Beijing has made a development plan for the 21st century, said Liu Qi, the capital city's mayor on last Saturday in Beijing.
Liu outlined the plan on the fourth session of the 11th Municipal People's Congress, which started Saturday.
According to the plan, Beijing will lead other Chinese cities to become the first in realizing modernization by 2010 and spend the following 40 years to become a top international metropolis.
It is crucial for the capital city to realize a 9 percent annual growth rate from 2001 to 2005 in order to reach the long- term goal. The expected the GDP will reach some 370 billion yuan (approximately US$ 44.6 billion) by 2005, said Liu.
Liu said that Beijing will invest some 180 billion yuan (US$ 21.7 billion) to improve the city's transportation and environmental protection system in the coming five years.
The mayor held that a sound ecosystem is a must to facilitate Beijing's economic development. In the following five years, approximately 45 billion yuan (US$ 5.4 billion) will be used to better the environment of the capital city, which has been known for its bad air pollution for years.
(Xinhua 02/04/2001)
