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Financial storm adds fuel to Jilin reform and growth

By Cong Rong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-13 07:43

Groundbreaking ceremony for the Japanese Industrial Park in Hunchun, Jilin province.

In the face of the most severe global financial turmoil in decades, northeast China's Jilin province has maintained rapid and stable economic growth by attracting more investment and reorganizing its industrial structure.

Measures taken by the provincial government to stimulate market demand and support major enterprises resulted in a 16 percent increase in GDP and a rise in government revenue of more than 30 percent in 2008, ranking it among the fastest-growing provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China.

"We have introduced and implemented a large number of major infrastructure construction projects as well as industrial projects with big market demand, advanced technology and good profits," said Wang Min, secretary of the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.

"That is how we achieved sustained economic development even though sales in our key industries, including automobiles and petrochemicals, have dropped considerably last year."

Wang said to free a bottleneck in social and economic development, the provincial government made breakthroughs in reforming State-owned enterprises, which are crucial to the area's economy, to boost economy.

"Responding to the central government's 2005 call for reviving the old industrial base in the Northeast, we made tremendous efforts to abolish outmoded approaches that inhibited further economic development," he added.

The province's 3,366 State-owned enterprises have now completed reform and attracted increased fixed asset investments.

In 2008, investment in fixed assets in the province reached 560 billion yuan ($82 billion), compared with 96.9 billion yuan ($14 billion) in 2003.

Together the reform and rapid growth is called "the Jilin Speed" by some.

"We must try our best to keep such a speed," said Wang. "At the same time we will pay more attention to quality and benefits to strengthen the province's competitiveness."

He said the provincial government has mapped out detailed plans to achieve major goals that are essential to sustainable development, such as further optimizing industrial structure, promoting science and technology innovation, changing growth modes and increasing domestic demand.

Challenge and opportunity

"The global economic recession is far from being over and will deepen its impact on China's economic development," he said.

"However, we also see lots of opportunities for our province hidden in the turmoil."

He said as the province shook off the difficult situation of the past, it acquired the strength to defend itself during financial crises.

The province's industrialization and urbanization is still accelerating, now experiencing rapid growth in the secondary industries, large-scale infrastructure construction and integration of urban and rural areas.

It all results in huge market potential that provides enough room to tackle the global economic downturn.

"In fact, the crisis has brought us a rare chance to reorganize our industrial structure and make new ground in stimulating domestic demand," Wang said.

"The decrease in foreign demand has pressed us to speed up strategic reform and restructuring of our economy to boost domestic demand."

He pointed out the primary task in strategic economic reorganization is to promote industrial restructuring.

"The central government is making a plan to revive key industries, including iron and steel, automobiles, petrochemicals, textiles, metals, equipment manufacturing and IT - most of the province's major industries," he said.

He said the provincial government realized it is a great opportunity and is making the province's own plan to upgrade industries.

The priorities will be given to industries that have already had solid foundation in the province. Among them, the transportation equipment manufacturing industry will receive special support to grow into an advanced sector.

At the same time, the development of hi-tech industries - new energies, new material, bioengineering and electronic engineering - will also increase.

In addition to secondary industries, agriculture, services and especially tourism will also be emphasized.

Greater efforts

Greater efforts will also be made to reduce energy consumption and pollution. Environmental protection and energy saving will become important criteria in judging the performance of local government officials.

"And we will further promote the reform of State-owned enterprises and encourage major companies to grow bigger by annexing smaller ones," Wang said.

Realizing the vitality of private businesses, the provincial government will take more measures to help the growth of private enterprises.

"The global financial crisis has posed a big challenge for our province's economy, but we are sure to embrace more opportunities for a sustained and healthy overall development by implementing these measures," he said.

Although the province has achieved fast economic growth, Jilin's government leaders remain clear-headed and continue to exert themselves on the overall development of the province.

"The fact that Jilin is a relatively backward province in China has not been fundamentally changed in spite of our recent achievements," Wang said.

"Therefore we should further practice the concept of scientific development and keep a relatively fast economic growth for a certain period of time."

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