Governments across China have adjusted their annual economic
growth projections downward following efforts to cool their
respective economies down and make them more efficient and
environmentally friendly.
More signs show that localities are striving to shift from
extensive to more intensive economic growth modes -- or qualitative
rather than quantitative growth, under the direction of the central
government.
Wang
Qishan, mayor of Beijing, announced at the latest session of
the current People's Congress of Beijing, the municipal
legislature, that the city's 2005 economic growth was targeted at 9
percent, down 4.2 percentage points from the city's real GDP growth
last year.
Mayor Wang emphasized that his administration will make more
efforts "to promote economic restructuring, intensify urban
management and build a harmonious society."
His views were echoed by officials in Tianjin, an industrial
port city near Beijing, and in Guangdong Province, an economically
developed coast region in south China.
Dai
Xianglong, mayor of Tianjin, said in his government's annual
report that his city adjusted its annual economic growth downward
by 3.7 percentage points to 12 percent for the current year. Dai
said he attached great importance to the economic performance
indicators: jobless ratio, inflation control and energy consumption
per 10,000 yuan (US$1,205) of GDP as well as to environmental
protection.
Guangdong Governor Huang
Huahua, also in his government report for last year, set the
province's annual economic growth target at10 percent, down 4.2
percentage points. He said there is still a long way to go before
the province realizes an intensive economic growth pattern, as many
systematic barriers and an insufficient supply of resources
remained.
Those lowering their economic growth projections also included
eastern Shandong Province, another economic engine along the
nation's coast, and Shenzhen, China's first special economic zone.
Shandong's economic growth target is five percentage points lower
than the year-earlier level of 15 percent; while Shenzhen's, is set
at 13 percent, 4.3 percentage points lower.
Shanghai, China's most economically powerful city, has decided
to strive for a 11-percent economic growth this year, down from its
13.5-percent real growth last year.
Zhejiang, an economically developed province in east China,
eventually realized more than 1 trillion yuan (US$120.5 billion) in
GDP last year, becoming the fourth local economy in the nation to
do so. The provincial government issued China's first
province-level white paper analyzing the cost of growth, which
highlights the government's determination to put an end to economic
growth amid huge investment, high resources consumption and heavy
pollution.
All these are in conformity with the Chinese government's new
development strategy, which stresses concerted and sustainable
development, according to Zhou Liqun, head of economic institute of
the prestigious Nankai University based in Tianjin. The new concept
of development was hailed by Chinese economists as of historic
significance in China's economic development.
The Chinese central government set 2004 economic growth at 7
percent at the year's beginning and kicked off macro-control last
April to cool down the economy, which was then beset with
overheating investment, land abuse and wasteful duplicate
construction projects in some sectors and areas. In the meantime,
the Government focused more efforts on traditionally weak sectors
such as agriculture.
Experiences worldwide show that when an economy has its
per-capita GDP reach US$1,000-3,000, it will enter a critical
development stage, in which various social problems, including
rising unemployment, widening gap between the rich and the poor and
aggravating social instability, will crop up. Economists warn that
China, which has just crossed the US$1,000-per-capita GDP
threshold, should be careful to avoid the same fate.
Tianjin Mayor Dai Xianglong said, China is now challenged by a
larger population, more people without jobs and an aging society.
Greater challenges are coming from the widening income gap between
rural and urban dwellers, Dai added.
Experts say that expanding social wealth should eventually
increase people's sense of happiness and enable those in different
social strata and from different areas to share results of economic
and social progress.
To this end, Beijing, while lowering its 2005 GDP growth
projection, will try to limit its unemployment rate to 2.3 percent
and help 170,000 laid-off workers to find a new job this year.
Tianjin is improving social welfare services and is striving for
a pension and jobless insurance coverage of more than 95 percent of
the population. It also plans to train one million rural laborers
in three years.
(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2005)