It was learned from Yichang Municipal Development and Reform Committee that Yichang’s economy grows robust in the 1st quarter despite of the pressure from economic downturn and other difficulties. Its economy generally maintained above the national and provincial average growth rate in the first quarter. With the coexistence of “transformation” and “acceleration”, Yichang initially realized the goal of “High speed and high efficiency” set by the Provincial Party Committee.

　　It is estimated that the city\'s GDP will increase by 11.3% in the first quarter, 4% and 1.8% higher than the national and provincial average respectively. Urban disposable income per capita rose by 9% and rural income per capita grew by 11.5%. The city’s scale industrial added value increased by 11.7%, equal to the provincial average. The fixed investments was 398.99 RMB, up 24.4%, was 3.1% higher than the provincial average. The total retail sales rose 12.6% to 22.57 billion RMB, 0.1% higher than the provincial average. The public finance budget revenues rose 23.4% to 6.472 billion RMB, 2% higher than the provincial average. The foreign trade export increased by 1.7%, 12.8% higher than last year. The foreign capital actually utilized was $84,940,000, up 7.87%.

　　In addition, the deposits in financial institutions was 260.07 billion RMB, increased by 21.88 billion RMB compared with the beginning of the year. Various loans was 186.47 billion RMB, an increase of 9.11 billion RMB compared with the beginning of the year. The balance deposit ratio was 71.7%. The incremental deposit ratio was 41.6%. The deposit, the loan balance and the balance loan ratio all ranked first among all cities in the province.

　　With the in-depth development of "the year of major projects construction " , and effectively promoting the construction of key projects, the total investment in fixed assets of the city remained second in the province, accounted for 10.7% of the province, an increase of 0.3%. Among the 34 provincial key projects, 30 have actually started, the operating rate was 88.2%. The completed investment was 11.57 billion RMB, accounting for 30.6% of the annual plan. 72 municipal key projects actually started among the total 100 projects, the operating rate was 72%. The completed investment was 14.35 billion RMB, accounting for 26.7% of the annual plan. The investment of 5.5 billion RMB was targeted to Automotive Industrial Park. 2 billion RMB was to Three Gorges Packaging Technology Industrial Park. 10 billion RMB was invested to the production of Nitro-compound fertilizer in Hubei Sanning Chemical Co., Ltd. A total investment of 600 million RMB was invested to flat panel display of CSG Holding. A total of 21 billion RMB was invested to the Olympic Center. All the major industrial projects and infrastructure projects progressed smoothly. Guangzhou Automobile Group successfully settled in Yichang, the first car of “Made in Yichang” has come off the assembling line successfully on March 30.

　　The achievements in Yichang are remarkable in Hubei Province and even in China. Currently, the national level “Pilot” and “Demonstration” have been established in Yichang, which made Yichang become the darling of the national-level city and the leader in Hubei Province. Up to the end of March, 105 projects of the city strove for budget funds 203 million RMB from the central and provincial levels. Following the successful creation of “National and regional strategic emerging industry cluster development pilot city”, “National two level logistics park city” in last year, “National e-commerce model city” and “One of the cities to create a new energy Model City” were successfully created in the 1st quarter of this year. The creation of a “First demonstration zone for national ecological civilization” in the province has won a competitive review. It has been recommended to the national Development and Reform Commission. Plan of the “Three Gorges integrated transport system” was identified as program of “expanding the capacity of the Three Gorges Project cargo capacity” by the National Development and Reform Commission, it was included in the national and provincial construction plan.

　　The city\'s total industrial output achieved 121.12 billion RMB, up 14.3%. The industrial electricity was 4.133 billion kwh, up 6.8%. The number of above-scale enterprises increased by 156, reaching to 1380. In the “100 billion industries”, the output of food biomedical industry was 36.44 billion RMB, up 26.8%. The output of new materials industry was 14.5 billion RMB, up 19.8%. The output of chemical industry was 39.6 billion RMB, up 12.9%. The output of equipment manufacturing industry was 18.04 billion RMB, up 8.4%. High-tech industry reached an output of 34.59 billion RMB, up 15.3%. The increased value was 9.64 billion RMB, up 16.5%. High-tech industry has become a new growth point.

　　In the first quarter, as a pilot and demonstrative city, Yichang revived in the transformation and said goodbye to the traditional model. As in the field visit of Yichang, the Provincial Secretary Li Hongzhong said that in the first quarter of this year, the economy of Yichang “achieved a good start to the construction of a modern mega-city.” (Correspondent: Deng Mingliang, Reporter: Zhang Liang)