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Beijing in "New Phase of Development"

For Beijing and its citizens, the most important political event of the new year was the First Session of the Thirteenth Municipal Congress, the local legislature, which was held a couple of weeks ago, in late January. On the last day of the congressional session, on January 26, Guo Jinlong, 60, was elected mayor of Beijing, replacing Wang Qishan, now a member of the all-powerful Political Bureau of the ruling Communist Party.

Guo ran China's Himalayan region of Tibet for 11 years, from December 1993 to December 2004. He then took over as Party chief of Anhui, a relatively underdeveloped, mainly agricultural eastern province. He was selected acting mayor of Beijing on November 30, 2007, following a Party leadership reshuffle.

Ordinary people in Beijing may not know much about their new mayor, but the government work report he delivered to the “people’s deputies,” or local legislators in his capacity as acting mayor does carry a lot weight. Guo pledged to carry out the Party’s policies and to continue Beijing’s transformation into a prosperous capital and modern international city.

Speaking to the Congress’ deputies, Guo said, "We will strive to make Beijing one of the most thriving, culturally advanced, harmonious and liveable cities in the country." Also listening were members of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the highest local consulting body, who were present as guests at the opening ceremony of the Municipal People’s Congress.

Economic Output: US$8,000 Per Capita

In keeping with established practice, Guo reviewed the economic and social achievements the outgoing Municipal Government had made during its five-year term of service that began in 2002. “The capital’s economy,” he declared, “has entered a new phase of development.”

According to his report, the Chinese capital achieved an annual average growth of 12 percent during those five years, higher than the national average. Its 2007 economic output, or GDP (gross domestic product), was computed at 900 billion yuan (about US$125 billion at 7.2 yuan against the US dollar), compared with 433.04 billion yuan for 2002. “Beijing’s GDP now exceeds US$7,000 if calculated on a per capita basis,” Guo said.

What is even more remarkable, according to the report, is that going hand-in-hand with this break-neck economic growth was Beijing’s success in bringing down the consumption of resources and pollutant emissions. The consumption of energy and water for the production of every 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) in economic output has declined, and so have emissions of COD (chemical oxygen demand, a major yardstick for measurement of water pollution), and sulphur dioxide, a major atmospheric pollutant from the burning of coal. “Beijing now leads the entire country in ‘energy-savings and in the reduction of polluting emissions,’ ” Guo said.

“Energy-saving and reducing polluting emissions” are key terms in China’s current official terminology: they reflect a call from the central government for the sustainable development of China. Among the 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions on the Chinese mainland, only Beijing Municipality met the 2007 targets assigned to it.

Equally remarkable is the improvement in the structure of the local economy. According to Guo, the tertiary industry, which involves service-oriented undertakings such as banking, finance, insurance and accounting, furnished 71 percent of Beijing’s 2007 economic output. Large numbers of high-polluting, resource-wasting industrial enterprises have been or are being closed down or removed from Beijing. Guo made a special mention of Shougang, an iron and steel complex on the western fringe of central Beijing that has been a major contributor to Beijing’s air pollution. “The relocation of Shougang Company has been proceeding smoothly,” he said.

A “clean,” ultramodern new Shougang is being built at Caofeidian of Tangshan City about 200 kilometres northeast of Beijing. Shougang’s relocation is to be completed before 2012. Since the project was kicked off in 2005, two of Shougang’s five blast furnaces have stopped producing, the 47-year-old No. 5 blast furnace in July 2005 and the 35-year-old No. 4, on February 5, 2008. This will cut the company’s annual iron output of about 8 million tons by half before the Beijing Olympics opens in August 2008.

“Gone is the era of Beijing’s dependence on heavy industries for development,” the Beijing News hailed in a commentary on the government work report.

According to Guo, there has been a “significant improvement“in lives of the people. From 2002 to 2007, he said, the disposable incomes of Beijing’s urban residents increased 11.5 percent a year, to 21,989 yuan (US$3,078), and the net incomes of Beijing's rural residents grew to 9,559 yuan (US$1,338), representing an annual average growth of 9.1 percent. In 2007 local government revenue totalled 149.2 billion yuan (US$20.9 billion), 2.8 times that for 2002, which was 53.4 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion). With more money at their proposal, observers noted, the municipal authorities were able to allow more “intangible benefits“ to the people in line with the pro-people, pragmatic policies of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Just for one thing: beginning October 7, 2007, commuters were allowed more public transport for less money. Even as the new 27.6-kilometre No. 5 Subway line that runs north–south through Central Beijing went into operation, the prices of tickets for the expanded subway system were slashed to a flat fare of 2 yuanÑcheaper than subway fares charged in any other Chinese city. Earlier still, on January 1, 2007, the bus fare was cut to 1 yuan (14 US cents) per ride. Users of yikatong, a Òsmart cardÓ for public transport, now pay even less at 0.4 yuan (6 US cents) per ride, while students pay only 0.2 yuan (3 US cents) per ride. The city is also home to ChinaÕs first bus rapid transit (BRT) system, a 16-kilometre long section that opened in December 2004. Guo said the cityÕs public transport system now handles 34.5 percent of the commuter travel that takes place in the city, an increase of 6.5 percentage points from 2002.

Beijing’s 2008 economic and social development plan is seen as cautious, yet ambitious. The municipal government has slashed this year’s economic growth to 9 percent, in line with the latest call of the central government to prevent China’s rapid economic growth from overheating. Even though the consecutive years of double-digit growth are projected to end, Beijing’s 2008 economic output will still average more than US$8,000 per capita, trailing only to Shanghai and Shenzhen, the first two Chinese cities reportedly to have generated annual GDPs in excess of US$10,000 per capita, in 2007. Meanwhile, the government work report calls for reducing the consumption of energy and water by 4 percent more and emissions of COD and sulphur dioxide, by 10 percent more. The air quality for Central Beijing was measured as good or fair for 67.4 percent of the days in 2007, and the authorities are expecting the “blue sky days” to account for at least 70 percent of the days in 2008. The municipal government’s revenue is expected to increase by 19 percent, and people’s incomes, by 9 percent. Meanwhile, inflation will be kept at no more than 3.5 percent and the rate of unemployment at not greater than 2.3 percent, both figures below the anticipated averages for the entire nation.

Olympics: “Paramount Task” for 2008

With preparations for the Beijing Olympic Games nearing an end, Guo re-affirmed that hosting a Òmost successful Olympics’ is the paramount task for the municipal government in 2008. “To ensure success of the 2008 Olympics and Paralympics is a great task given us by China and the Chinese nation,” he told the people’s deputies. “We must go all-out to fulfil this task. Painstaking efforts must be made to ensure that all the Olympic-specific projects meet the best standards.”

For the Beijing Games, 31 venues are needed for competitions and 45 for training. Twenty-two venues have been tried in test events. With the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) delivered for use on January 23, all the venues in Beijing except the National Stadium (the Bird’s Nest) have been completed. When meeting with the press during the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress Session, Vice-Mayor Chen Gang said that construction of the 91,000-seat National Stadium, the “showpiece venue” for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games, “is going smoothly and is scheduled to be completed in April.”

Also being completed, Guo Jinlong said in the government work report, are a series of projects designed to serve the needs of the Olympic Games, including the National Conference Center, the Olympic Village, the Olympic Forest, and the expansion of the Beijing Capital International Airport. According to press reports, these and other key projects will be ready in June. The expanded Beijing Capital Airport will be good enough to handle 70 million passengers a year, nearly double the airport’s current capacity. While Olympic specific, municipal government officials say, the projects will do long-term good to the city and its people.

Likewise, the authorities are resolved to creative a clean, environmentally friendly Beijing, a Beijing congenial to live in. Guo said that beginning in 2008 his government will implement the “most stringent” standards for pollutant emissions. Over the past five years, the municipal government has worked hard to promote the use of gas or electricity for cooking and heating, in lieu of those polluting coal stoves used for centuries. Within this year, Guo said, electric ovens will replace coal stoves in 50,000 more households still living in one-story, traditional-style housing buildings. The ban on burning of coal, in practice for years in Central Beijing (areas within the Fifth Ring Road), will also apply to areas on the city’s outskirts, where the urban and rural areas meet. The government work report also pledges better cooperation between Beijing and the neighbouring Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality in pollution control and ecological conservation. 

The restructuring of the city’s industrial establishment, ongoing for years, will continue. “A better development of the capital economy is of special significance to success of the Olympic Games, to the improvement in people’s livelihoods, and to the effort to ensure social stability,” Guo said. “We must carry out, to the letter, the central government’s policies on macro-economic control. We must attach paramount importance to the results of our economic performance. We must make progress by taking steady steps.”

The municipal government plans to invest 26.4 billion yuan (US$3.7 billion) in fixed assets in 2008, roughly the same as the previous year, again testifying to a will to rein in the galloping economy and prevent inflation from getting out of control. In allocation of the government spending, priority is given to construction and renovation of Olympic-specific projects which, according to Chen, will be limited to 13 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion). Guo promised to continue increasing government investment in urban infrastructural development, environmental protection, and in the development of the rural areas and satellite towns. “We will continue to ensure an increase in incomes of our urban and rural residents, especially incomes of the rural population, factory workers, retirees and low-income people in urban areas,” he pledged. “We’ll see to it that the various social security policies are fully implemented.” Guo also promised to help urban and rural families without income earners, seeing to it that at least one person in these families gets a job.

CPI Merits “Serious Attention”

Observers agree that the economic and other targets set in the government work report are realistic. “There shouldn’t be any problem with the attainment of the goal for Beijing’s economic output to reach US$8,000 per capita, given the boost given by the Olympics and the improved structure of the local economy,” the English language China Daily quoted Mei Song, PhD, vice-president of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, as saying. “A local economic output averaging US$10,000 per capita is now in sight, meaning that in just a few years from now, Beijing will attain roughly the same level of prosperity as an average developed country.”

Meanwhile, he noted, in 2007 the increase in people’s incomes fell slightly short of the increase in the local economic output, meaning that the government should work even harder to increase employment and spend more money on social benefits.

He called attention to the fact that the CPI (consumer price index) anticipated for 2008 is 3.5 percent, higher than 2.3 percent for the previous year. “That indeed merits serious attention even though the rise in consumer prices is still controllable.”

As if to address such worries, Guo pledged to improve price monitoring mechanisms to prevent “abnormal fluctuations of prices.” When necessary, he said, the government will intervene in the pricing of goods and services essential to people’s lives.

改善民生 惠及人民

2007年北京经济社会稳定快速发展

编写/薛京晶