The First Session of the 12th Sichuan Provincial People's Congress kicked off in Chengdu on Jan 25. As many as 870 representatives from around the province attended the session.

Wei Hong, acting provincial governor of Sichuan, delivered a government work report to the provincial people's congress. The report overviewed the government work in the past five years and the government's self-improvement achievements. It also explained government priorities in 2013 and set major goals in the next five years.

Despite the Wenchuan earthquake, floods, landslides, other fatal natural disasters, global financial crisis, and stability maintenance in the Tibetan regions, Sichuan province has made great achievements in economic development, post-disaster reconstruction, infrastructure construction, scientific and technological innovation, and the improvement of people's livelihood in the past five years, according to Wei Hong.

Sichuan's GDP reached 2.4 trillion yuan ($383.27 billion) in 2012, growing at an annual speed of 13.6 percent, ranking eighth in the country. The average disposable income for urban residents reached 20,307 yuan while the average net income of rural residents reached 7,001 yuan, increases of 83 percent and 97.4 percent from 2007, respectively, according to the report.

“In the next five years, Sichuan will double its GDP, fiscal revenue and resident income, making all-round progress in industrial strength, opening-up, foreign investment and trade, infrastructure upgrading, cultural soft power improvement and moral cultivation, and promotion of the social security system,” said Wei.

It is expected that ethnic minority areas, old revolutionary base areas and poor areas in the city will achieve leapfrog development, he noted.

According to the report, priorities for the work in 2013 include development pattern improvement, consumption expansion, industrial structure upgrading, new urbanization patterns, rural development, livelihood projects, culture industry development, sustainable development, and further reform and opening-up.

The major targets for 2013 include increasing the city's GDP by 11 percent, local fiscal revenue by 11 percent, total foreign trade volume by 11 percent, urban resident average disposable income by 14 percent, and rural resident average net income by 15 percent.

In his report on government work, Wei mentioned government self-improvement in particular. The Sichuan provincial government will tighten restrictions and supervision over the use of power to avoid public fund abuse and control administrative expenditures.