The rate of college entrance topped the first for a succession of three years in Guangdong Province with the gross rate of 50.1 percent. Zhongshan made enormous efforts to develop vocational education and private education. The new junior site of No. 1 Zhongshan Middle School, expansion of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Middle School and the first-term construction of Zhongshan Vocational School and Guangdong Polytechnic School were completed. Other projects of vocational schools are under all-round construction. Zhongshan accelerated its pace in construction of a cultural city. Sun Yat-sen Former Residence Museum was one of the first state museums. Besides, Cuiheng Village became the national historical and cultural village. Zhongshan succeeded in hosting the closing ceremony of Guangdong International Tourism and Culture Festival. Digital TV has carried out in some parts. Great progress was made in charities. Population structure and citizen quality were improved. And the natural population growth was 4.65 percent. Zhongshan spared no efforts in settlement of retired soldiers. As a result, Zhongshan became the candidate for Provincial Double-Support City for the fifth time. Zhongshan promoted competitive sports and mass sports with 1 gold and 1 silver in Beijing Olympic Games. Zhongshan conquered such natural disasters as typhoon and icy storm. Zhongshan revenue arranged 90 million together with 2.4 billion donations provide steady support to Xuankou Town of Wenchuan after the earthquake.

People’s life was improving steadily. Residents received an increasing income and the per capita disposal income of urban residents reached 21563 yuan, an increase of 6 percent; the net income of rural residents reached 11001 yuan, an increase of 10 percent. Zhongshan Government took effective measures to stabilize the prices and the general index of consumer price increased by 5.6 percent. Zhongshan came to build a housing security system and made efforts to stabilize the real estate market. Zhongshan offered 3,204.000 ? houses and apartments. Also efforts were made to improve the house of low-income families. Zhongshan promoted a social security emergency system and fixed 3272 monitors. Safety in production was enhanced and production accidents reduced by 16.1 percent. Management in immigrant system was improving and supervising system for food and other products were further improved.

The self-construction of the government was enhanced. Zhongshan stuck to the strategy of administration according to laws, implementing the responsibility mechanism, accepting the supervision of Zhongshan People’s Congress and Zhongshan People’s Political Consultative Conference, treating seriously the bills and suggestions by Zhongshan People’s Congress and overtures by Zhongshan People’s Political Consultative Conference, perfectly dealing with all of 102 bills and suggestions and 201 overtures. Reforms of the administrative examining and approving system were intensified and work through internet was strongly pushed in order to promote the administrating efficiency. Zhongshan continued to promote the system of administrative affair publicity and broaden the channels for citizens to express their opinions. Zhongshan Government set up the administration hotline: 12345. Zhongshan stuck to the system of accepting people’s visit, including Mayor Accepting Day and dealt with as many as 1821 items from either letters or visits. Zhongshan strengthened the training and education to public servants so as to improve their quality. Evident progress was made in administrative supervision and examination: construction of clean government and anti-corruption was intensified and the working style was further improving. 

Great progress was made in every social field including foreign affairs, overseas Chinese affairs, Taiwan affairs, audit, statistic, aged veteran cadre, weather, construction of national defense, files, chorography, women and children, the handicapped, ethnic groups and religion, publishing and press, helping the poor, etc. 

Representatives, we faced unprecedented challenges and difficulties. We took effective measures to contribute to the 30th anniversary of reform and opening up and 20th anniversary that Zhongshan was made a city under direct administration of Guangdong Province. We made the good use of both the “visible hand” and the market-driven force. Zhongshan Government made efforts to balance urban and rural development and respect individuals. It is our goal to put people’s fundamental interests in the first place, based on our conditions.

Representatives, we have made enormous efforts to achieve the results of last year and they are the results of correct leadership of Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPC, Guangdong Provincial Government and Zhongshan Municipal Committee of the CPC, the results of supervision from representatives and the member of members of Zhongshan People’s Political Consultative Conference. Heartfelt thanks should be given to people of all walks of life including compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, overseas compatriots, and friends from both home and abroad.

As we see the achievements, we shall also keep a clear mind that there are some outstanding problems unsolved. They mainly are the following: the developing way of economy need changing, including unreasonable industrial structure and lack of innovation power; the holding capacity and the function of integrated services need improving; there are hard task for social security and people’s living standard. Especially, some new challenges have appeared , such as slow growth of industry and export, small and medium-sized enterprises in difficulties, strong pressure on financial revenue, the conflict between economic growth and energy saving, and land saving and social security problems. All of these problems need solving in our later work. 

Conditions and Goals 

The year 2009 is the 60th anniversary of the foundation of New China and a key year to fulfill the goal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Therefore a good job of this year means a great deal to the sound development of society and economy under the impact of the international financial crisis.

We are facing both challenges and opportunities, both difficulties and advantages. The impact of the financial crisis is constantly spread and the global economy is in recession with more instability from the global view while we are facing the decreasing outer demands and inner periodic restructuring and we are facing larger difficulties than expected from the domestic view. From the view of our conditions, we depend too much on export and we are urged to restructure the economy, deal with the limits of environment and resources and help those enterprises with difficulties

In spite of the complicated economic conditions we have some advantages as well, such as global efforts to save the financial market, basic trend of sound development, the active fiscal policy and loose monetary policy and unprecedented measures to expand domestic demands, maintain growth and promote employment. The provincial government enforced some measures to improve the creativity, promote the upgrading of traditional industries and maintain a sound economy. In the past 30 years since reform and opening up our city has accumulated profound experience and material basics and we have got the will and power to overcome various difficulties on our way to progress.

Besides, Outline of Plan for Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta Region provided new major opportunities for the new round development and we should make active efforts to integrate into the Pearl River Delta Regional Economic Integration, improve economic upgrading and balance urban and rural development.

Therefore, we must make clear the conditions and take corresponding measures. We should make the most of policies and catch the opportunity of the new round global division of labor adjustment; we should take full advantage of the activism and creativity. Under the guidance of Zhongshan CPC Committee we are confident to solve all hardships with efforts of Zhongshan citizens. We are sure to accomplish all the tasks of this year based on our conditions and striving efforts.

The general demands for the work of the government of 2009 are following: all the people in the city shall take Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as their guide, sticking to the Scientific Outlook of Development, intensively implementing the spirit of the Seventeenth National CPC Congress, the Third Plenary Session of the Seventeenth CPC National Congress, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Tenth Guangdong CPC Congress and the Third Plenary Session of Twelfth Zhongshan Municipal CPC Congress. Zhongshan will take the sound economic development as its foremost task and strive to expand domestic demands, promote economic upgrading, improve the creativity, maintain social harmony and benefit people. Zhongshan will make new progress in economic growth, balanced development between urban and rural areas and construction of a new city suitable for residence, business and innovativeness.

The main prospective goal of economic and social development in 2009: GDP grows by 10 per cent and energy costs of per production unit reduces by 3.9 per cent; the emissions of sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand reduces by 5.4 and 30.6 per cent respectively; social investment in fixed assets grows by 16 percent; the total retail volume of social consumer goods increase by 16 per cent; export grows by 6 per cent; the local general budget increase by 10 percent; per capita disposal income of urban residents increases by 6 per cent; the net income of rural residents increases by 6 per cent; the consumer price index increases by about 4 per cent; the unemployment rate of urban areas increases under 3.5 per cent; the natural growth of population is controlled under 6.7 percent.