On January 8th, the Municipal Government Information Office has held a press conference, inviting the responsible people of Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Statistics Bureau, Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, and Municipal Agriculture Bureau and Municipal Commercial Affairs Bureau, to introduce the economic and social development of Yichang in 2017. It is learned that over the past year, the city’s economic and social development has been turning from the stage of pursuing rapid growth to the stage of pursuing high quality. The overall situation has been steadily improving.

　　The relevant speaker introduces the unprecedented difficulties that our city is faced with, which include the transformation from old-form energy to new energy, tackling environment and safety problems, and the implementation of “Three Active Promotions”.

　　To actively promote the transformation of economic development, anumber of enterprises that do not meet the requirements of safety and environmental protection has been closed or restructured. The Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have made a prompt and resolute decision to promote the transformation and development of chemical industry. As a result, the first batch of 25 enterprises has been completely shut down; 57 enterprises have been required to stop production and to address their safety and environmental problems first; and still other 26 enterprises have been required to move to remote places or to switch to other production.

　　Actively promote supply-side structural reform. A number of industries with excess capacity have been transformed. From January to November in 2017, 29 phosphate mining enterprises and 18 coal mining enterprise had been closed and shut down, and 86 zombie enterprises had been cleaned out and rectified.

　　Actively promote the protection of the Yangtze River. A number of projects that do not meet the requirements of environmental protection have been stopped or suspended. There are 46 projects of this type in Yidu City, Zhijiang City, Yiling District, and Xiaoting District.

　　The spokesman also analyzes the operation of real economy, the quality of economic and social operations and the ability to absorb production factors.

　　Industrial economy keeps stable operation in powerful transformation. From January to November, the city’s industrial electricity consumption reaches 15.88 billion kwh and the industrial value-added tax 4.62 billion yuan, with the total amount being the second and third in Hubei Province respectively. In addition, the city has received a number of 66,182,000 tourists, and the total tourism revenue reaches 71.35 billion, an increase of 17% and 18.5% respectively.

　　The construction of ecological civilization has made initial progress. In 2017, the number of days with excellent and fine air quality reaches 258 days, an increase of 11 days over the same period of last year. Expenditure on public finance reaches 39.23 billion yuan, accounting for 79.9% of the general public budget. The registered urban unemployment rate is 2.06%, lower than the average of the whole province. It is expected that 81,705 people, 60 villages and Yuan’an County can be brought out of poverty.

　　By the end of November, 2017, the deposit balance of the city totals 354.31 billion yuan, increasing by 12.8% when compared with the beginning of this year. The various loans total 271.66 billion yuan, 14.5% higher than that of the beginning of this year.

　　The spokesman has also introduced the major projects and major issues that the Municipal Government has been promoting, and “Three-batch” projects has been paved the way for the economic transformation and upgrading in Yichang.

　　A number of major industrial cluster projects have been under construction, which includes Hainan Aviation Navigation Industrial Park, Three Gorges Airport Economic Zone, the project about self-owned brand of passenger vehicles of Guangzhou Automobile Group, and one-hundred-billion automobile equipment industry clusters. And 600,000-ton ethylene glycol and synthetic ammonia materials project has almost completed, which will soon play the leading role in the upgrading of the chemical industry in the whole city. New display and intelligent terminal industry cluster has become the city's 11th provincial key growth industry cluster.

　　The construction of a number of opening-up platforms has become driving force for economic development. The Yichang Section (Hubei) of China Free Trade Zone has attracted 1,561 enterprises to settle down; the Three Gorges bonded logistics center (B type) starts the operation, with the cumulative regulatory value exceeding 400 million yuan, taking up the first place in Hubei Province; the Comprehensive Bonded Zone has begun its application.

　　A number of major infrastructure projects have been forming new advantages. A number of major transportation infrastructure projects are under construction, which includes Baiyang Yangtze River Bridge, Xingshan Section of Zhengwan high-speed railway, the reconstruction and expansion of the Three Gorges Airport. Other projects, such as Xiangfan-Jingmen-Yichang high-speed railway, the high-speed railway along the Yangtze River, and Fanba railway on both the south and the north of the Yangtze River, are about to be started.

　　“On the whole, the economic and social development of Yichang is turning from the stage of pursuing rapid growth to the stage of pursuing higher quality. A steady growth has been made, and it will remain so. And Yichang’s role as the regional central city has not changed.” The spokesman said finally. (Reporter Gao Wei and Tian Xiaochun)