REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT
Delivered at the Fifth Session of the Thirteenth Beijing Municipal People’s Congress on January 12, 2012
Guo Jinlong, Mayor of Beijing
Fellow Deputies,
On behalf of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government, I now submit to you a report on its work for your deliberation and approval, and invite the members of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) to submit comments and suggestions.
I. Review of the Work in 2011
Over the past year, under the firm leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the State Council, and the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, people throughout Beijing grandly celebrated the 90th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, thoroughly implemented the Scientific Outlook on Development, resolutely carried out the major policies and principles of the central leadership and its important directives regarding work in Beijing, accelerated the implementation of the strategy of building a people’s Beijing, high-tech Beijing and green Beijing, fortified their confidence, worked hard in unity, overcame difficulties, made new achievements in the capital’s scientific development, and got the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period off to a good start.
According to preliminary estimates, the city’s gross regional product (GRP) was 1.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.1% over the previous year. Public budgetary revenue was 300.63 billion yuan, up 27.7%. The registered urban unemployment rate was 1.39%. Per capita disposable income for urban residents was more than 32,903 yuan, and per capita net income for rural residents exceeded 14,736 yuan, an increase of more than 7.2% and 7.6% in real terms respectively.
Over the past year, we upheld the theme of scientific development, took the transformation of the pattern of economic development as the main thread, conscientiously implemented the resolutions adopted at the Fourth Session of the Thirteenth Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, and focused on the following work.
1. Resolutely implement the central leadership’s macro-control policy and maintain steady and rapid economic development
We continued to carry out the strategic principle of boosting domestic demand and strove to tap potential domestic demand growth. We further refined policies and improved the environment, established the responsibility system for stimulating consumption, and promoted the transformation of growth in consumption toward multi-point support. Although sales of motor vehicles decreased 44.3% and the floor space of commercial housing sold dropped 13.9%, retail sales of consumer goods in society increased by 10.8%. We made use of the government’s role in guiding and stimulating investment, expanded investment and financing channels, and ensured funding for key projects and major programs, thereby further improving the investment structure. Fixed-asset investment across the city increased 13.3%. This included a 94.9% increase in investment in policy-related housing, a 14.2% increase in nongovernmental investment, and a 73% increase in investment in high-tech industries.
We continued to control real estate. We formulated and implemented 15 specific measures, were the first in the country to promise to lower the prices for newly constructed general housing during periods of stability, and promoted the restructuring and steady and sound development of real estate. The average purchasing price of newly constructed houses dropped 11.3% over the previous year. Nearly 90% of home buyers were first time buyers, and the practice of buying homes for speculative and investment purposes was effectively curbed. We worked harder to ensure the availability of low-income housing by investing 10 billion yuan in establishing the Beijing Low-Income Housing Construction and Investment Center and gave top priority to guaranteeing land for such housing, and we started to build or purchased 230,000 units of different kinds of housing and completed the construction of 100,000 units, exceeding the targets for the year. We improved the public housing rental policy; made low-income urban families, newly employed workers and migrant workers who have been working in Beijing for a prescribed period of time eligible for low-income housing; and allocated 10,000 units of public rental housing.
We continued to support production and ensure supply of goods, introduced specific price-regulation measures on several occasions, and allocated 500 million yuan for the price stabilization fund in order to effectively keep prices from rising too quickly. We focused efforts on the “vegetable basket” (non-grain food supply) project, designated 38,600 hectares as the city’s minimum amount of land for growing vegetables, and increased basic land used for growing vegetables by 3,667 hectares. We built 2,667 hectares of new vegetable production bases outside Beijing, strengthened our cooperation with vegetable suppliers, actively encouraged links between vegetable producers and consumers, reduced or eliminated slotting fees and stall rental fees at large wholesale markets and farm produce markets, lowered the operating costs for retailers, and kept the supply of agricultural and sideline products basically stable. We launched a campaign to rectify real estate intermediary organizations and carried out inspections of important organizations in order to regulate rental prices. We severely investigated and dealt with illegal pricing practices, thereby effectively safeguarding the market and pricing order. Increases in the monthly CPI have fallen for four consecutive months, and it increased 5.6% year on year.
2. Intensively promote economic restructuring and accelerate the transformation of the pattern of economic development
We made new progress in developing the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone. We earnestly implemented the Zhongguancun “1 + 6” series of policies and put innovation platforms into operation. Our efforts resulted in 481 organizations having the right to offer share-and dividend-based incentives and 261 projects having the right to dispose of and profit from their scientific and technological advances. We set up a consultation mechanism that allowed the Beijing Municipal Government and relevant state ministries and commissions to make joint examination and approval decisions on major projects. We formulated and put into effect guidelines on optimizing industrial distribution and promoting the industrial application of scientific and technological advances. Ten billion yuan of government funds were allocated to support more than 300 projects for applying important scientific and technological results in industrial production. We promulgated the plan for developing the Zhongguancun Science City and started construction on 37 important projects including the Aerospace Science Innovation Park. We accelerated development of the Future Science and Technology City, and began construction on 15 central government enterprises. We initiated a mechanism for integrated military and civilian innovation and development, and promoted the industrial application in civilian enterprises of military technologies and of technologies for both military and civilian purposes. We redoubled our efforts to develop the Special Talent Zone, introduced 10 supporting policies, set up a special channel for recruiting high-end personnel, and attracted 1,962 high-level talented people from across China and abroad. Revenue of large enterprises in the demonstration zone reached 1.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.9%, and more than 1,500 of them had revenue over 100 million yuan. The new generation mobile communications, software, integrated circuits and biopharmaceutical industries all began to reap the benefits of being part of the industry cluster. We carried forward the action plan of building a high-tech Beijing and collaboratively established the Super Cloud Computing Center and the National Technology Transfer Center. We put into operation another 130 scientific and technological platforms and certified more than 1,285 businesses as new- and high-technology enterprises. We formulated and implemented the Capital Standardization Strategy and comprehensively pressed ahead with a pilot project on intellectual property. Completed technology contracts and the number of patents granted in the city rose 19.7% and 41.7% respectively. The pace of scientific and technological innovation increased significantly.
We made further progress in industrial restructuring. We accelerated the development of producer services and further strengthened functions for Beijing to become a financial center. Information, business, and science and technology services played a more prominent role in driving development. We accelerated development of cultural and creative industry clusters and supported cultural enterprises in reorganizing and reforming to become listed on stock markets. The total revenue of large cultural and creative enterprises exceeded 900 billion yuan, an increase of over 20%. We worked hard to boost tourism and promoted its integration with culture and sports, with the result that 210 million domestic and overseas tourists visited Beijing and total tourism revenue was 321.62 billion yuan. The proportion of tertiary industries was 75.7%. We formulated guidelines for more quickly fostering and developing strategic emerging industries and selected the first 160 key projects in emerging industries. We signed strategic cooperation agreements with 15 central government organizations, completed and put into production major projects, and the value-added of high-tech manufacturing and modern manufacturing increased by 10.4% and 10.6%, respectively. We worked hard to conserve energy and reduce emissions and were the first in China to implement a mechanism for controlling both energy intensity and total energy consumption. We closed 45 enterprises that were high polluters and consumed large amounts of energy and water, upgraded 47,000 rural houses to make them earthquake resistant and energy conserving, modified or scrapped 224,00 old motor vehicles, and put an additional 1,100 pure electric vehicles on the road. Energy and water consumption and the emission of major pollutants per unit of GRP continued to decrease.
We made steady progress in rural reform and development. We continued to deepen rural reform. We basically completed the main tasks for reforming the collective forest tenure system, and over 87.3% of collective economic organizations completed reforms related to the property system. We carried out trials on determining collective land ownership, and registering and certifying ownership, created new types of rural communities, and implemented the government award and subsidy system, the launching of which is determined by villagers themselves. We established a rudimentary mechanism to manage and protect rural infrastructure. We proceeded with the construction of modern agriculture demonstration sites in an orderly manner. Revenue from seed-production and tourist and recreational agriculture grew by 24.3% and 20.9%, respectively, and the functions of agriculture constantly expanded. We strengthened the construction of irrigation and water conservancy facilities, completed the construction of agricultural infrastructure and comprehensive development of 20,000 hectares of farmland, and created or improved 10,000 hectares of water-efficient irrigated land. We formulated and carried out a plan to promote agricultural modernization as well as the industrialization and urbanization of suburbs, accelerated the building of a new countryside, established a small cities and towns development fund, and accelerated development of agricultural industries with unique local advantages. We actively helped increase farmers’ incomes and continued to implement the prosperity-for-all action plan. Farmers’ incomes increased quicker than those of urban residents for the third consecutive year.
We further balanced development between regions. We did a good job urbanizing the urban-rural fringe; formulated guidelines on stimulating development of collectively owned industries and changing people’s residence status from rural to urban; improved the one greenbelt policy; and basically completed housing demolitions in 50 key villages, and accelerated construction on replacement housing their villagers can move back to. We did all we could to implement the strategy of focusing on developing Tongzhou and further improved the leadership mechanism for developing new cities. The construction of major municipal infrastructure progressed smoothly, and we accelerated development of a number of major industrial projects. We thoroughly implemented the action plan for developing southern Beijing and completed 70% of the three-year plan. We formulated guidelines on transforming and developing the western part of Beijing more quickly. We completed the construction of the Yongding River ecological landscape belt, consisting of Mencheng Lake, Lianshi Lake, Xiaoyue Lake and Wanping Lake, and opened it to the public. We quickened the pace of cultivating emerging industries in ecological conservation and development areas, comprehensively launched mountain valley economy projects and finished relocating 7,574 farmers from mountainous areas. We accelerated development of six high-end functional zones (the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone, Finance Street, the central area of Olympic Park, the Central Business District, the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone and the Beijing Linkong Economic Functional Zone); and four new industrial areas (the Lize Financial Business Zone, the Tongzhou High-End Business Services Zone, the New Shougang Creative Business District and the Huairou New Area of High-End Cultural and Scientific Industries); and the northern belt of R&D service industries and new- and high-technology industries and the southern belt of high-tech manufacturing and strategic emerging industries. The functions of attracting high-quality factors of production and carrying the development of industries were further strengthened.
3. Strengthen urban and rural development and management and lay a good foundation for sustainable development
We made progress in controlling traffic congestion. We accelerated the development of rail transportation and opened three new lines, raising the total length of lines in service by 36 kilometers to 372 kilometers. We stepped up construction of secondary thoroughfares and feeder roads in the city, and completed the construction of 15 road microcirculation projects and 110 projects aimed at alleviating traffic congestion. While putting safety first, we further shortened the intervals between subway trains, thereby boosting capacity by 10% on average. We opened to traffic a commuter bus lane on the expressway between the city center and Tongzhou and completed the demonstration project to run mass transit trains between the suburbs and the city center. We also opened to traffic a number of short-distance bus lines and commuter express bus services in communities. A policy to restrict the purchase of motor vehicles was implemented, and 617,000 fewer automobiles were purchased compared to a year earlier. We put greater effort into maintaining traffic order, adjusted parking fees in nonresidential city center areas, and carried out “parking service season” activities. The average travel speed of motor vehicles on our road network rose by around 12% during peak hours; the proportion of trips made on public transport reached 42%, and the proportion of trips made by car fell for the first time.
The ecological environment continued to improve. We accelerated the building of household waste disposal facilities at Lujiashan and other places, and conducted trials to reach targets for sorting garbage in 2,454 urban and rural communities. The quantity of household waste fell for the second year in a row; the proportion of household waste incinerated or treated biologically increased to 15%, and the percentage of renewable resources recycled rose 8%. We intensified development and upgrading of sewage treatment facilities. Some 82% of the city’s sewage was treated, and 710 million tons of recycled water was used. We built five riverside forest parks in new cities, ten suburban parks, and ten urban leisure parks, and increased the area of land planted with trees by 16,667 hectares, bringing the whole city’s forest coverage to 54%. We implemented a clean-air action plan, and air quality was at level two or better 78.4% of the year and at level one on 74 days of the year, up 39.6% from the previous year. This is an improvement for the 13th consecutive year. We worked out guidelines on further strengthening reform and development of water-related work, implemented all investment policies concerning water services, established an investment center for the south-to-north water diversion project, and significantly accelerated the construction of water infrastructure.
We constantly made municipal management more meticulous. We launched activities to beautify the city through meticulous management, ran three 100-day campaigns to improve the city’s environment, stepped up the comprehensive evaluation of the city’s environment and sanitation, started upgrading the power grids for 95 old communities, and buried 260 kilometers of overhead wires underground. We basically hooked up the city’s key areas to the Internet via wireless local area networks. We did a good job supplying water, electricity, gas and heating; completed the construction of and put into operation the Beijing Dongnan Thermoelectric Center and the pipeline to supply gas to Huairou District and Miyun County; and continued to enhance our ability to ensure the supplies of resources and energy. We responded constructively to the effects of extreme weather events like rainstorms in parts of the city by raising the design standards of road drainage facilities and intensified efforts to upgrade our rainwater drainage systems and reuse rainwater and floodwater, and kept the city running in a stable and orderly manner.
4. Strengthen social development across the board and promote balanced economic and social development.
In response to the complex domestic and international economic situations, especially under the difficult situation of sustained high prices, we paid even greater attention to ensuring and improving the people’s wellbeing and earnestly solved the most practical problems of the greatest and most direct concern to the people.
We constantly improved our employment and social security work. The municipal government invested 29.32 billion yuan to complete all of the 30 important tasks for the people. We provided assistance to areas and groups with employment difficulties, basically completed the task of finding jobs for redundant workers of the Shougang Group, incorporated rural laborers living in urbanized areas into the scope of urban unemployment registration, and strengthened work on vocational skills training. A total of 44,700 people entered the urban workforce for the first time. We promoted the integration of systems and links between them, included the unemployed in the basic medical insurance scheme for urban workers, carried out trials to include rural workers shifting from farming to urban jobs in social security programs for urban workers, incorporated all employees of municipal-level organizations covered by the socialized medical system into the basic medical insurance system, made it possible for workers who take jobs in another region to transfer their old-age pension and medical insurance accounts and continue their coverage, and extended the system of workers’ compensation and maternity insurance to the entire workforce. We improved the mechanism for linking social security benefits with price increases and raised benefits twice this year, and increased the minimum wage by 20.8%, minimum subsistence allowances for rural residents by 61.9%, and the monthly average pension for enterprise retirees by over 10%. We allocated more than six billion yuan from public funds and social security funds to grant one-off living allowances to retired workers, people over retirement age who were relocated for land expropriation and those facing financial difficulties, which benefited over 3.1 million residents. We expedited the establishment of a social welfare system that benefits nearly everyone, set aside 520 million yuan to support the old-age services program, and increased the number of beds at elderly care institutions to more than 82,000.
We made significant achievements in education and public health reform and development. The municipal government expended 31.64 billion yuan for these purposes, a year-on-year increase of 28.6%. We worked out a medium- and long-term plan for education reform and development, launched major education development programs and experimental reforms, and pushed forward trial reforms to promote the balanced development of compulsory education. We basically completed the project to ensure the safety of primary and secondary school buildings. We designed and implemented a three-year action plan for preschool education, raised the amount of expenses paid from public finance, spent 600 million yuan to support preschools in improving their conditions, and the number of places for children in preschools increased by 33,000. We deepened reform of the pharmaceutical and healthcare system, carried out reforms in public hospitals by type and trial reforms of the payment system for participants in medical insurance programs, and smoothly completed five key reforms in the pharmaceutical and healthcare system. We expanded service models for family-doctor services, weekend outpatient services and quality of care, and set up a doctor appointment system covering all 66 Grade III hospitals. We fully implemented basic public health services, responded actively to the growing demand for medical services, and further improved the conditions for patients seeking medical care.
We made new progress in cultural reform and innovation. We meticulously organized the publicity and education work for commemorating the 90th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. We refined the Beijing Spirit, which has become an innovative approach for practicing the system of core socialist values in the new period. We carried out a series of campaigns to promote cultural and ethical progress including the campaign to encourage Beijing citizens to be courteous and well-mannered, and made new ideological, moral, cultural and ethical progress as a result. We strengthened the top-level design of cultural reform and development and formulated a relevant policy system. We established five cultural alliances and made solid progress in corporatizing art troupes and publishers of newspapers and periodicals that do not cover current affairs and politics, and further straightened out the management system of urban newspapers. We carried out the trial to apply a real-name system in Internet use, launched the Beijing Government Microblog Platform and formulated and implemented regulations for developing and managing microblogging websites. We actively implement cultural projects that benefit the people, enriched the cultural life of the masses at the primary level, and gradually created the unique feature of every subdistrict having its own character. We drew up the plan for protecting and developing famous historical and cultural sites, and steadily pressed ahead with projects for renovating historical and cultural buildings. We issued the plan for city-wide fitness programs and improved the public sports service system. Mass sports flourished, and the capital’s influence in international sports further increased.
