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Jiangsu governor paints blueprint for province

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-07 17:11

The 32.4-km Suzhou-Nantong Yangtze River Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge, was opened on June 30, 2008. [China Daily]

China Daily had an exclusive interview with Jiangsu Provincial Governor Luo Zhijun to discuss the strategic programs for the development of Jiangsu province. The following is the Q&A of the interview.

Q: What is your primary task during your tenure in Jiangsu? Which major problems will you focus on and how will you solve them?

Luo: I believe that the foremost mission of the current provincial government is to further increase the present level of prosperity.

The current provincial government will focus on five major problems during its five-year tenure. The first is to make critical progress in economic development. With our industrial structure optimized, and planned development of urban and rural regions, we want to keep our annual growth above 10 per cent and hit a $8,000 per capita income level by the year 2012.

Second, along with continuous economic growth, we must take the lead in saving resources and protecting the environment. We must effectively solve key environmental problems, reduce energy consumption, effectively utilize resources and further reduce the discharge of pollutants.

Third, we must accelerate cultural development and progress in education, health and social welfare.

Fourth, we must raise and improve the standard of living in urban and rural areas. We are aiming for an average annual growth in disposable income for urban residents of 9 per cent or more per capita, more than 8 per cent for rural residents per capita.

Five, we must further reinforce the legal system and expand channels for democracy.

There are four areas in which the current government will make great efforts. First, to promote new thinking for innovation. Second, to open up avenues for innovation and development. Third, to set up mechanisms and systems helpful to scientific development. Fourth, to establish the image of a people-oriented, practical and incorruptible government.

Q: How will Jiangsu keep up the pace and sustainability of its economic development?

Luo: Over the past 30 years, Jiangsu has taken the lead in economic development. In the 1980s, township enterprises mushroomed in southern Jiangsu, leading to accelerated industrialization and urbanization. After 1990, southern Jiangsu and the Yangtze River regions developed an export-oriented economy. From 1978 to 2007, Jiangsu had an average annual growth rate of 12.6 per cent, which is 3 per cent higher than the national growth rate.

In order to maintain comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development, we will focus on the following areas:

First, we will adjust the structure of our industry from processing to the manufacturing and service industries. We shall forge backbone industries of a trillion yuan based on information technology, equipment manufacturing and oil and chemical production. We shall beef up our emerging industries of energy, materials, and pharmaceuticals to a 100 billion yuan level. The manufacture of information technology products is currently the No 1 industry of the province, with revenues of 1.2 trillion yuan last year, accounting for 20 per cent of national sales revenues.

Second, we will accelerate the development of the service industry, giving priority to finance, logistics, exhibitions, R&D, commerce, and information technology, including software and outsourcing.

Third, we shall reinforce the support system for our infrastructure. We have built a 3,640-km express highway. Eight bridges spanning the Yangtze River have been built or are under construction. We shall focus on railways, airports and harbors in our future infrastructure work.

We'll intensify the development of innovation in science and technology and focus on the building of four national hi-tech industry bases, namely, Nanjing Software, Suzhou Electronic Information, Wuxi Micro-electronics and Taizhou Bio-pharmaceuticals.

Currently, Jiangsu has 12 state-level and 13 provincial-level development zones with 80,000 foreign-funded enterprises. We shall guide enterprises to make full use of imported technologies as well as increase investment in secondary development of these technologies. We shall enhance our advantage in human resources. Last year, the province budgeted 100 million yuan to bring in 108 senior professionals. This year, the budget has increased to 200 million yuan to attract leading and world-class engineering and technology professionals.

We are striving to do a good job in saving energy and reducing emissions, especially in key industries and enterprises. We are instituting pollution controls in our major river valleys and regions. We shall organize five major projects in energy saving, pollution control and emission reduction. Priority will be given to Taihu Lake, to guarantee safe drinking water for residents. We will use fiscal, tax, and price policies as incentives to promote energy saving.

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