SASTISTICAL COMMUNIQUE OF CHANGZHOU MUNICIPALITY ON THE 2008
NATIONAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
In the year of 2008, Changzhou encountered many difficulties and
contradictions on the path of progress, while the economic and social development
endured a severe impact of global financial crisis. However, under the strong
leadership of Changzhou Municipal Committee of CPC and Changzhou Municipal
People’s Government, the people of Changzhou earnestly implemented all the work
deployed for the “year of sound and fast development”, made great efforts to
cope with the adverse factors of the global financial turmoil and a recession
of the business cycle, adhered to the guidance of Scientific Outlook on
Development and the driving force of a new-round ideological emancipation,
overcame the difficulties under great pressure, pushed the advantages and avoided the disadvantages with active approaches, and strived to
seize new opportunities by innovation and to achieve new leaps through
adjustments. As a result, the city’s economy maintained a steady and rapid
growth on the track of scientific development, social undertakings obtained new
achievements, people’s living standards got further improved, and the urban and
rural ecological environment, innovative environment and comprehensive
competitiveness stepped into a new stage.
I.
Economic Development
The economy of
the city enjoyed a stable growth. In the year of 2008, the gross domestic
product (GDP) of the whole city reached RMB 220.22 billion, increased by 12.4%
over the previous year calculated on comparable prices. Among the three
industries, the added value of the primary industry reached RMB 6.83 billion,
up 3.8%; that of the secondary industry achieved RMB 129.75 billion, up 12.1%;
and that of the tertiary industry (service industry) hit RMB 83.64 billion, an
increase of 13.7%. The proportion of three industries’ structures maintained
optimization, and was adjusted to 3.1∶58.9∶38.0. The proportion
of the primary industry and the secondary industry respectively dropped 0.3%
and 0.7% compared with the previous year, while that of the tertiary industry increased
1%. The per capita GDP based on registered resident population reached RMB
50,283, which was more than USD 7,000 based on the current exchange rate.
The financial
revenue witnessed a stable increase. In the whole year of 2008, the local
fiscal revenue reached RMB 18.52 billion, increased by 17.2% over the previous
year, accounting for 8.4% of GDP. The capacity of public services of finance
was continuously strengthened, the structure of financial expenditure was
further optimized and great efforts was made to steadily enlarge the capital
input to domains such as the construction of new countryside, science and
technology, education, culture, public health, environmental protection and
social security. In 2008, the fiscal expenditure hit RMB 18.67 billion, up
20.7% over the previous year, among which the environmental protection
expenditure soared 122.8%, the science and technology expenditure raised 21.9%,
the education expenditure grew 13.3%, and the social security and employment
expenditure increased 5.9%.
Food production
maintained a stable growth. During the whole year, the total output value of
agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery achieved RMB 12.48 billion,
up 13.8% over the previous year. The capacity of grain production was stably
enhanced. The sown area of grain reached 160,400 hectares, increased by 21,900
hectares over 2007, up 15.8%; the total output of grains hit 1.134 million
tons, increased by 185,000 tons over the previous year, up 19.5%; the output of
grains per mu made 471.1 kilograms, raising 3.1% over 2007, among which the
output of paddy rice per mu reached 599 kilograms, up 5% over the previous
year, again ranking the top throughout Jiangsu province. The high-effective
planting area of the whole city covered 802,000 mu, including the
high-effective fishery area of 260,000 mu, and the level of large-scale
breeding pioneered the whole province. By the end of 2008, the pollution-free
agricultural product manufacturing bases newly added 42, totaling 299; the
number of newly added sorts of certified pollution-free agricultural products
above provincial level, green food products and organic food products reached
56, 31 and16 respectively, amounting to 383, 251 and117 respectively. The output
of main agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery products were as
follows:
Greater
efforts were made to the construction of new countryside. During the whole
year, 405.7 kilometers of rural highway were newly built or reconstructed, and
420 dangerous bridges were reinforced. The population covered with rural
cooperative medical insurance reached 2.016 million with 100% enrollment rate,
the coverage of which ranked the first in Jiangsu province. With the per capita
fund-raising standard of RMB 135, the compensation rate for farmers in hospital
reached 35%. As the special program to “Improve the Village Environment and
Jointly Build a Moderately Prosperous Home” was carried out through a series of
special campaigns, the rural water improvement achieved obvious effectiveness,
while 98 rivers in counties and townships running 360 kilometers were dredged,
and 4,676 ponds were desilted. During the whole year, investments on water
conservancy projects reached RMB 1.29 billion in total; 26.42 million earthwork
were completed for various kinds of water conservancy construction projects;
1,351 ancillary buildings were built; 38,000 mu
of medium- and low- yielding fields were improved; 110 village rivers running
341 kilometers were disilted; 98 kilometers of dikes were reinforced; 287.6
kilometers of anti-seepage channels were newly built; and 16 square kilometers
of soil
erosion area were restored. The number of specialized cooperative economic
organizations of farmers increased to 448, involving 96,000 households.
Villages in line with the reform basically completed the reform of
community-based joint-stock cooperative system. 30 rural land shares
cooperatives were established, engaging 4,851 households with land areas of
15,000 mu.
The total economic
volume enjoyed a stable expansion. With unceasing efforts on reducing the
adverse effects such as rising prices of raw materials, increasing costs and
dropping overseas demand, the whole city’s industry strived to maintain the smooth and rapid growth situation. During the
whole year, the total output value of scaled industries achieved RMB
520.01 billion, an increase of 22.2% over the previous year, of which the heavy
industry contributed RMB 399.32 billion, up 25.2%, and the light industry
produced RMB 120.69 billion, up 17%. Among the scaled industries, the private
industrial output value reached RMB 309.3 billion, increased by 25.1%; while
the foreign invested and Hong Kong-, Macao- or Taiwan-funded industrial
enterprises completed the output value of RMB 176.63 billion, increased by
24.4%. Calculated on the provincial base line, the scaled industrial added
value achieved RMB 115.98 billion, up 14% calculated on comparable prices. The
annual sales income of scaled industries reached RMB 508.99 billion, with RMB
37.11 billion in profits and taxes and RMB 22.14 billion in profits, increased
by 22%, 23% and 17.3% year-on-year respectively.
The
industrial structure was improved. Five pillar industries, including equipment
manufacturing, electronic information, new
energy and environmental protection, new materials and bio-medicine, presented
a development pattern of rapid growth, preferable benefits and high quality,
which further proved their advantages in scale, industry and technology. The
scaled enterprises involved in five pillar industries achieved the gross output
value of RMB 297.35 billion at current prices, with sales income of RMB 292.49
billion, up 22.8% and 22.9% over the previous year respectively. Among them,
the output value of new energy and environmental protection industry soared to
RMB 17.45 billion, increased by 101.1%; and that of equipment manufacturing
industry reached RMB 157 billion, increased by 25.2%. The overheated
development of “high-consumption and high-pollution” industries, such as metallurgical
and chemical industries, was effectively restrained. The output growth of
metallurgical industry dropped 12.1% compared with the previous year, and the
output growth of chemical industry fell 21.9% over 2007, both higher than the city’s
average.
Scaled economy obtained significant achievements. During the
whole year, the top 100 industrial enterprises in output value completed the
gross output value of RMB 213.82 billion and the sales income of RMB 210.38
billion, up 28.4% and 27.8% over the previous year respectively, the growth of
which were 6.2% and 5.8% higher than the city’s average respectively. The
proportion of the said top 100 enterprises taken in the gross output value of
scaled industries increased to 41.1%, which was 39.1% by the end of 2007,
stimulating 12.6% growth of the city’s scaled industries. 65 enterprises in the
city each achieved the sales income of above RMB 1 billion, while the annual profits
and taxes of 601 enterprises each exceeded RMB 10 million, adding nine and 114
ones over the previous year.
The construction
industry enjoyed a stable development. The labor efficiency and comprehensive
competitiveness of construction enterprises kept improving. During the whole
year, the construction industry added output value of RMB 10.65 billion, 5.8%
higher than that of the previous year calculated on comparable prices. The
construction enterprises achieved construction output of RMB 60.8 billion, up
23.3%; the construction area reached 52.59 million square meters, increased by
6.2%; the completed construction area reached 23.91 million square meters, an
increase of 2.6%. All-personnel labor productivity hit RMB 206,000/person calculated
on its output value, up 8.4% over the previous year. Focusing on building
quality projects, a number of projects both in and out of Jiangsu province
undertaken by the local construction companies were honored the national
quality awards, including Changzhou Jiuzhou Guangsha Project with the silver
prize of National Quality Projects and the first-phase project of Sining
Shangri-La City Garden with the Luban Award of National Construction Projects.
The urban and
rural market presented a prosperous and active scene. Under the guidance of the
state economic policy such as expanding domestic demand and stimulating
consumption, as well as positive factors like the increase of people’s income
and upgrading of consumption structure, the city’s urban and rural consumer
goods market was booming both in purchase and sales. The annual sales value of
social consumer goods achieved RMB 75.82 billion, 24.1% higher than that of the
previous year. Among the total, the annual retail sales value of consumer goods
on urban markets of the whole year hit RMB 69.45 billion, up 24.7%
year-on-year; and the annual retail sales value of consumer goods on rural
markets reached RMB 6.37 billion, increased by 18.2% over 2007.
Hot commodities
enjoyed booming consumption. The sales of household goods and entertainment
goods for improving the quality of family life was in rapid growth, while
top-grade apparels, fine jewelries and imported cosmetics gradually became the
consumption hot pots. According to the statistics of sales value of the
wholesale and retailing enterprises above quota, 14 out of the 25 major
categories of commodities achieved growth in sales over the previous year. Among them, the retail sales of coal, and products and
furniture increased 82.2% and 80.4% year-on-year respectively; while the retail
sales of cultural and office supplies, gold and silver jewelry, Chinese and
western medicine, and daily necessities all grew above 20%.
A variety of
trade modes developed in competition. Various modes of retail trade, such as
supermarkets, boutiques, exclusive agencies and grocers obtained rapid
development. The trade modes were gradually enriched with expanding business
network. Up to the end of 2008, the whole city owned 141 comprehensive retail
sales trade enterprises above quota, including 10 comprehensive department
stores with the sales value of RMB 2.83 billion, 23 supermarkets with the sales
value of RMB 3.94 billion and 107 specialty or exclusive agencies with the
sales value of RMB 14.55 billion, accounting for 13.2%, 18.5% and 68.2% of the
gross sales value of enterprises above quota respectively.
Market
construction was accelerated. The construction of Landmark International High
Street integrating Shopping, leisure, catering and entertainment was completed
and put into operation. By the end of 2008, estimated 55 large-scale key
markets each with an annual turnover of above RMB 100 million were located in
the city, contributing RMB 83.23 billion in total turnover, up 27% over the
previous year. Among them, Changjiang Plastics
Chemical Market Co., Ltd., Lingjiatang Wholesale Market for Agricultural and
Sideline Products, and Jiangsu Hutang Textile City Investment & Development
Co., Ltd. each achieved the annual turnover of over RMB 10 billion, which
became the key enterprises leading the city’s commodity trading market.
The
transportation capacity kept growing. The municipal government further strengthened
transportation infrastructure construction, gradually improved the
transportation system and newly upgraded the transport capacity and volume.
During the whole year, the total volume of cargo transportation amounted to 87.29million
tons, and the cargo circulation volume reached 5.06 billion tons/Km, an
increase of 8.0% and 9.5% respectively year-on-year. The total passengers
transported by road hit 201.66 million persons and 8.18 million persons by
railway, up 10.0% and 9.9% over the previous year respectively. The total
volume of passenger circulation reached 9.92 billion persons/Km, increased by 11.7%.
The annual port throughput reached 83.92 million tons, up 27.9% over 2007,
including foreign trade cargo throughput of 1.999 million tons and container
throughput of 320,000 TEUs, increased by 11.1% and 40.4% respectively. The
number of incoming and outgoing passengers at Changzhou Benniu Civil Airport
achieved 551,000 persons/times, and the volume of cargo transportation was
6,393 tons, up 8.1% and 17.2% respectively. The quantity of vehicle population
kept the trend of a rapid growth. By the end of the year, the amount of
civilian vehicles reached 291,000 sets, an increase of 15.8% year-on-year,
including 194,000 sets of private cars, up 22.3%.
The
communication services enjoyed a stable growth. During the whole year, the
total income of postal service reached RMB 440 million, increased by 12.8% over
the previous year. Total 104.94 million letters in various types were
delivered, and the amount of EMS hit 2.467 million, an increase of 15.4% and
17.5% respectively. The telecommunications service income of the whole city
reached RMB 4.48 billion, up 12.3% over the previous year. The infrastructure
of post and telecommunication kept improving, and the capacity of
communications was further strengthened. By the end of the year, the local
network telephone exchanger capacity achieved 2.975 million, of which the
mobile phone exchanger capacity reached 5.254 million, increased by 1.9% and
16.2% year-on-year respectively; while the number of local network telephone
subscribers hit 1.982 million households, together with 618,000 households of
wireless local telephone subscribers and 3.483 million households of mobile
phone subscribers. The progress of network informationization further speeded
up. By the end of 2008, the number of Internet subscribers of the whole city
reached 583,000 households, up 37.1% compared with the previous year, including
537,000 households of broadband internet subscribers, an increase of 38.4%.
Finance enjoyed
a sound operation. All levels of financial organizations earnestly implemented
the financial regulation policies to promote sound interaction and coordinated development
of finance and economy. By the end of 2008, the total balance of deposits and
that of loans of Chinese and foreign currencies reached RMB 287.33 billion and
RMB 187.69 billion respectively, up 24.6% and 16.6% year-on-year respectively;
the balance of deposits and that of loans of Chinese currency hit RMB 281.94
billion and RMB 185.17 billion, up 24.5% and 16.4% over the previous year
respectively. During the whole year, the financial institutions achieved RMB
613.82 billion in cash income, with RMB 623.63 billion in cash expenditure, and
the net cash put into circulation reached RMB 9.81 billion after expenses and
receipts in balance, increased by RMB 1.14 billion over the year 2007.
The insurance
market presented pluralistic development. By the end of 2008, total 40
insurance companies were included in the statistics scope, 12 more than that of
the year 2007. The city’s annual premium income reached RMB 6.16 billion, up
30% over the previous year, including RMB 1.55 billion from property insurance
and RMB 4.61 billion from life insurance, increased by 10.7% and 37.6% over the
previous year respectively. The annual insurance indemnities expenditure
reached RMB 1.24 billion, up 33.3% compared with that of the year 2007,
including RMB 1.11 billion spent on property insurance and RMB 130 million
expended on personal insurance, increased by 37% and 8.3% respectively.
The turnover of
stock market dropped. The turnover amount of various securities at the city’s
13 stock exchanges made RMB 252.9 billion, falling 57.6% over the previous
year. Among them, the turnover of stock was RMB 246.6 billion, dropping 57.9%
compared with that of the year 2007; the turnover of funds was RMB 5.61
billion, decreased by 43.2% over the previous year; while the turnover of bonds
reached RMB 660 million, 4.3 times more than that of the year 2007.
The tourism
economy maintained a rapid growth. The municipal government went great length
to implement the strategy of tourism “quality improvement year” and actively
promoted the transformation of the tourism economic growth mode, which helped
raise the fame and reputation of Changzhou’s tourism. During 2008, the total
tourism income of the city hit RMB 23.4 billion, while 294,000 persons/times
from overseas and 20.37 million persons/times from domestic regions were
received, increased by 17.4%, 14.2% and 16.6% over the previous year
respectively. Tourism infrastructure facilities were further perfected, and the
reception capability achieved a prominent improvement. By the end of the year,
the city owned 57 foreign-concerned star level restaurants (hotels), including
five five-star hotels and 17 four-star hotels; besides, the number of travel
agencies reached 91, including three of the Top 100 National Travel Agencies. A
series of projects such as the first-phase construction of Dinosaur Valley Hot
Spring, complex reconstruction of Dinosaur Park, Global Digital Gala Valley and
the site of Tianmu Lake China-Europe Economic Forum were in process. The
construction of tourist sites (scenic spots) achieved new progress. By the end
of the year, the city had eight tourist sites (scenic spots) with the state 4A
Level and 23 scenic spots with the state 2A Level.
The investment
scale continued to enlarge. The municipal government insisted on combining the
expansion of investment scale and the optimization of investment structure,
with greater efforts on large projects in key areas such as modern
manufacturing, infrastructure and public service. In the year of 2008, the
social investment hit RMB 144.82 billion, up 20.3% over the previous year, in
which the industrial investment reached RMB 83.15 billion, increased by 22.1%;
and the investment in service industry achieved RMB 60.6 billion, an increase
of 17.4%. The input on five pillar industries was significantly increased, with
RMB 53.24 billion in annual investment, up 36% over the previous year,
accounting for 64.0% of the overall industrial investment, the proportion of
which was 57.5% in the year 2007. The construction of
key infrastructure was stably promoted. During the whole year, the total
investment in infrastructure reached RMB 60.67 billion, increased by 23.4% over
the year 2007, taking 42.0% of the overall social investment, the proportion of
which raised 1.2% compared with the previous year. The annual investment on
hi-tech industry soared to RMB 23.17 billion, up 48% over the year 2007, the
growth of which was 27.7% higher than that of the overall social investment,
while its proportion of the total social investment increased to 16% from 13%
of the previous year.
The overall
investment in real estate maintained stability. The annual investment value
completed in real estate development reached RMB 30.89 billion, up 37.3%
compared with the previous year, accounting for 18.3% of the total social fixed
assets investment, including housing investment of RMB 21.09 billion, office
building investment of RMB 820 million, commercial operation building
investment of RMB 5.01 billion, increased by 30.2%, 20.6% and 48.2% over the
year 2007 respectively. The newly-commenced area was 8.38 million square
meters, up 3% over the previous year, including the newly-commenced housing
area of the 5.512 million square meters, falling 10.5% compared with the year
2007. The completed housing area made 6.851 million square meters, up 11.2%
over the previous year. By the end of the year, the area of commercial
buildings under construction reached 25.773 million square meters, an increase
of 17.7% year-on-year.
The economic
system reform made a great advancement. In 2008, Changzhou Financial Management
Training Center, Chuanghui Co., Ltd. and other state-owned enterprises and
public institutions have completed the reform restructure; Changzhou Decoration
Engineering Co., Ltd. has entered reform restructure procedure; and Institute
of Materia Medica was working out new reform restructure plan. After taking
over Changzhou Property Co., Ltd., Liye Infrastructure Engineering Co., Ltd.,
and Yingchun Housing Property Management Co., Ltd., Changzhou Industry &
Trade State-owned Assets Management Co., Ltd. has finished the resettlement of
laid-off workers and the adjustment of the labor relation. The channels of
enterprise financing had been further widened. In 2008, there was 1 listed
companies to realize financing again, altogether raising funds RMB 0.95
billion. The number of overseas listed companies accumulated to achieve 15,
which have raised funds of RMB 8.27 billion.
Comprehensive
strength of the city has increased significantly. The private economy had
maintained rapid and sound development with its power scale steadily being
enlarged. And the private economy had increasingly become the mainstay of the
national economic development of Changzhou. By the end of 2008, the number of
private enterprises (including branch organizations) of the city had reached 57
thousand, while the number of individual owned business reached 128 thousand,
increasing by 5.6% and 4.1% respectively compared with the previous year. The
total registered capital of private enterprises reached RMB 100.03 billion
while the average registered capital of private enterprises reached RMB 1.76
million, increasing by 17.3% and 11.4% respectively. The total registered
capital of individual owned business reached RMB 3.81 billion while the average
registered capital of private enterprises reached RMB 30,000, increasing by 7%
and 3.5% respectively. The added value of private economy of the city reached
RMB 130.14 billion, up 13.2% calculated at comparable prices, accounting for
59% of the total economy aggregate of the city. The contribution of private
economy to the local finance was increasing. The tax income of private economy
reached RMB 22.49 billion, an increase of 24.8 % over the previous year,
accounting for 65.5% of the total tax income of the city, increased 2.4%.
Foreign trade
maintained a relatively rapid growth. Facing the negative impact, all the
import and export enterprises actively expanded the scope and degree of opening
up. And foreign trade continued to maintain steady growth, which was reflected
on economic aggregate expansion, rapid increment speed and development quality
upgrade. The total import and export volume of the whole year reached USD17.63
billion with an increase of 33.3%, 6.6 percentage point higher than the
previous year, including export of USD 13.24 billion, import of USD 4.39
billion, increased by 34.5%, 29.7% respectively. The pace of adjusting exported
products is speeding up. During the whole year, the export volume of
electromechanical products reached USD 7.22 billion, increased by 46.8%, 12.3%
higher than the average level of last year; the export volume of optical and
medical instrument products reached USD 230 million, increased by 37.8%, 3.3%
higher than the average level of last year; the export volume of textile
products reached USD 2.54 billion, increased by 13.1%, accounting fro 19.2% of
the total export volume, decreased from 22.8% of the last year. The export
volume of the hi-tech products of the whole year reached USD 1.99 billion,
increased by 119%, accounting for 15% of the total export volume, up 5.8%. The
new foreign trade market had a further expansion. Products “Made in Changzhou’’
were able to be found in 201 countries or regions throughout the six
continents. The export increase amplitude to Africa, Russia and Brazil was
separately 41.6%, 46.9% and 93.8%, increasing by 7.1%, 12.4% and 59.3%
respectively; and the export volume to European Union market reached USD 3.53
billion, increased by 75%, accounting for 26.6% of the total export
volume.
Foreign trade
maintained a relatively rapid growth. The city made effort to optimize
investment environment and actively attracted investment. During the whole
year, the newly approved projects totaled 245, with contracted foreign
investment being USD 3.41 billion; and contracted foreign investment of every
project reached USD 13.92 million, USD 2.95 million more than last year. The number
of the annual newly signed projects with total investment of more than USD 10
million reached 97, with contracted foreign investment being USD 2.39 billion,
increased by 3% compared with the previous year, accounting for 70% of the
total registered foreign investment volume. The number of the annual newly
approved projects with total investment of more than USD 30 million reached 18,
accounting for 30.9% of the total registered foreign investment volume,
increasing from 24.4% of the last year. Foreign investment and stock increase
had developed steadily. 175 enterprises have added investment through making
additional investment and transfer equity, referring to 190 projects with
contracted foreign investment of USD 1.36 billion, and accounting for 40% of
the total contracted foreign investment, 6% higher than the previous year. The
actual received registered foreign investment reached USD 2.04 billion, 11.2%
higher than the previous year.
The foreign
economy cooperation field was expanded. During the whole year, the newly signed
foreign economic contracts realized the volume of USD 520 million, increased by
1%, achieving business turnover of USD 370 million, increased by 14%. In 2008,
1,863 workers of labor services were newly exported, increased by 59% than the
previous year; the number of labor service worked abroad totaled 3,087 at the
end of the year, decreased by 21.5% than the end of previous year. The research
and development strength of some enterprises have been identified with foreign
customers and enterprises, and the exported quantity of complete set of
equipments increased steadily. Changzhou Railcar
Propulsion Engineering R&D Center has newly signed 10 projects to export
complete sets of equipment, with contract investment of USD 170 million. With
the speeding pace of “going out”, the overseas investment has entered the
market-oriented and benefit-focused development period. During the whole year,
the number of the newly approved foreign enterprises reached 20 with Chinese
contracted investment of USD 36.25 million, 2.5 times of that in last year. The
average investment of single project reached USD 1.8 million, 3.3 times of that
in last year, including 12 projects with total investment of more than USD 1
million, 2 projects with total investment of over USD 5 million, both achieving
great growth than the previous year.
The concentrated
effect of foreign investment of development zones was strengthened. The
development zones at different levels played the advantages of concentrated
technology, talents and resource to improve the infrastructure and supporting
facilities, build main base for investment promotion, cluster area of advanced
manufacturing and modern service industries, and demonstration area of intensive
and scientific development, which increasingly upgraded the local economic
development. The newly contracted foreign capital of the 10 development zones
at provincial level and above reached USD 2.64 billion, accounting for 77% of
the total of the city. The actual received registered foreign investment
reached USD 1.7 billion, accounting for 83.3% of the total of the city.
Self-support export hit USD 6.54 billion, accounting for 49.4% of the total of
the city. Local fiscal revenue totaled RMB 9.32 billion, accounting for 50.3% of the total
city. During the whole year, the total investment in infrastructure
construction reached RMB 12.84 billion, an increase of 26.4% higher than the
previous year. The foreign investment projects introduced into Changzhou National
High and New Technology Development Zone totaled 28 with total investment
exceeding USD10 million, including 6 projects with total investment exceeding
USD 30 million; the actual received registered foreign investment reached USD
0.75 billion, increased by 40.1%.
Visiting foreign
guests in the city saw an increasing numbers. During the whole year, the city
invited and received 1,005 foreign guests/times from 110 delegations. Among
which there were 148 guests with official rank above deputy minister from 10
delegations and 83 diplomatic officials/times from foreign embassies and
consulates in China for 21 groups. Besides, total 55 journalists/times from 14
delegations were welcomed and received. By the end of 2008, the city had established
sister cities relationship with 10 foreign cities, and received 159
persons/times from 22 delegations, and the city organized 11 delegations with
totaled 115 persons to visit sister cities. During the whole year, the number
of trainees sent to foreign counties reached 51 persons/times.
III. Social Undertaking
The pace and
capacity of science and technology innovation were continuously enhanced. Innovative
urban construction was promoted, and the function of encouraging the
development of economy and society by science and technology progress was
further enhanced. The city's comprehensive scientific and technological
strength and independent innovation capacity were steadily enhanced through
improving the core competitive ability of the city, advancing new round of
hi-tech industry doubling plan, relying on market, enterprises and university,
adopting the new mode and mechanism integrating production-teaching-research
and fully promoting the research and innovation activeness of the enterprises.
There were 298 science and technology projects above province-level
implemented, including 114 major production-teaching-research cooperative
projects. 198 hi-tech enterprises were approved in accordance with new national
standard and 15 major scientific research achievements won the special fund for
promoting scientific and technological achievements into productivity.
Enterprises’ awareness on protecting intellectual property was enhanced. During
the whole year, patent applications and patent granted reached 9,146 and 2,536
respectively, increasing 3,125 and 334 over the previous year, of which
invention patent applications and invention patent granted reached 1,393 and
235 respectively, increasing 584 and 117 over the previous year.
The construction
of innovation platform achieved marked achievement. During the whole year, the
city newly built 4 postdoctoral research institutes, 23 engineering research
center and 6 high-tech research laboratories at city level. By the end of the
year, "two-center, one-stop" above city level reached 232. The newly
added province-level incubates reached 9, including Liyang Hi-tech Innovation
Service Center; the city-level incubates reached 3, including Changzhou
Tianning Hi-tech Innovation Service Center. The total incubates above the
city-level totaled 17 and incubates above the province-level totaled 14,
ranking the top among the cities in Jiangsu province.
Feature industrial
bases made a good progress. The accumulated national feature industrial bases
reached 9, including “National Renewable Energy Resources Industrial Base”
rewarded by Ministry of Science and Technology. Changzhou Rail Transportation
Base and Solar Energy Industry Base were listed in “Double-Ten Industries”,
which were given special assistant by Jiangsu Science and Technology
Department. The construction of international science and technology
cooperation carrier was greatly promoted. Changzhou Science and Technology Town
and Changzhou Eging Photovoltaic Technology Co. Ltd were honored as
“International Science and Technology Cooperation Base”.
Production-teaching-research cooperation achieved significant effect. During
the whole year, the city implemented 114 major production-teaching-research
cooperation projects, attracting the financial input of RMB 96.15 million from
all levels of government, and investment of RMB 840 million from the
enterprises, realizing output value of RMB 10.1 billion and newly increasing
profit and tax of RMB 1.34 billion.
The environment
for introducing talents has been improving steadily. Supplementary provisions on accelerating the introduction of leading
overseas talents was published, which increased start-up fund of the key
excellent recommended projects to RMB 3million. In 2008, Changzhou totally
attracted four batches of leading entrepreneurial talents returning from
overseas study, and successfully signed 82 projects and settled down 59
projects. By the end of 2008, the number of various professional and technical
personnel in Changzhou reached 329,000, an increase of 5.2 % over the previous
year; the number of various types of introduced professional and technical
personnel reached 25,000, including 108 Drs and 1,305 masters.
Educational
cause achieved a sound development. Great efforts were made to promote balanced
development of education through implementing four major strategies, namely,
modernization development, balanced development, intensive development and
active development. By the end of the year, the city owned a total of 430
various kinds of full-time schools, with enrolled full time students of
631,000, including 123,000 students enrolled in general higher institutions of
education, and 36,000 students studying in various ordinary secondary schools
(including vocational schools); 31,000 students from technical training schools
and 10,000 studying in vocational high schools, 206,000 from ordinary middle
schools, 224,000 pupils from primary schools; and 660 from special education
schools. The total number of teachers and staff in various schools reached
43,000, among which 34,000 belong to full-time teachers. Modernization of
education kept steady progress. The city totally input RMB 1.32 billion in 28
key education projects each with above RMB 10 million in investment and completed the construction
area of 538,000 square meters. Education budget was duly guaranteed, and Blue
Sky Plan was vigorously implemented. The popularity rate of migrant children
accepting compulsory education reached 100%, of which 79 percent of students
studied in public schools. Chunhui Progress achieved marked progress. 100
project schools were established, online service platform was put into use and
100G resource package was able to be shared.
Quality
Education was deeply implemented. China's robot team composed of teenagers from
Changzhou won the bronze medal in VEX World Robot Championship, was awarded
first prize in regular season of primary school team in World Robot Olympiad
(WRO), and won the individual event in primary school team of 21st
Brain Innovation Olympics. The proportion of high-quality primary and secondary
schools above the provincial level was more than 52%, and the proportion of
students attending was above 65%. Education quality made great improvement and
the college entrance examination hit record high. The qualification rate above
university entrance score of normal students reached 44.4%, an increase of
4.6%, taking the first place in Jiangsu Province. The enrollment rate for junior middle school graduates
to senior middle schools was above 99.4%. The gross enrollment rate of students
from the age of 18 to 21 in institutions of higher education reached 60.8%. The
average schooling years accepted by newly-added labor force of the whole city
reached 14.4 years. The upgrade of vocational schools made dramatic
breakthrough. Vocational education centers in Jintan, Liyang and Wujin district
have been qualified in four-star vocational schools assessment. Chnagzhou Art
Vocational College of Jiangsu Province was upgraded to higher vocational and
technology institutes with four-academic-year system. The number of enrolled
students by universities and the admission rate of students in universities and
junior colleges had maintained the first place in Jiangsu province for 9
consecutive years.
Culture and art was flouring. All public and cultural units (culture,
library and museum, etc.) scored a first in Jiangsu province by being free open
to the public, benefiting 1.5 million peoples. The city organized large-scale
activity of “Going down to the countryside” through performing drama, donating
books and showing movies to the farmers. Song-and-dance ensemble, Wuxi Opera Troupes, Pingtan troupes and comic troupes presented 2,105
shows in total. Changzhou Farmers' Reading Festival was held with great
efforts, while 300 farmers' bookstores were built. All tasks of the annual
pro-people culture project were successfully completed. A batch of mass culture
brands, such as Jinqiu Storytelling Stage, Opera Hall and Qingguo Lane Lecture
Room, are highly appreciated by the public. And 11 newly established weekend
square for digital movie show were listed as pilot program.
Excellent literature and art works were springing up. The 2nd
Changzhou Dramatic Literature Award totally collected 16 dramatic scripts and
19 sketch works, awarded the first prize of “2007-2008 Jiangsu Dramatic
Literature Award”. The stage play adapted from dialect drama “Dragon Boat
Festival in May” was selected into China Drama Society. The original dance
drama “Kalsang Flower and Jasmine” was ranked on the list of the primary
elections of “2007-2008 Jiangsu Stage Art Elaborate Project”, and filled the
vacancy of original dance dramas in Changzhou. By the end of the year, the city
owned 10 various arts troupes, 8 culture centers and mass art centers
(stations), 4 public libraries and 13 museums and memorials. The number of
annual readers received by public libraries reached 913,000 persons/times, with
circulating books reaching 860,000 books/times. The visitors received by
Changzhou Museum reached 678,000 persons/times.
Broadcast and
television and press and publishing undertakings maintained a booming
development. By the end of the year, the city owned 11 self-made radio
channels, 8 self-made TV channels and 41 programs for cable TV transmission.
The population coverage rates of broadcasting and TV both maintained 100%.
The digital TV
conversion has been completely finished, convert rates in urban area reaching
98%, and coverage rates in rural area reaching 85%. During the whole year, the
bi-direction renovation of the cable TV network was realized among 192,000
households, including 970,000 cable TV subscribers and 730,000 digital TV
subscribers. During the whole year, a total of 25.92 million copies of
“Changzhou Daily”, 22.81 million copies of “Changzhou Evening News” and 4
million copies of “Changzhou TV and Broadcast Weekly” were released.
The health care
system was further perfected. The city government actively implemented the
project of health for people, promoted community health reform to optimize
medical resource arrangement, strengthen the rural health work, improved basic
medical policy and promoted sustainable development of health cause. By the end
of year, there were 1,261 medical institutions of various kinds, including 99
hospitals and 36 clinics; besides, the city totally owned 19,800 health
technical personnel, including 8,725 doctors and 6,605 registered nurses. There
were 5.52 health technical personnel, 2.43 doctors and 4.21 beds owned by per
1,000 people. The reform of community medical service made continued progress.
The city owned 72 urban community medical service institutions, including 20
community medical service centers and 52 medical service stations. The coverage
rate of community medical service centers in terms of neighborhood community
reached 100%, basically forming a medical service circle within 15 minutes; the
city had owned 570 community medical service institutions in the rural area.
Conditions of medical and health care services in the rural area were
improved. The new type of rural cooperative medical care system covered totally
2,016,000 rural residents, reaching 100% in the participation rate, and per
capita fund and total capital were RMB 135 and RMB 270 million respectively. By
the end of the year, the city owned 10 rural demonstration community medical
service centers and 100 rural demonstration community medical service stations
at municipal level, which meet the new construction standard of community
medical service centers (stations) at province level. Patriotic health movement
has achieved significant effect. By the end of 2008, the city owned 3 hygienic
towns at state level and 30 hygienic towns at province level. Besides, 572
rural administrative villages have established hygienic villages at province
and municipal level, accounting for 53% of the total villages.
Competitive
sports made great achievements. Olympic Sports Center was opened and series of
competitions were successfully held here, including four international
competitions, namely, Li-Ning China Masters – BWF Super Series, Dragon-Lion
International Game, Dragon Boat International Races and Middle School Football
International Invitation Game; as well as 10 state-level contests and 21 province-level contests. Changzhou
has become one of first batch of strong sports cities in Jiangsu province. Changzhou
native athletes totally won 2 world champions, 8 Asian Champions and 7 National
Champions in major international and national events. Lu Chunrong won the gold
medal in the men's trampoline in 2008 Olympic Games, becoming Changzhou’s first
gold at Olympic Games.
Nationwide
fitness campaign was extensively performed, public sports scored new
achievements. In 2008, the city successfully held 13th Athletic
Meeting & 6th Nationwide Fitting Festival. During the whole
year, totally 20 community fitness stations were newly set up, and 177 town and
township sports projects were conducted complete reconstruction and adjustment,
as well as new facilities purchasing. Outdoor sports camp of East Longitude
120° Park, Badminton Base of Weidun Park, Basketball Base of Xilin Park and
Sport Theme Park of Feilong Park were under construction. And some sports
stadiums of the schools have been open to the public. The proportion of sports
population (people who perform sports 3 times per week and more than half an
hour each time) of the city reached 50.8%, increased 4.5 percentage points. The
trading volume of sports lottery in the whole year reached RMB 430 million,
increased by 15.8% compared with the previous year.
IV.
Population, People’s Livelihood and Social Security
Population and Employment
The population
maintained a slow growth. By the end of the year, the registered population in
the city totaled 3.587million, 0.4% higher than the previous year. The
population of temporary residents reached 1.523 million, increased by 2%,
including 523,000 of the temporary residents living for over one year,
increased by 0.7%. Rate of the planned birth of the whole city reached 98.9%,
0.1 percentage points higher than the last year. The one-child per family rate
reached 82%, increased by 0.4%. This year, the city had the newly-born
population of 25,273 and dead population of 24,734. The natural population
growth rate reached 0.15‰.
The employment
situation kept steady. The government made effort to build the unified service
platform for employment security between the city and countryside, strengthen
the assistance to people with employment difficulties, and advance the
“Innovation Projects in the City and Countryside” for promoting reemployment.
In the year, the city newly increased 79,000 employment numbers in urban areas.
In the whole year, the government allocated employment opportunities for 38,000
persons, completed various reemployment trainings for 58,000 persons/times, and
assisted 11,000 persons from social disadvantaged group for reemployment. The
employment and reemployment fund raised accounted for RMB170 million; and
RMB190 million of various allowances was released to assist 310,000
person/times, including RMB 44.81 million of tax reduction or exemption and RMB
130 million of social insurance subsidy. The employment situation was stable.
The registered urban unemployed rate is maintained lower than 4%.
People’s Livelihood
Residents’
income maintained a steady growth. The urban annual per capita disposable
income reached RMB 21,592, and the per capita consumption expenditure reached
RMB14, 967, increased by 13.1% and 8.6% respectively; the rural per capita
annual net income reached RMB 10,171, and the per capita consumption
expenditure reached RMB 8,128, increased by 12.6% and 9.8% respectively. The
deposits of residents kept increasing, especially fixed deposit. By the end of
the year, the total deposits from urban and rural residents amounted to RMB
143.12 billion, RMB 33.9 billion more than the previous year. Besides, the
fixed saving deposit balance reached RMB 109.03 billion, RMB 28.57 billion more
than the previous year; the current deposit balance reached RMB 34.09 billion,
RMB 5.33 billion more than the previous year.
The standard of
living was further improved. By the end of the year, the per capita dwelling
area of urban residents reached 32.5 square meters, 3.4 square meters more than
the previous; and the per capita dwelling area of rural residents reached 58.7
square meters, 1 square meters more than the previous. Residence security work
was maintained a steady growth and benefit to more low-and-medium wage earners.
During the year, the city newly added 1,621 households of affordable-house
families and allocated 453 households of affordable houses, totally providing
3,510 affordable houses. Residential quarters for low-and-medium wage earners
like Jinxiu Huating started the construction, adding 540 thousand square meters
of affordable housing. The comprehensive renovation of 16 old residential
quarters with 472,000 square meters was completed, with a total investment of
RMB 10.2 million, increased by 91.8% compared with the area of the previous
year.
Market Price
The margin of
price rises continued to fall. It was influenced by various factors, including
the price variation of primary products, slowdown of economic development,
relation change between supply and demand and macro policy control measures.
The consumer
price index of residents was upwards at the beginning the year, drop at the
middle of the year and low at the end of the year. The annual consumer price
index of residents was 105.2, with the increase rate rising by 1.9 percentage
points over last year. Among eight categories commodity prices, six of them
rose in price and the other two fell. Besides, the commodity prices of
foodstuff and housing increased 12.3% and 6.5% respectively, which made the
residents consumption increasing 4.9 percentage points. The prices of other
commodity maintained steady trend. The prices of wine and tobacco categories,
household appliance and maintenance service, clothing, medical and healthcare
and personal items increased 4.5%, 3.8%, 2.4% and 2.0% respectively; however,
the average price of transportation and telecommunications, as well as the
average price of entertainment, education, culture and service decreased 0.8%
and 2.1% respectively.
Social security
system kept improving, and its coverage was further enhanced. By the end of the
year, the number of enterprise employees that participated in endowment
insurance, unemployment insurance, medical insurance, work injury insurance and
maternity insurance reached 953,000, 711,000, 1,129,000, 651,000 and 562,000
respectively. The coverage rate of endowment insurance and medical insurance in
the enterprises both exceeded 97%. The new endowment insurance system in rural
areas was set up, guaranteeing the basic living allowance of 383,000 farmers
whose lands were expropriated.By 2008, basic retirement pension of enterprise
retirees reached RMB 1,430.
The charity
cause achieved a steady development. By the end of the year, the number of
various welfare institutions reached 102, with bed number of 12,844, and
adopted persons reached 7,974. The standard of subsistence
allowance was raised, which reached or surpassed the internationally-accepted
poverty line of "one dollar a day". Totally 70,784 residents
from 35,225 households, including 24,778 urban residents from 12,362 low-income
households and 46,006 rural residents from 22,863 low-income families came
under the coverage of the subsistence allowances program. During the whole
year, social security fund released accounted for RMB 120.99 million. The dynamic allowance mechanism for rising
price was started, which mainly paid commodity price allowance for the
residents entitled to basic living allowances by the season. And the total
commodity price allowance in four districts amounted to RMB 6.38 million.
Charity cause maintained a sustained, rapid and sound development and gained extensive
support by the people at all walks. The six-assistance relief program of
“medical assistance, study assistance, the old assistance, orphan assistance,
the disabled assistance, and disaster assistance“was extensively implemented.
The total amount of charity fund of the city added up to RMB 1.43 billion.
During the whole year, the charity organizations at all levels of the city
released relief fund of RMB 59.574 million and helped 100,000 people. Charity
supermarkets covered all the streets and totally raised RMB 5.104 million to
provide assistance for total 32,000 persons/times from 13,000 households.
Besides, total RMB 260 million welfare lottery tickets were released throughout
the year, up 21% than the previous year.
V. Urban Construction & Environmental Protection
The construction
of infrastructure facilities made remarkable achievements. The whole city’s infrastructure
layout and structure was optimized; the quality of projects was further
improved; the urban viaduct was opened to traffic; West Loop Highway and the
south connection of Taizhou Yangtze River Highway Bridge started construction.
By the end of 2008, the city had the total length of 7,185 kilometers of
highways, 82.9% of which were state or provincial highways above level-1; and
the road density reached 163.9 kilometers/100 square kilometers. Besides,
Changzhou took the lead in completion of its responsible section of Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway, and the
land supply and housing relocation for Changzhou section of Shanghai-Nanjing
Intercity Railway. The planning and design of the comprehensive transport hub
of Shanghai-Nanjing Intercity Railway Changzhou Station and the Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway Changzhou Station was
also in all-round progress. Relocation of the
freight yard of Qishuyan Station was commenced as well. Moreover, the
boat service area and vertical greening project of the Changzhou section of
Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal were entirely completed, along with which the
first-phase project of the Canal’s east and west ports, the footbridge of
Xinggang Road and the recycling station for river waste and waste oil or water
were put ino operation; while the constrction of the level-3 fairway network
was commenced in all respects. In addition, the first-phase project of Lu’an
Port was opened to traffic, and the hydraulic structure and yard project of the
petrochemical wharf were completed.
The
public transport enjoys rapid development. The operation of BRT (Bus Rapid
Transit) obtained significant achievements. The passengers transported by BRT Line
1 reached 120,000 persons/times, accounting for above 13.8% of the city’s daily
passenger volume of public buses. The target of “implementing bus transit in
each village” was basically fulfilled. The whole city’s 644 administrative
villages achieved the bus transit rate of 95.7%. By the end of 2008, the number
of air conditioning buses amounted to 1,349 sets, including 800 newly added
ones, taking 57.8% of the total number of public buses. 62 lines out of the
total 135 bus lines achieved air conditioning operation, thus the 36 bus lines
through the city’s central area realized air conditioning operation. Therefore,
the bus transit convenience was obviously
upgraded, the public transport conditions was greatly improved, and the
proportion of people taking buses exceeded 25%.
The quality of
public services kept improving. During the year of 2008, 28 food markets were
upgraded and reconstructed, including 14 markets that were upgraded, three
markets that were reconstructed on their current sites, and 11 markets that
were relocated. 120 back streets and alleys fulfilled comprehensive
improvement. The first-phase digging and improvement project of Xinang Booster
Station and Wei Village Water Plants was completed. The total urban water
supply amount reached 350 million cubic meters, including residential water use
of 100 million cubic meters, and coverage rate of running water reached 100%.
The total consumption of electricity of the whole city reached 23.73 billion
kwh, up 2.9% over the previous year, among which the living electricity
consumption of urban and rural residents accounted for 2.14 billion kwh,
increased by 14.5%. Besides, the "Sichuan-to-East
Gas Transmission" program was commenced, and the high-pressure pipeline network covered 15 kilometers. By the end of the
year, the urban pipeline gas users totaled 275,000, up 19.4% over the
year of 2007; while the gasification rate of gas supply reached 98.5%.
Furthermore, the number of street lamps hit 136,000, increased by 2.3% over the
previous year.
Environment
improvement work was further strengthened. The municipal government went to
great length to promote programs of Taihu Lake water improvement, urban water cleaning,
air purification, pollution reduction and ecological construction. The
emissions of main pollutants were significantly decreased, and the environmental quality got improved. During the whole
year, the days with air quality above good-level reached 324 days, accounting
for 88.8% of the total days; the regional
environmental noise level averaged 53.9 decibel, and the traffic artery noise
averaged 66.5 decibel; and the qualification rate of integrated style drinking
water resource reached 100%. The score of comprehensive index of environmental
quality achieved 88.1. Pollutant emissions were effectively limited. By the end
of 2008, total 120 construction projects were disapproved or rejected; 397
small chemical plants were closed; 24 pollution emission enterprises were
relocated; 148 companies passed inspection and verification for clean
production; 10 units were made as circular economy pilots; 206 key emission
reduction projects were completed; and the preliminary calculation of the amount of chemical oxygen demand and sulfur
dioxide dropped 4.5% and 5% respectively. The upgrade and
renovation program of water treatment plants enjoyed smooth progress, the sewage treatment
capacity grew 155,000 tons/day, the city's 37 townships realized centralized
sewage treatment. The three programs of Taihu Lake water improvement, urban
water cleaning and air purification achieved remarkable effects. The water quality of three watercourses to Taihu Lake was
maintained, and 46 urban riverways fulfilled the target of “clear water”. The
eco-city contraction made breakthroughs. During the whole year, 86 province-
and city- level eco-villages, 38 green communities at all levels, 65 green
schools and eight green hotels were newly built. Besides, the city’s 27 towns
passed the provincial assessment of national towns with beautiful environment,
two of which were titled by the State Environmental Protection Administration.
In addition, the capacity of environmental inspection and control was further
strengthened. The pollution monitoring center and 30 water quality
automatic monitoring station were built.
The
greenbelts in the city kept expanding. “10 Projects” for urban and rural
greening were fulfilled, with newly added green areas of 4,233.8 hectares.
Three parks were newly built and opened, namely the Holiday Park, Automobile
Town Greenbelt and Jinyuan Greenbelt; while seven parks, including Dongpo Park,
Yudun Ruins Park, Xilin Park, Feilong Park and Dinosaur Valley Hot Spring Park,
Huashan Park and Zijing Park, started site construction. By the end of the year,
the green space in constructed areas reached 5,076 hectares, including the park
greenbelts of 1450 hectares, up 8.5% and 4.4% year-on-year respectively. The
coverage of greenbelts in built-up areas hit 38.1%, 0.9% higher than the
previous year; and the per capita public greenbelt reached 12.1 square meters,
0.7 square meters more than the previous year. Besides, Changzhouthe was
classified as the National Garden City with 46 provincial garden style
residential quarters and 118 provincial garden style work units.
Note: The statistical data in the
communiqué are calculated on current price except that those calculated on
comparable price as specially defined.