Recently, in the factory of Yidu Mec. & Elec. Co., Ltd., a welding robot was working hard with its arm. The corporation introduced a series of new equipment like laser cutting machine and welding robots to improve production efficiency and guarantee product quality in the renovation of closed conveyor production line with an annual output of 20,000 tons. (Photo by correspondent Cao Lida)
The editor gave an evaluation on the works of the first half year in 2014 (County Economic Working Conference)--"Progress in steadiness and joint improvement of quality and efficiency ". Endeavors are made to accomplish the full year target and lay solid foundation for the mega-city construction by helping the cadres and the masses to have a scientific understanding of the current economic situation and remain calm in the complex external environment with fierce regional competition when confronted with various issues. From now on, the newspaper will give series report on "Flashing Point: Yichang’s Reform & New Development Trend”, showing the highlights of the economic development during the first half year, so stay tuned.
In the first half year, the GDP of Yichang increased by 9.5%, 2.1% higher than the national level; the fixed asset investment grew 23.5 percent, 2.5% higher than the provincial level; the local public budget revenue grew 22.8%, 3.1% higher than the provincial level...... In the Three Gorges area, there are strong trend of connotation development, innovation development, and transitional development, propelling Yichang’s economy to the top of Hubei Province.
Yichang New District, High-tech Zone and all the counties and regions are racing to develop; the dream of a mega-city and the institutional mechanisms are promoting the reform silently.
In the view of whole China’s economy, one can easily find the new but normal developing mode of Yichang; Examining the precious development fruit, people can fully appreciate the charm of Yichang economy development in the unfavorable situation of the whole country, and wholly understand the responsibility in the process of reform and innovation.
"Efficiency and speed” are the new highlights
With the shift of growth, the throes of transition and the difficulties of reform, China’s economy is entering a new stage. Under the requirement of “stability, reform and innovation" and the general requirement of “improving the quality and efficiency of transformation and upgrading" Yichang tries to seize the opportunity in these adjustments and handle the new normal in reform, strictly promoting the constructions of a mega-city with more power.
Under heavy pressure, Yichang has gained a stable overall economic development and the realization of half major economic indicators. From January to June, the GDP of Yichang increased to 135.04 billion yuan, up 9.5%; the added value of the industrial enterprises above designated size increased 11.6%; the fixed assets investment reached 118.34 billion yuan, an increase of 23.5%; the local public budget revenue hit 12.54 billion yuan, up 22.8% ; the total retail sales of social consumer goods reached 45.49 billion yuan, up 12.9%; the urban and rural incomes grew 9.9% and 13.9% respectively, 0.4% and 4.4 % higher than the GDP growth rate...These statistics show that Yichang economic development is featured with high speed and efficiency.
Firstly, the main indicators keep ahead of the average of the whole country. The growing rates of fixed asset investment and public finance budget revenue are higher than the national level and provincial level. Moreover, the growing rate of GDP, industrial added value of the industrial enterprises of designated size and the total retail sales of social consumer goods are also higher than the national level, keeping same to the provincial level.
Secondly, people’s livelihood has been improved greatly. The incomes of urban and rural residents increased faster than GDP. The fiscal spending of people’s livelihood rose by 28.3%, and the registered urban unemployment rate hit a record low.
Thirdly, the counties have made outstanding contributions to the city’s economy. The industrial added value of 8 counties, including Yidu County, Zhijiang County and Dangyang County, enjoyed double-digit growth. The county public share occupied 60% of the city\'s total budget revenue.
In addition, the operational benefits have increased in a steady way. The public budget revenues accounted for 69.3% of the total local revenue, an increase of 6.5 %.
Last year, the added value of the industrial enterprises above designated size occupied 45.6% of the 6 big energy intensive industries, but this year, it decreased to 43.4%. And the added value of industrial enterprises of designated size dropped by 9.1%.
To sum up, "Steady development" and "better development" is the most outstanding feature and the latest highlight in Yichang 2014 economic improvement.
To achieve leapfrog development in reform and innovation
Currently, the country, via the Yangtze River golden waterway, is constructing an upgraded version of the Chinese economy supporting belt; the city clusters construction of upper and middle reaches of Yangtze River becomes a national strategy and Yichang is one of them; the provincial government and party committee promote the regional development strategy of" one major and two supporters" and" two circle and two belts"
It is urgent to make leapfrog development and breakthrough, but there is no doubt that Yichang will play a more important role in regional development. By sticking to the theme of" boosting growth, promoting reform, adjusting economic structure, improving people\'s livelihood" and the overall layout of "1 plus 10", Yichang is determined to propel and strengthen the reforms of crucial issues in an innovative way.
The first move is to learn from Shanghai, the dragon head of the Yangtze River, and dock with Shanghai Free Trade Zone. As the middle part of the Yangtze River, Yichang has firstly initiated the trial and practice of deepening the reform of the city. This year, the government has thrashed out The opinions on learning from and docking with Shanghai Free Trade Zone and outlined the route map of six innovations which are primarily including reforms of investment access system, market subject access system, administrative examination and approval, social credit information system, comprehensive law enforcement and industry regulation system.
Meanwhile, Yichang will fully implement “Four kinds of docking with Shanghai Free Trade Zone” in terms of region docking, tunnel docking, investment attracting and service connection. For regional docking, the city will further improve the construction and administrative system of four platforms, namely, Yichang High-tech Zone, Yichang New District, Three Gorges New Tourist District and Three Gorges Pivotal Port District; As for tunnel docking, the city will accelerate the construction of Three Gorges Bonded Logistics Center and upgrade it into a comprehensive bonded zone; For investment attracting connection, the city will actively dock with the industrial transfer of Shanghai Free Trade Zone and Yangtze River Delta; For service connection, the city will expand the services which will make it more convenient and beneficial for the people and the market subject to the communities.
Another advantage is formed by streamlining administration and delegating power to the lower levels. The city aims to improve the administrative services and strives for the first place in the country by upgrading the service awareness and the service infrastructure and shortening the procedures. Up to now, it has shortened administrative approval 7 times. In the first half of the year, Yichang has cleaned up and reviewed the municipal administrative approval, formulated the approval items listsin which some will be retained, canceled and others will be readjusted at the municipal level. After the clarification, 140 administrative approval items out of 174, 37 departments out of 42 have been saved. Besides, the detailed lists of administrative rights, negative lists, and supervision list are under way.
In other fields, the reforms have also been practicing, for instances, the reforms of health departments, population and family planning departments, the supervision system of food and drugs have been accomplished. The adjustment of duty and power of the city inspectors at city and district level has been fulfilled. The classification reform of institutions has been deepening. The reform of replacing business tax with value added tax has been smoothly completed and it has achieved initial success. By the end of June, taxpayers joining the reform of replacing business tax with value added tax have reached 11,957, and the tax reduced reaching 181 million RMB.
Restoring the energy for development by transforming and upgrading
It’s a common task and difficult problem for all local governments to practice transforming and upgrading of the economy.
To cope with the new situation, Yichang has been actively searching for the new energy of motion. In 2014, the city has successfully constructed the first batch of National Model City of New Energy, the National Model City of Electronic Commerce and the National Pilot City of Benefiting People by Information. Recently, Yichang has successfully won the title of the first batch of National Demonstrative District of Ecological Civilization Construction.
Innovation and investment has become the main drive forces for the development of the city. At present, the frame of the regional innovation system has been completed and helps the city to further consolidate the advantages and position it possesses than other counterparts in the province.
The date shows that the increased value from high and new technology industries in the city has reached 20.1 billion RMB, 14.9% higher than last year. 37 enterprises have successfully applied for the identification of high and new technology company and 49 enterprises have been identified as the second batch of pilot enterprises of the technological innovation project. 10 national engineering centers have been newly approved and organized. 3 high and new technological industry bases have been approved as the industrialization bases of high and new technology of Hubei Province. The newly constructed incubator area has reached 10,500 square meters, 42 incubated enterprises newly increased.
In early June, the sixth batch of 22 major projects with a total investment of 13.057 billion RMB has been intensively started in Yichang New District. When walking in the new gallery, we can feel the impulse of investment. A large batch of major projects is playing an important role in carrying forward a new paragraph of Yichang New District.
It is learned from the reform and development department that the investment in the fixed assets of the city has maintained the second place in Hubei Province, 10% of the total investment of the province. Among the 909 newly started projects, 189 of them are above 100 million RMB. The newly signed investment attracting projects have reached 215 with a consultative investment of 49.8 billion RMB, 114 of the projects are invested with more than 100 million RMB.
New industries and new commercial activities are emerging from polarization and growing up day by day. At present, the city has cultivated two trillion RMB industries---industry of fine chemicals, food and bio-medicine. The advanced equipment manufacturing will hopefully reach over trillion RMB. The output value of new energy industry, electronic information industry and so on will be more than 27% of the gross industrial output value.
To promote the interaction of advanced manufacturing and modern service industry, Yichang has carried out drastic reforms of building the modern industry system. On July 10th, the project of Yichang Center Business District bordering the Yangtze River has been put into practice, a total investment of 10 billion RMB. Most importantly, the municipal government has strengthen the deep corporation with Three Gorges Group, Gezhouba Group, discussing the issues of opening the proprietary expressway of Three Gorges free of charge, opening the travelling spots of Three Gorges free of charge and docking with projects of Gezhouba Group. All the measures above will become the new drive for Yichang’s development. (Reporter: Zheng Guanghua Correspondent: Liu Jiuguo)