REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT

Delivered at the Second Session of the Fifteenth Beijing Municipal People's Congress on January 14th, 2019

Chen Jining, Mayor of Beijing

Fellow Deputies,

On behalf of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, I will now report to you on the work of the government for your deliberation and approval. I also invite comments and suggestions from members of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Part I Review of 2018

I will begin with a review of our work over 2018.

2018 was the first year of implementing the 19th CPC National Congress report, the 40th anniversary of the Reform and Opening-up policy, and also the first year of fully implementing the new edition of the Beijing Municipal Master Plan. The Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau met on October 29th to review the detailed control plan for the development of our city's sub-center and General-Secretary Xi Jinping made important remarks at the meeting. This shows that the General-Secretary devotes much attention to the development of the capital and to our municipal work. He has charted a clear course for us, so that we can plan, build, and manage the city sub-center by high standards.

Over the past year, we have been working under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and the direct leadership of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee. We have received support and supervision from the Beijing Municipal People's Congress and its Standing Committee, and guidance from Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. We have thoroughly acted upon guidelines provided by the Party's 19th National Congress, the 19th Party Central Committee at its second and third plenary sessions, and the General-Secretary in his important speeches on Beijing.

We have continued to pursue progress while ensuring stability, follow the new development philosophies, ensure quality growth, and deepen Reform and Opening-up in all fields. We have strengthened the capital’s function as "four centers", improved our ability to deliver "four services" , taken on the "three key tasks", and fought to win the "three tough battles". We have maintained steady and sound economic and social progress, and have fulfilled the targets and tasks set out at the First Session of the Fifteenth Municipal People's Congress.

Preliminary statistics show that GRP grew by around 6.6% and general public budget revenue increased by 6.5%. Consumer prices rose by 2.5%. Urban surveyed unemployment rate stayed around 4.5%. Residents' per capita disposable income increased by around 6.3% in real terms, while energy and water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GRP were cut by around 3.5% and over 3% respectively. The annual average level of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration dropped to 51μg/m3.

First, we have fully implemented the Municipal Master Plan and achieved good results in the special operation to upgrade the city through function transfer and remediation.

We completed all 45 tasks set for last year under the Municipal Master Plan, and fundamentally changed the city renewal model. Throughout the year, land inventory for urban and rural construction was cut by approximately 34 square kilometers, while labor productivity (output per worker) rose to around 240,000 yuan.

We established a district-level city planning management system, and formulated measures for managing the boundaries for eco-conservation and urban development. Improvement was made in the system for urbanizing the "First Greenbelt" area, and the supply of land for urban construction was linked to the reclamation of farmland. We improved the planning system, emphasized urban design, completed the planning for each district, and improved the comprehensive lifting plans for 16 key functional areas and 36 city-level specialized plans. We started the renovation of Tiananmen tower and its platform, and completed renovation and landscape upgrading of the Eastern Plaza of the Great Hall of the People.

We have published and implemented the plan for the protection and development of Beijing's historical and cultural areas, completed planning for the protection and construction of "three cultural belts", and advanced protection of the "Central Axis" through application for its recognition as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. We have developed and implemented three-year action plans for the construction and upgrading of the southern part of Beijing, the new Shougang area, and Huilongguan/Tiantongyuan area. Our city has been developing in a more holistic and coordinated way.

We establish new systems before abandoning old ones and consult the public and experts extensively in this process. Important outcomes have been achieved in the special operation to upgrade the city through function transfer and remediation and the public satisfaction rate for the operation reached over 90%. We revised and refined by category the Catalogue of Prohibited and Restricted New Additional Industries, shut down another 656 enterprises in general manufacturing, and relocated and upgraded 204 marketplaces and logistic centers. We further balanced the distribution of public services, accelerated the construction of new campuses for universities such as Beijing Film Academy, and relocated Beijing Tiantan Hospital in its entirety. We closed 8,622 small shops operated from openings illegally cut in the wall. In 29 old communities in the city's central area, the pilot program of comprehensively renovating residential buildings has progressed well.

We improved the appearance of 1,141 side streets and back lanes, and undergrounded overhead power lines along 80 kilometers of roads in the central area. Through demolishing illegal constructions, 6,828 hectares of land were vacated and 1,683 hectares of land reclaimed for greening. We added 28 city leisure parks, and 121 plots of small and micro green spaces. Eighty percent of the residential areas now have access to parks and green spaces within a 500-meter radius. 1,529 convenience shops have been opened or upgraded, and the "15-minute service circle" is available to 92% of the urban communities.

Focusing on synergy between the "core area" and the "two wings", we have steadily advanced the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development. Construction has been completed for the first phase of the city sub-center administrative office area. The first batch of municipal-level government organs have already moved in, in compliance with the requirements of "seamless transition" and "moderation". We have added 1,000 mu (66.67 hectares) of green areas in the sub-center's "green heart". The Tongzhou campus of Beijing No. 5 High School has been built and Beijing Friendship Hospital has opened its Tongzhou Branch. The new airport is officially named Beijing Daxing International Airport, with its main terminal structure by and large completed.

We have fully supported the construction of Xiong’an New Area. Four Beijing schools have established Xiong'an branches under the one-on-one assistance scheme, and 12 enterprises from Zhongguancun Science Park have moved to Xiong’an. We have implemented a new three-year action plan to promote Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development, and signed a new round of strategic cooperation agreements with Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality respectively. We have linked up all unconnected national expressways in Beijing, worked with the two partners on the comprehensive remediation and rehabilitation of the Yongding River, and established an eco-compensation mechanism for headwater protection of the Miyun Reservoir. The contractual value of technology transfer to Tianjin and Hebei registered 22.74 billion yuan.

Second, we have improved the business environment and opened wider in all dimensions.

In compliance with General-Secretary Xi Jinping's requirement that Beijing take the lead in improving the business environment, we introduced in succession the "9+N" policy series and a three-year action plan for improving the business environment. The time taken to start a business in Beijing has been shortened to five days, and we are one of the two cities in the world where you can start a business at no cost. Beijing has taken the lead in providing electricity connection to small and micro enterprises with "no personal visits (to authorities), no administrative approvals, and no connection charges", which saves about 1.2 billion yuan for these enterprises per year. We have advanced pilot reforms in approving construction projects, and put in place a single platform to streamline approvals. As a result of this, the time needed to complete approval for a non-government invested project has been reduced to 45 days. Beijing ranks first in a survey of business environment among 22 domestic cities, and has contributed to China's significantly improved ranking for ease of doing business in the World Bank's Doing Business Report.

We have deepened fang-guan-fu reforms that aim to delegate powers, improve regulation, and strengthen services. We have eliminated more than half of the items requiring administrative approvals at both the city and district levels. We have published "power lists" for government departments at all levels, lists of intermediary services necessary for administrative approval, and a catalogue of administrative certifications required to access government services or start a business by individuals and enterprises. No extra items or certificates off the list/catalogue would be required by government departments.

We have adopted the "single window" service model, established an online portal for government services, and the online services cover over 90% of the approval or service items at both the city and district levels. Five good practices we developed have been applied nationwide, including the joint acceptance mechanism for completed projects, access to tax services across district boundaries, and the "risk detection platform"for market regulation.

In light of General-Secretary Xi Jinping's speech at the roundtable on private enterprise development, we have formulated 69 policy measures under five clusters to help private businesses resolve difficulties. We have tried to find out the business environment through visits and studies, delivered "service packages" to key enterprises, and addressed salient problems that concern private companies, such as land use, housing, and talent recruitment. We have set up a "money pool" to help private enterprises in financial difficulties, and guided financial institutions of all kinds to pitch in.

In compliance with international practices, we have expanded pilot programs to open up the service sector. In the past three years, we have by and large completed 226 tasks in two rounds. We have developed a total of 68 innovative practices, some of which are now applied nationwide, including the "full-cycle" management of foreign-invested enterprises, and the "single window, single form" document processing for business filing and registration.

The first aircraft maintenance joint venture where the foreign partner holds a majority stake has landed in Beijing and started operation. The first such securities company, the three major credit rating agencies, and other financial institutions and service agencies with global influence have opened offices in Beijing. The yearly inward foreign investment exceeded 16 billion US dollars. Approval has been given to set up a cross-border e-commerce comprehensive experiment zone in Beijing and to consolidate the pilot projects on innovation in service trade. The import and export value of services exceeded 1 trillion yuan.

We have unveiled a three-year action plan for working with other countries to implement the Belt and Road Initiative. We have endeavored to create an environment familiar to expatriates and piloted seven international hospitals. We have issued 5,895 residence cards for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents and permanent resident certificates to 618 high-caliber personnel of foreign nationalities.

Third, we are building Beijing into the national center for technological innovation, and have achieved sound development of the high-end, precision and sophisticated industries.

We have encouraged innovation that meets the need of national strategies, removed institutional barriers, integrated innovation resources, and built complete chains of innovation. New types of research institutes have been established, such as the Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, and the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence. The building of comprehensive national science centers has been in full swing.

We have continued to build the "three science parks plus one area" , and prepared detailed plans by high standards.

Zhongguancun Science City has deeply integrated elements of innovation, and enhanced its capacity to serve innovators. It has fostered a culture of innovation and greater vitality in proprietary innovation. The results are landmark innovations such as the discovery of Majorana anyons and breakthroughs in the new ultralow-power transistors.

At Huairou Science Park, progress has been made in the construction of the two "Big Science" facilities, namely the Synergetic Extreme Condition User Facility and an Earth System Numerical Simulator, as well as the five interdisciplinary research platforms, including one on materials genome.

Beijing Future Science Park has focused on attracting open research platforms and platforms for entrepreneurship and innovation.

The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area has quickened its steps in using foreign investment, and a group of major industrial projects have been successfully launched. Innovation-based industrial clusters have maintained steady growth.

We have set up a 30 billion yuan "Fund of Funds" (FOFs) for technological innovation, with a special focus on hard & core technologies and early stages of innovation. 25,000 enterprises in Beijing have National High-tech Enterprise qualifications, up by 25%. Each day, an average of 199 innovative enterprises are established. The contractual value of technology transactions in the whole city grew by 10.5%. The total revenue of the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone has exceeded 5.8 trillion yuan. Eighty enterprises have made it to the global unicorns list, the largest number among all cities in China.

We have implemented guidelines for the development of ten high-end, precision and sophisticated industries, such as the new-generation IT industry, and formulated action plans and blueprints for developing 5G technology, artificial intelligence (AI), medicine and healthcare, intelligent and connected vehicles (ICV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). We have carefully conceived dominant industries and priorities for each park. Supportive fiscal, land use and talent policies have been rolled out, including land leasing by flexible terms, and 20 new measures for the recruitment of international talents in Zhongguancun, under which more than 2,300 people have got residence permits.

We have established the Beijing Financial Street Services Bureau in order to provide better services to the national financial regulatory center. We have started building the Beijing Financial Technology (Fintech) and Professional Service Innovation Demonstration Zone. We have formulated a three-year action plan for forestalling and defusing financial risks, and made good progress in the special campaign addressing illegal fund-raising and risks of Internet finance.

Among the industries above the designated size, high-tech manufacturing grew in double digits in added value. The revenue of cultural enterprises above the designated size reached one trillion yuan. Finance, technology, information and other strong service industries contributed over 60% of the economic growth.