Fourth, to enhance spatial development strategically, we made prospective arrangement to balance the urban and rural development. We worked out spatial development strategic plan considering the social development, urban plan and land utilization. A total of 439 key urban construction projects were launched and we invested 55.5 billion yuan on the renovation of old compounds totaling 10.01 million square kilometers. The Binhe New Area in Yinchuan City and the Southwest New Area in Guyuan City have taken initial shape. Yinchuan was awarded the “2014 Asian Urban Landscape Award”;Shizuishan was listed National Forest City; Wuzhong won the Model Prize of Living Environment in China; Guyuan was nominated the State New-type Urbanization Comprehensive Pilot City and Zhongwei made impressive progress in building a national garden city. The urbanization rate across the whole region rose by 1.6 percentage points, ranking 3rd in China. We built 34 Beautiful Towns and 103 Beautiful Villages, and constructed rural highways totaling 2,227 kilometers. The passenger bus has covered 98.3% of all the villages. We conducted afforestation totaling 88,000 hectares and enlarged lakes totaling 520hectares. We eliminated 521 coal-fired furnaces, 45,000 outmoded vehicles and severely punished several polluted enterprises. The living environment was greatly ameliorated.
Fifth, we seized the golden opportunities to build up the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (“One Belt One Road”) across China, proactively went out and entered a new phase of all-around opening. We promoted cooperation between China and Arab State, accelerated the construction of Inland Opening-up Economic Pilot Zone, and constructed the strategic point along the Silk Road Economic Belt. The functions of the Yinchuan Comprehensive Bonded Area were improved and the Imported Meat, Fruit and Seedling Port got approval. We advanced the cross-border e-commerce trade, with the trade volume totaling US$1.73 billion. We opened up 5 international airlines and 7 domestic airlines which covers all the provincial capitals in China. We launched western China freight express train and connected Yinchuan with Qingdao, Lianyungang and Qinhuangdao, the coastal port cities in China. We launched the trial of conducting international trade through one platform. The foreign–trade comprehensive service platform was established facilitating the clearance of Ningxia goods in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other port cities. The Ningxia Halal Food Certification Authority got national approval and signed cooperation agreement with counterparts in 12 countries and regions. The Pudong Development Bank Offshore Business Innovation Center started operation, being the first regional headquarter offshore innovation center in northwestern China. We held a series of festivals and events, including the China Ningxia Non-Governmental Economic Development Forum, Halal Food and Muslim Commodities Fair and Minority Medicine Expo. We signed strategic cooperation agreement with the China Minsheng Investment Corporation Ltd. and the actual inflow of investment attraction in Ningxia increased by 10.2%.
Six, we ensured and improved people’s wellbeing and advanced the development of social programs. To serve the people wholeheartedly, we invested 74.4% of our financial resources on improving people’s wellbeing and resolved 30 concrete matters in a down-to-earth way. We built and renovated 45 kindergartens, improved heating facilities at 281 rural middle and primary schools and reconstructed 146 schoolplaygrounds. The Ningxia Modern Vocational Technical Training Center andtheZhongwei Campus of Ningxia University started construction. The financial support program benefited 250,000 students and the nutrition improvement project covered 310,000 middle and primary school students in rural areas. The cultural and ideological progress at villages in Ningxia was promoted across the nation. The Qinqiang Opera Hua’er ShengSheng and the novel entitled Malan Flower Blossoms won the national awards. We built 13 standardized cultural stations in towns and villages and supported 271 cultural activity centers, folk art troupes and peasant cultural courtyards. We installed 400 sets of body-building apparatus and successfully held the 14th Ningxia Sports Meeting. We invested 2.02 billion yuan on building 11,600 houses for 70,000 people. We also invest 3.72 billion yuan on poverty alleviation in rural areas, making it possible for 100 villages to move out of poverty. The rural drinking water safety project benefited 415,000 people. The subsidy measures helped nearly 200,000 workers with financial difficulties. We granted small-sum guaranteed loan totaling 2.13 billion yuan, incubating 6,500 new businesses and transferring rural labor to urban areas totaling 709,000 people. The newly added employees in urban areas totaled 75,000 people in number. The provision of post-payment after being hospitalized became popular and the serious illness insurance system covered all the urban and rural residents. We have increased the proportion of claims in the basic medical insurance for urban and rural residents. The physical examination system was established and benefited 1.2 million people. We improved the basic pension benefits by 10% for 422,000 enterprise retirees. The government gave landless farmers extra subsidies as they participate in basic retirement security. We lowered the payment base of urban employee retirement and job loss insurances, relieving the burden on enterprises and people by 1.2 billion yuan. Construction of 30,000 government-subsidized housing units was started; renovation of 93,000 shanty town units and 47,000 shabby houses in rural areas was completed. We released the family planning policy as the couples with either part being the only child could have their second children. The regulation of 4-year birth interval was eliminated. We strengthened safety supervision and accident prevention with both the accident and death toll decreasing.
