Report on the Work of the Government
-Delivered at the Second Session of the 13th Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress on January 28, 2019
MA Xingrui, Governor of Guangdong Province
*The English version of this Report is for reference only. Click to download the full text of government work report.
Fellow deputies,
On behalf of the People’s Government of Guangdong, I will now report to you on the work of the government for your deliberation and approval. I also invite comments from the members of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and other attendees present at the session today.
I. Review of Work in 2018
2018, the year just passed, marked the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up and a milestone in the course of the development and reform of Guangdong Province. On March 7, General Secretary Xi Jinping made important remarks when joining a group deliberation of deputies from Guangdong Province to the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress. He explicitly instructed that Guangdong should work hard and strive to be “a forerunner of the country in four aspects”, and the “two important windows of China”. From October 22 to 25, General Secretary Xi Jinping made inspection tour in Guangdong and gave important instructions including deepening reform and opening up, promoting high-quality economic growth, promoting more balanced and coordinated development and strengthening Party leadership and Party building. On December 26, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave important instructions concerning the future development of Shenzhen. General Secretary’s important remarks and instructions have provided fundamental rules and powerful force for Guangdong to start a new journey in the new era for further reform and opening up. Over the past year, with the instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping kept in mind and guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we have fully implemented the guiding principles of the 19th CPC National Congress and the second and third plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee. We have implemented the decisions made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and the "1+1+9" working plan of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee. We have upheld the underlying principle of making progress while ensuring stability, remained committed to the new development philosophy, promoted high quality development, and coordinated all work to maintain stable growth, promote reform, make structural adjustments, improve living standards, guard against risks and ensure stability. As a result, we have made new achievements in social and economic development across the province, and basically completed the main tasks established at the first session of the 13th Guangdong Provincial People's Congress.
The following are the highlights of our work over the past year:
First, we fully implemented the macro regulation policies of the central government, exerted great efforts to maintain stability in employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign capital, investment and expectations, and achieved steady and healthy economic development in the province. Confronted with the complicated and changing domestic and international economic environment, we have taken effective measures to keep major indicators within an appropriate range. Guangdong’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 9.73 trillion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 6.8%. The general public budget revenue reached 1.21 trillion yuan, a comparable growth of 7.9%. The disposable income per capita stood at 35,800 yuan, up by 8.5%, and the consumer price increased by 2.2%. Greater efforts have been made to shore up the weak links in infrastructure, including the investment in provincial key projects of over 700 billion yuan and fixed-asset investment up by 10.7%. We have pledged our full support for hosting China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), China Hi-Tech Fair and China International SME Fair and actively participated in China International Import Expo. The total import and export of the year reached 7.16 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.1%. More efforts have been made to attract investment in major projects and industry chains. As a result, the actual use of foreign investment across the province reached 145.09 billion yuan, up by 4.9%, and particularly, that in manufacturing industry grew by 57.9%. Consumption has been upgraded with the total retail sales of consumer goods increasing by 8.8%. Financial sector has been strengthened to better serve the real economy with a total direct financing of 1.16 trillion yuan, up by 40%, and the loans to private enterprises accounted for 61.8% of the newly added loans to enterprises. Measures have been taken to facilitate employment. As a result, 1.476 million new urban jobs were created and the registered urban unemployment rate was 2.41%; the employment situation has remained stable.
Second, we have been boosting the development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the GBA) to high standards and made significant progress in innovating the systems and institutions for the pilot free trade zone, hence further promoting our opening up and cooperation. General Secretary Xi Jinping planned, deployed and promoted in person the development of the GBA and officially announced the opening of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. The GBA has seen substantial progress in its planning and development. We resolutely implemented the decisions made by the central government and established a sound steering mechanism to boost the development of the GBA. Focusing on institutional innovation, we implemented the policies and measures that facilitate the residents in Hong Kong and Macao to live, study or work in the Chinese mainland, making breakthroughs in cross-border use of research funds, cancellation of employment permit and provision of residence permit for Hong Kong and Macao residents. We worked to promote the development of the international science and technology innovation center and Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao Science and Technology Innovation Corridor. We sped up the construction of the iconic infrastructure projects. Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-speed Rail was put into operation, the policy of juxtaposed border control was implemented, and projects such as Liantang / Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point, and the new channel between Guangdong and Macao were accelerated. Guangdong-Macao Cooperative Development Fund was established and put in place. The plan for deepening the reform in China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone was approved by the central government, entitling the Zone with 40 autonomous rights in reform and shortening the negative list of foreign investment to 45 items. We promoted 91 sample cases of reform and innovation across the province, and further strengthened the alignment with Hong Kong regulations on service sector such as legal services and financial payment. We actively engaged in the Belt and Road Initiative, increasing our total trade with and actual investment in the en-route countries/regions by 7.3% and 64.2% respectively. The customs clearance time for import and export was cut by 56.7% and 59.8% respectively, a significant progress in trade facilitation. We achieved substantial progress in external exchanges and cooperation. We signed MOUs with 8 Pacific Island countries that have established diplomatic relations with China, and twinned with another 5 provinces/cities, adding the total to 195. The Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City was upgraded to a bilateral cooperative project on national level, and 26 overseas economic and trade representative offices were set up. We successfully hosted such events as China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, Imperial Springs International Forum and the 2nd USIP World Police Service Pistol Shooting Championship.
Thirdly, we stayed highly committed to the “three critical battles against potential risk, poverty, and pollution”, addressed problems in key areas with substantial measures, and kicked off the three-year action plan with a good start. We guarded vigorously in the battle against potential risk and ensured that risks in all sectors are on the whole manageable. We advanced the transformation of rural credit cooperatives into commercial banks with might and main. Among the 64 cooperatives to be transformed across the province, 58 ones have made the application, including 24 ones already licensed to operate. That, accordingly, reduced non-performing loans by about 36 billion yuan. We strengthened the efforts to mitigate on-line financial risks and shut down 169 fraudulent P2P online lending platforms. We set up bailout funds of over 100 billion yuan at provincial and municipal levels, effectively mitigating the risk of equity pledge of listed companies. We worked to regulate the activities of local government debts. We fully identified and proactively defused hidden debts, and maintained the overall safety of government debts. We saw the liquidations of 885 state-owned "zombie enterprises" of the province and a falling debt ratio of state-owned enterprises, and thus the investment and operation risks of state-owned enterprises were effectively managed. We took resolute and targeted measures in the battle against poverty. A total of 571,000 new jobs were created for migrant workers and local residents. The minimum annual living allowance for rural low-income households increased to more than 5,280 yuan per capita. The renovation of dilapidated houses for poverty-stricken households was basically completed. With their detailed information documented, households in poverty were entitled to the provision of basic food and clothing and secured with the equal access to education, medical care and housing. We collaborated with neighboring provinces like Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou in poverty elimination and invested total aid funds of 3.927 billion yuan with 1517 poverty alleviation projects in 2018. We were determined to win the battle against pollution. The battle was heavily financed with an input of 15 billion yuan in 2018 and the total input for the following three years is estimated to be 68.3 billion yuan. We launched a new round of Blue Sky Campaign. The bus electrification rate was increased to 81% , the province’s air quality reached Grade II of the National Standard for four years in a row, and the annual PM2.5 concentrations reduced to a record low of 31 micro-gram per cubic meter. We instituted the river chief and lake chief systems to promote the all-around treatment of the heavily polluted rivers such as Maozhou River, Lianjiang River and the rivers crossing Guangzhou and Foshan. We addressed 925 environmental problems in drinking water sources and treated 185 black and malodorous urban water bodies. With 7,615-kilometer newly-built urban sewage pipes, we increased our domestic sewage treatment capacity by 1.59 million ton/day; our capacity for domestic waste treatment increased by 27,000 ton/day, and that for hazardous waste treatment by 280,000 ton/year. We basically completed the detailed investigation of soil pollution in agricultural land. It is estimated that energy consumption per unit of GDP has fallen by 3.2%. We have drawn red lines for ecological protection. We reforested 3.8 million mu of land area, built 7 new forest parks and 29 wetland parks. All nine cities in the Pearl River Delta were inscribed into the list of National Forest City. 537 hectares of mining areas were reforested. We rectified the illegal buildings of 103 million square meters and completed the “Three-Old Renovation” (old towns, old factory buildings and old villages) of 68,400 mus.
Fourth, we furthered the supply-side structural reform, formulated a series of policies and measures and strengthened the development of the real economy. We enhanced the institutional supply and policy innovation, implemented national policies of slashing taxes and fees, formulated policies and measures such as Ten Policies on Real Economy (Revision), Ten Policies on Private Sector and Nine Policies on Promoting Employment, and improved the Guangdong Entrepreneur and Governor Face-to-face Consultation mechanism, aiming to address the challenges and issues that impede the development of enterprises. The province has cut taxes and fees by another 160 billion yuan, and further energized market entities. The number of individually-owned businesses and private enterprises exceeded 10 million. The added value of private sector reached 5.26 trillion yuan, accounting for 54.1% of the GDP. The formulation of Ten Policies on Foreign Investment (Revision) and Nine Policies on Stabilizing Foreign Trade further enhanced the access of foreign investment to the manufacturing and financial sectors. We established a fast track mechanism to better connect the provincial leadership and multinational corporations. Major projects including the BASF Verbund in Zhanjiang and the petrochemical complex of ExxonMobil in Huizhou were settled in Guangdong. We cultivated more new forms of foreign trade with the cross-border e-commerce transaction increasing by 72% and the export through market procurement trade doubled. We launched action plans to promote sustainable growth of industrial investment. The number of industrial enterprises above designated size in Guangdong increased by 8439, reaching more than 50,000 in total, ranking first in the nation. We worked to improve the quality and efficiency of manufacturing sector, kicked off a new three-year action plan for industrial technological transformation and encouraged 3,000 companies to migrate to the Cloud and Platform. The added value of industries above designated size was increased by 6.3%, and that of advanced manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing industries accounted for 56.4% and 31.5% respectively. Twelve Guangdong companies are listed in Fortune Global 500 companies. Greater efforts were exerted to build Guangdong into a leader in product quality, and the province has been rated Grade A in the national quality assessment for 4 consecutive years. We reclaimed paddy fields and resumed farming by demolishing unused housing, made full use of the policies on offsetting cultivated land used for other purposes and linking newly-added cropland quotas with the amount of land used for construction, and allowed for the open transaction and circulation of quotas of paddy fields and reclamation within the province as a way to meet the demand of key projects for land.
Fifth, we profoundly implemented the innovation-driven development strategy to make Guangdong a leader in science and technology innovation and accelerated the replacement of old growth drivers by the new ones. We formulated and implemented the Twelve Policies on Science and Technology Innovations and other policies to strengthen basic and applied researches, and research and development (R&D) programs in key areas. It is estimated that the R&D expenditures across the province have exceeded 250 billion yuan, accounting for 2.65% of the GDP. With 249,000 valid invention patents, about half of the country's PCT applications and a self-sufficiency rate of technology at 73%, the province ranked first in the country for its regional comprehensive innovation capacity. Besides, 45 major science and technology achievements of the province won the National Science and Technology Awards. We embarked on the construction of the second-batch provincial laboratories (3 labs), officially put into operation China’s first spallation neutron source facility in Dongguan, and promoted the development of large-scale scientific facilities including Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory. We launched a new round of industry-academia-research cooperation with ministries (Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) and academies (Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering), implementing 27 major projects with Chinese Academy of Sciences. 2 more universities and 13 more disciplines were included in the top 1% of ESI ranking. We established 9 new provincial manufacturing innovation centers, 25 new R&D institutions, 89 incubators for technology businesses, and 151 platforms for mass innovation; 38% of industrial enterprises above designated size set up their own R&D institutions. We launched the campaign to encourage more high-tech enterprises to play exemplary roles and and improve innovation capability. With over 40,000 national high-tech enterprises, we ranked first in the country in terms of the total number, total revenue and net profit. 2 more high-tech zones were rated as national ones, with the total number increased to 14. The output of smart TVs, industrial robots and new energy vehicles increased by 17%、28% and 206% respectively. The added value of the new economy accounted for 25.5% of the GDP. The National Demonstration Zone for Transfer and Commercialization of Science and Technology Achievements in the Pearl River Delta region has been approved. The total technology contract value exceeded 100 billion yuan. The scale of patent pledge financing ranked the first in the country. By fully implementing the policy on Guangdong Talent Card (You Yue Ka), we settled the seventh-batch talents including 31 teams focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship and 240 high-caliber professionals, received over 380,000 overseas experts working in Guangdong, and embarked on the development of the first batch of 10 high-level technician colleges.
Sixth, we fully implemented the rural revitalization strategy, expedited resolving prominent issues related to agriculture and rural areas, and made new achievements in the work of agriculture, rural areas and rural people. We stepped up efforts on industrial revitalization in rural area. A provincial fiscal fund of 7.5 billion yuan has been provided since last year to support the construction of provincial modern agricultural industrial parks in eastern, western and northern Guangdong in the forthcoming three years, and the construction of the first 50 ones were well advanced. By now, the number of national modern agricultural industrial parks has increased to 4, and a number of leading agricultural enterprises, farmer cooperatives and family-owned farms have been established, and the "One Featured Product for One Village; One Pillar Industry for One Town" Program has been developed in 90 towns and 360 villages. We solidly promoted the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas. As a result, the number of rural e-commerce outlets managed by China Post was increased to 22,000, and the rural leisure tourism industry saw rapid development. We launched innovation and upgrading projects of the modern seed industry, and implemented the action plan of assigning technicians to serve the rural areas. The contribution of technological advances to agriculture increased to 68%. A parallel session of the first China Farmers Harvest Festival was successfully held in Meizhou. Efforts were made to speed up the comprehensive improvement of rural living environments. A provincial fiscal fund of 16.1 billion yuan was invested on the Green Rural Revival Program. We basically completed the villages planning under the integrated management on the county level. 76.9% of the natural villages embarked on the environmental improvement projects. We accelerated the development of infrastructure including domestic wastes and sewage treatment facilities and toilets, with 4,737 kilometers of roads in rural areas constructed, 277 kilometers of national and provincial roads built or renovated, 2,088 kilometers of medium and small rivers treated and 740 kilometers of historical trails in Guangdong restored. We launched the programs of "10,000 Enterprises to Aid 10,000 Villages", encouraged women's participation in rural revitalization and carried out the "Cantonese Chef Program". We encouraged and supported university graduates and migrant workers returning hometown for business start-ups. Meanwhile, the program to encourage volunteers of rural planners, architects and engineers to conduct professional practices in rural area was further advanced. We implemented the Bellwether Program to strengthen primary-level Party organizations and raised the public’s cultural-ethical standards in villages and towns. We took rigorous measures to protect farmland, completed the target of constructing 3 million mu of high-standard farmland, and reclaimed 163,200 mu of paddy fields. We were among the best in the national assessment of food safety accountability system. The three pilot reforms regarding rural land system in Nanhai, Foshan and the national pilot project of rural reform in Qingyuan achieved remarkable results. The registration and certification of ownership of contracted land were successfully completed. 26 billion yuan were invested in rural development through the reclamation of paddy fields. The joint-stock reform of rural collective property rights system has been advancing at a steady pace. Great efforts were put into regulating illegal house-building on agricultural land and preventing and controlling major animal diseases such as African swine fever, and the quality and safety of agricultural products were remarkably improved.
Seventh, by investing great efforts into the development of infrastructure, we further enhanced the development landscape of the Core Region of Pearl River Delta, Coastal Economic Belt and Northern Eco-development Area ("One Core Region, One Belt and One Area") and made new achievements in targeted support and cooperation programs. A comprehensive performance evaluation system of high-quality development was established and a differentiated fiscal transfer payment system was implemented to form a new regional development pattern of "One Core Region, One Belt and One Area" in an all-around manner. We emphasized the driving effect of the transportation infrastructure. The Phase II expansion of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has been completed, and the expansion of Jieyang-Chaoshan Airport and Huizhou Airport is well under way and the project establishment of Zhanjiang New Airport and Shaoguan Airport was approved. The Guangzhou-Shanwei high-speed railway is under construction, the construction of the Shanwei-Shantou high-speed railway was commenced, and the high-speed railway at 350km/h from Guangzhou to Zhanjiang was included into a special national plan. The section from Jiangmen to Maoming of Shenzhen-Maoming Railway and Xiamen-Shenzhen connection line of Guangzhou-Meizhou-Shantou Railway were completed. An electrification system was installed on the railway from Maoming to Zhanjiang, adding 342 kilometers of operation mileage for high-speed railway, increasing the total of the province to 1,905 kilometers and bringing the first high-speed railway to the western Guangdong. The Shantou-Kunming Expressway and Wuhan-Shenzhen Expressway were completed. The main body of the Second Humen Bridge was completed and put into use. The construction of Shenzhen-Zhongshan Channel was sped up. With 655 kilometers of newly built expressways, the total length of expressways in Guangdong added up to over 9,000 kilometers, ranking first in the country. The project of upgrading waterway in Zhanjiang Port with a handling capacity of 300,000 tons was approved; the Phase III of Shatian Port Area of Dongguan Humen Port and the Breakwater Project in the New Port Area of Bohe, Maoming were completed. The dam of Gaobei Water Conservancy Project across the Hangjiang River was completed, the Hanjiang River-Rongjiang River- Lianjiang River Connection Project was kicked off, and the pilot section of the Pearl River Delta water resources allocation project was advanced smoothly. Major energy projects such as Unit 5 of Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station and Unit 1 of Taishan Nuclear Power Station (the world's first nuclear plant with a generating capacity of 1.75 GW) were completed and put into operation. The offshore wind power project and the main natural gas pipeline network in eastern, western and northern Guangdong and the construction of coastal LNG terminals were accelerated. The master plan for the special ecological protection zone in northern Guangdong was developed to delineate the preliminary scope of the protected area. More public service resources were allocated to eastern, western and northern Guangdong. Provincial laboratories were planned in Shantou and Zhanjiang. Support was provided for Yunfu to build a second-tier university, and for Shantou, Shaoguan, Meizhou, Zhanjiang and Maoming to each build a high-level hospital. The infrastructure construction to upgrade and renovate 47 health centers at township level was basically completed, and the upgrade of public hospitals at county level was started. Provincial fiscal funds were provided to cover all capital expenditure of provincial expressways and national railway trunk lines in distressed areas with revolutionary histories including those in the original Central Soviet Area and Hai-Lu-Feng. Efforts were made to further promote industrial co-development and targeted aid projects. The added value of the provincial industrial transfer parks above designated size increased by 7.7%. We further advanced the cooperation in the Pan-Pearl River Delta region, and made new achievements in the development of the economic belt along Pearl River and Xijiang River and the economic belt along the Guangdong-Guangxi-Guizhou high-speed railways. We also worked closer with Guangxi, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces on ecological protection. We provided greater targeted assistance for Xinjiang, Tibet, and Ganzi of Sichuan. With a total fund of 4.166 billion yuan injected by Guangdong provincial government and the subordinate local governments, we advanced 265 aid projects step by step. Our cooperation with Heilongjiang Province in targeted fields was enhanced in an all-around manner.
Eighth, with the commitment to the people-centered philosophy, we made new achievements in various initiatives to improve people's wellbeing and saw a growing sense of satisfaction, happiness and security of the people. We have completed Ten Livelihood Programs of the year. The government expenditure on improving people's livelihood accounted for 68.7% of the provincial total. The basic pension, unemployment insurance benefits, grants for work-related injury, medical insurance reimbursement rates and upper limit of payments, and standards of basic pension for rural and unemployed urban residents have increased steadily. We further coordinated enterprise employees’ old-age pension at the province level, and participated in the central system for the funds of the pension to be used inter-provincially. The program to build strengths in education has been fully implemented in all towns, counties and cities, and 77,000 more children and 629,000 more students have been enrolled in pre-schools and compulsory education. Teachers in rural, mountainous and remote areas have received constantly improved benefits. An after-school service system on campus for primary and secondary school students has been set up to resolve the 3:30pm Dilemma (i.e. difficulty of working parents in picking up children dismissed from school at 3:30pm). Comprehensive efforts have been made to rectify and standardize cram schools. We have launched a new round of higher education upgrading campaign to build well-established universities into first-class ones, improve the performance of universities in less developed areas and enhance the featured disciplines of specialized universities. The gross enrollment rate of higher education institutions has increased by about 3%. The modern vocational education has been developed at a faster pace. We have initiated the high-level hospital campaign in 22 hospitals as an endeavor to build Guangdong’s strengths in high quality medical and health service. We have deepened the reform in the medical and health system. We removed all mark-ups of medical consumables in public hospitals, promoted the establishment of medical consortia and the group purchasing of medicine, and basically realized the direct settlement of medical expenses incurred in local and out-of-town medical institutions. We launched more initiatives to improve public etiquette and ethical standards. Comprehensive cultural service centers have been established in over 90% villages. The added value of culture and related industries remains the first in the country. The Fitness-for-All program is in full swing. 130 community-based sports parks were built. The 15th Games and the 8th Para Games of Guangdong province was successfully held. In the 18th Asian Games, the number of gold medals and that of medals won by the athletes from Guangdong both ranked the first in the country. We started to rebuild 34,000 housing units in rundown urban areas, completed the rebuilding of 36,000 units, and offered rental subsidies to 24,000 households, all exceeding the annual goals. The total number of workplace accidents continued to drop. We ranked first in the national food and drug safety assessment. We responded to the Super Typhoon Mangkhut effectively and achieved the goals of no heavy casualties and no significant risks during a major disaster, which testified our improved capacities for emergency management and disaster prevention, mitigation and relief. The reform in the letter petition system has been deepened. We excelled in the nationwide crackdown on organized crimes and local mafia, carried out the anti-drug campaign with concrete measures, and maintained a harmonious and stable society. We have drawn bitter lessons from the incident at Lianxi Care Center in Xinfeng County, Shaoguan and launched a special campaign to inspect and rectify public shelters, nursing homes in village and township, senior care facilities, child welfare institutions, so as to strengthen the safety management of public service institutions. National defense mobilization system, public awareness of national defense, military-civilian integration, and the mutual support between and concerted efforts of servicemen and civilian have been strengthened. Services for people with disability and charity have been further promoted. New achievements have also been made in the work related to ethnic groups and religion, women and children, counseling, historical records, local chronicles and archives.
Ninth, in the spirit of self-targeted revolution, we deepened the reforms in key areas to enhance the dynamism and vitality of development. The master plan for digital government was formulated and implemented to develop a unified cloud platform for government affairs. More than 90% of the provincial departments started to migrate their systems to the cloud, promoting the sharing of government data and redesign of service processes. Yue Sheng Shi Guangdong Administrative Service Mobile Platform was launched where 509 matters closely related to people's livelihood can be handled at the fingertips. A unified provincial online intermediary supermarket was built and a brand-new integrated administrative service website was launched for the purpose of processing all administrative formalities online. More efforts were made to promote the reforms designed to delegate powers, improve regulation, and provide better services. The number of items on the list of rights and responsibilities of the provincial governmental agencies dropped sharply from 5,598 to 3,018 by 46%. We further promoted the decentralization of power to strengthen the authorities of cities. 77 more administrative powers originally exercised by the provincial government were delegated to Guangzhou and Shenzhen; another 54 will be delegated to municipal governments, giving them more autonomy. We cut numbers of certificates needed for administrative approval. All certificates not required by laws and regulations were exempted; 1,099 certificates at province, city and county levels were exempted and only 37 ones were maintained. We furthered the reform in the review and approval system. We accelerated the development of an electronic system of business registration, completed the categorized reform for 138 administrative permits involving enterprises, and fully implemented the parallel approval system for all construction projects. The time needed for business registration was cut to less than 5 working days. 2.297 million market players of various types were newly registered, and the total number reached 11.46 million. We fully completed the institutional reform of provincial government and further promoted the categorized reform of provincial public institutions. The reform of the first 50 provincial public institutions specialized in manufacturing was completed and the list of the next 64 was determined. 19 schools directly under provincial government agencies were put under centralized management. We deepened the reform in the supervision and management of provincial budget preparation and implementation, established an accountability system for department-specific budget implementation, and improved the progress and efficiency of fiscal funds. The reform in the management of provincial policy funds was further promoted. The way of investment was changed from entrusted fiscal funds to direct investment in provincial state-owned enterprises to achieve market-oriented and law-based operations. Considerable efforts were made to promote the development of a social credit system. We were the first in China to set up a province-wide mechanism allowing inquiry of all credit services.
Over the past year, we have taken enhancing the Party's political building as the overarching principle, studied and implemented the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important remarks and instructions, and earnestly launched the campaign of Extensive Study, Intensive Investigation and Effective Implementation. We encouraged all levels of government across the province to become deeply conscious of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core and keep in alignment, to strengthen confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and to resolutely uphold the core position of General Secretary Xi Jinping as well as the authority of the CPC Central Committee and its centralized and unified leadership. We are committed to full and rigorous Party self-governance and resolutely eliminating the malign influence of Li Jia and Wan Qingliang. We reported to Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress and its Standing Committee and subjected ourselves to their oversight. We have implemented the mechanism for provincial government to report to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress before adopting major decisions, actively worked with it in carrying out inspection of law enforcement and special investigations and research, and dealt with 717 suggestions from its deputies. We also reported our work to the CPPCC Guangdong Provincial Committee, supported it in fulfilling its functions of political consultation, democratic oversight and participation in the deliberation and administration of provincial affairs, and handled 662 proposals from its members. We promoted law-based government administration and realized full coverage of constitution knowledge sharing and learning in villages and neighborhoods. We have worked to build a clean government by putting into action the Central Committee's eight-point decision on improving conduct and staying engaged with the people and its detailed rules for implementation, subjecting ourselves to the oversight of discipline commissions, supervisory commissions, resident offices and inspection teams, and promoted an in-depth and full coverage oversight over auditing. We also worked conscientiously on addressing problems uncovered by the Central Inspection Group, the Re-inspection Campaign of the Central Environmental Inspection, the special inspection of crackdown on organized crime and local mafia, the State Council comprehensive inspections and the national ocean supervision and successfully solved some acute problems. We carried out in full spectrum the building of model departments and promoted governments across the province to focus on main business, contemplate and deal with important tasks with the perseverance to hammer away until the job is done, and to shoulder responsibility in overcoming difficulties so as to constantly improve our administrative services.
These achievements have certainly not come easily. We owe them to the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with General Secretary Xi Jinping at its core, the sound guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and the concerted and determined efforts of the people across the province under the guidance of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee. Therefore, on behalf of the People’s Government of Guangdong, I would like to pay tributes to the people all across the province, deputies to the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress and members of the CPPCC Guangdong Provincial Committee, to other political parties, people’s organizations and public figures from all sectors of society, and to central institutions based in Guangdong, People’s Liberation Army, armed police forces, public security officers and fire commanders and fighters. My sincere gratitude also goes to the Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas compatriots as well as friends from all over the world who have shown care and support for Guangdong’s modernization.
Fellow deputies,
Reform and opening-up has witnessed a 40-year splendid journey. In the past four decades, pioneers in Guangdong with the former Party Secretary Xi Zhongxun as a shining example kicked off a good beginning with an enterprising spirit. Successive CPC Guangdong Provincial Committees and governments since then have built on the spirit and continued to pioneer and push ahead, leading people in Guangdong to make remarkable achievements in its economic and social development. GDP in the province grew from 18.6 billion yuan in 1978 to 9.73 trillion yuan in 2018, up by 12.5% annually, ranking first across the country for 30 consecutive years; the local general public budget revenue from 4.18 billion yuan to 1.21 trillion yuan, making Guangdong the first province in the nation to have crossed the one trillion yuan threshold; the total volume of import and export from 1.59 billion U.S. dollars to over 1 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for one fourth of the national total; and the disposal income of residents from 229 yuan to 35,800 yuan. The province saw notably growing comprehensive strength with ever improving landscape in urban and rural areas, a better livelihood for the people and many firsts in the nation. We created Guangdong Experience in developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, which in turn boosted our confidence and resolution to become a “forerunner of the country in four aspects” and “two important windows” of China. The practice in Guangdong demonstrates that reform and opening-up is an effective weapon for the Party and the people to gain leapfrogging development and catch up with the times, the only path to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, and a crucial move that determines modern China’s destiny, and it now remains a crucial move for us to achieve China's two centenary goals and realize the great revitalization of the Chinese nation.
Fellow deputies,
While recognizing our achievements we are keenly aware that some acute contradictions and problems still exist in our economic and social development. First, some destabilizing factors and uncertainties in economic development are posing pressure in maintaining stable economic performance, including a complex and severe external environment, slowing increase in domestic demand and increasing latent risks in certain sectors. Some enterprises face difficulties in production and operation with a rising cost, difficult and expensive financing and limited profits among other issues. Second, external dominance of core technologies in some important sectors has presented challenges in promoting high quality economic growth. Basic research and indigenous innovation capacity are inadequate. Most of the key parts and components of equipment manufacturing industries rely on imports and the electronic information industry is still short of the essentials. The industry level remains relatively low. With over capacity in low-end industries while under capacity in high-end ones, and inadequate new growth drivers, we still face an uphill battle in industrial transformation and upgrading. Third, environmental protection infrastructure falls behind with a daunting task in pollution treatment. Sewage and solid wastes treatment infrastructure are lagged behind and more efforts need to be made for improvement of major river valleys and treatment of black and malodorous water bodies in urban areas. Green development philosophy has not been implemented faithfully in some places, with large amount of resource and energy consumption and pollutants discharge. Green and low carbon production and life style is yet to be formed. Fourth, a big gap still exists between urban and rural areas and breaking urban-rural dual structure remains a priority. Agricultural production is yet to be scaled up in an intensive manner and with more brands created. Improving rural living environments remains a daunting task. Farmers’ income is still low, and there are still large disparities in basic public services between the rural and urban areas. The Pearl River Delta region has not fully unleashed its exemplary influence, the foundation of industries in eastern and western Guangdong remains relatively weak, and the green development in northern part is yet to be improved. Fifth, there are inadequacies in developing social causes and improving people’s wellbeing. We are confronted with structural unemployment, under-supply of high quality pre-schools and compulsory education, inadequate medical and health-care service at the community level, grave and complex public security situations, weakness in workplace safety and oversight of food and drug safety. Sixth, business environment needs improvement compared with more advanced regions in other parts of the world. Some fundamental and crucial reforms are yet to be put in place. Some businesses are prohibited from operation after market entry. Problems of obstruction of the middle-level cadres, the last mile of implementation and the “one size fits all” approach still exist, and the government needs to improve its conduct. We are in need of more efficient administrative services. We will take strong and effective measures to address the above problems.
II. Work Arrangements for 2019
The year 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and a crucial year in finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important remarks and instructions to Guangdong is a tailor-made blueprint for the province as well as a road-map and checklist to implement the guiding principles of the 19th CPC National Congress. It also serves as sound guidance and instructions for Guangdong to set off again with its reform and opening-up efforts. We must substantially shoulder the historical mission given to Guangdong by General Secretary Xi Jinping and translate his warm care and remarks into inexhaustible driving force to overcome difficulties and forge ahead. We should hold high the banner of reform and opening-up in the new era, maintain strategic resolve, boost confidence, and take initiative to write a new chapter of Guangdong’s efforts to reform and develop in the new era.
The overall requirements for government’s work of this year are: hold high the great banner of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the guiding principles from the 19th CPC National Congress, the second and third plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee as well as the Central Economic Work Conference, fully implement the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important remarks and instructions to Guangdong, work hard to become a “forerunner of the country in four aspects” and “two important windows” of China, and implement the five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy. We will continue to uphold the underlying principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, promote high-quality development with new development philosophy, focus on the supply side structural reform, deepen market-oriented reform and expand high-level opening-up. With the development of the GBA as a main task, we will make efforts to maintain stable growth, promote reform, make structural adjustments, improve living standards, guard against risks and ensure stability. We will further our efforts to stabilize employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign capital, investment and expectations so as to boost confidence in the market. We will fight three critical battles, make our development more balanced and coordinated, and implement the "1+1+9" working plan of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee. With all these efforts, we aim to maintain steady and sound economic growth and social stability, so as to lay a decisive foundation for finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects, and to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China with fruitful achievements.
Based on the above considerations, we have set the following projected targets for development this year: GDP growth of 6-6.5% with the total topping 10 trillion yuan; 6-6.5% increase of the local general public budget; around 9% growth of fixed assets investment; around 8.5% growth of the total sales of consumer goods; around 3% growth of the total volume of import and export; over 1.1 million new jobs in urban area; registered urban unemployment rate kept within 3.5% and surveyed unemployment rate within 5.5%; CPI increase kept within 3%; basic parity in personal income growth and economic growth; a reduction of 3% in energy consumption per unit of GDP.
An overall review of domestic and international situations indicates a mixture of opportunities and challenges in the future. Despite a more complex environment with more uncertainties, risks and challenges, we are still and will long remain in an important period of strategic opportunity for development with positive economic development momentum. With a highly export-oriented economy, Guangdong is more susceptible to the changes of external environment. However, the 40 years of reform and opening-up has brought us a strong economic foundation and rich experience of addressing challenges and risks. Now we are embracing the important historical opportunity of building the GBA. Making full use of this important strategic period, developing creative thinking and thinking about worst-case scenarios, we will surely turn challenges into opportunities and pressure into momentum, overcome various difficulties, risks and challenges and make new achievements in economic and social development.
Going forward, we will work hard on the following ten aspects.
(I) Exerting the concerted efforts of the province on advancing the development of the Greater Bay Area, and expanding opening-up at a higher level
We will accelerate drafting the GBA Development Specialized Planning with the alignment of rules and regulations as a priority, and build a first-class international bay area and a world-class city cluster in collaboration with Hong Kong and Macao, making the GBA an important powerhouse leading the country’s high quality development.
We will speed up the development of the international science and technology innovation center in the GBA. We will develop the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao Science and Technology Innovation Corridor, and build Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao joint labs to conduct research on cutting-edge and key generic industrial technologies. We will make solid efforts to develop provincial labs to undertake or participate in the construction of national labs. To establish a comprehensive national science center, we will work together with CAS to create the major innovation platforms such as National Science Center of THz Science and Smart Super Computation Platform, promote the construction of the major science devices such as HIAF in Huizhou, and kick off the construction of the national major science and technology infrastructure such as Future Network and South China Sea Submarine Geo-sciences Observation Network. We will promote the sharing of labs, major science installations, large science research instrument and equipment, and science data among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and the cooperation of universities, science institutions and tech firms.
We will enhance the connectivity of infrastructure and mechanism simultaneously. We will promote the infrastructure connectivity by improving the operation management and institutional arrangement of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-speed Railway, accelerating the construction of Liantang / Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point, the new channel between Guangdong and Macao, and New Hengqin Port. We will implement juxtaposed border control, customs checks at one-go by both authorities, and one-stop customs clearance for vehicles. We will proceed with the construction of Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, the Second Humen Bridge, and the Second Expressway of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport. We will strive to foster world-class airport and harbor agglomerations, expediting the Phase III expansion of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, expansion of Shenzhen Bao’an Airport, expansion of Zhuhai Airport, preliminary preparation of Pearl River Delta New Hub Airport, the Phase IV construction of Nansha, Guangzhou Port and Zhaoqing New Port. We will further the market integration, better aligning with rules and regulations of Hong Kong and Macao in areas of legal service, finance, health care and construction. We will work to establish GBA International Commercial Bank, promote Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao cooperation in running schools and hospitals, and foster the youth innovation and entrepreneurship base. We will develop the GBA cultural heritage tourism routes. We will facilitate the flow of people, logistics, capital and information, cultivate a high quality urban community ideal for living, business and tourism, and facilitate the study, employment, entrepreneurship and livelihood of Hong Kong and Macao residents in Guangdong .
We will exert great efforts on the reform and innovation in the pilot free trade zone. Centering on the goal of developing a high level gateway for opening-up, we will do a good job in exercising power delegated from the central government and implementing the national policies, further delegate provincial administrative authorities to the zone, and promote more experiences of innovation. We will further implement the 20 Policies on Institutional Innovation in the pilot free trade zone, take the initiative in reform and seek support from the central government for setting up innovative futures exchanges, reforming the registration system in the growth enterprises market, innovating the line-division management in Hengqin, and expansion of the free trade zone. We will work on the negative list management mode for cross-border service trade, expand the cooperation in professional service sectors with Hong Kong and Macao, further relax the limitations on market access, license, qualification and business scope, so as to develop a one-stop service for cross-border investment and trade. We will speed up the development of key platforms including Guangdong-Hong Kong in-depth industrial cooperation area in Nansha, Shenzhen-Hong Kong modern service industry cooperation area in Qianhai and Guangdong-Macao TCM industrial park in Hengqin, so as to better support the development of Hong Kong and Macao.
We will strengthen external cooperation with the Belt and Road Initiative as a priority. We will explore the markets in en-route countries, carry out overseas trade promotion and exchanges in collaboration with Hong Kong and Macao, and make the GBA a major support of the Belt and Road Initiative. We will reinforce connectivity with en-route countries, improve the market-oriented operation of railway express to Europe, central Asia and south Asia. We will support Guangzhou Port and Shenzhen Port to expand international maritime transportation network, constituting an integrated sea-rail transport center. We will support Silk-road E-commerce by encouraging cross-border e-commerce companies to establish overseas distribution centers. Ten Policies on Foreign Investment will be put in place and the investment promotion of industrial chain will be strengthened. We will work on overseas cooperative industrial parks, cultivate consortia for outbound investment, and prompt the upstream and downstream industries to go global. Exchanges and collaboration with south Asia, southeast Asia, and Pacific Island countries will be further enhanced. We will upgrade the industrial parks including Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, and China-ROK (Huizhou) Industrial Park, continue to host Guangdong 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Exposition and Imperial Springs International Forum. We will expand the global trade and economic cooperation network by giving full play to the large population of overseas Chinese originated from Guangdong, and strengthening pragmatic cooperation with international sister cities in areas of industry, culture, tourism and etc.. Economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation between Guangdong and Taiwan will be enhanced.
We will strive to further Guangdong’s strength in foreign trade. We will adopt the market diversification strategy, explore markets in ASEAN, Japan, ROK, central and eastern Europe, and Africa, and encourage industrial clusters and specialized markets to go global collectively. We will develop global expo and trade platform for Guangdong products, and hold over 30 self-sponsored exhibitions in key markets, with the aim to promote the stable and quality development of foreign trade. We will work on the Phase IV construction of Canton Fair facilities, make good use of Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center, and improve the quality of major conferences and exhibitions including Canton Fair and China Hi-tech Fair. We will extend the coverage of policy-based export credit insurance and promote the establishment of new credit insurance companies. More efforts will be put on cultivating brands of export, increasing the portion of general trade, optimizing import structure and increasing the import of key devices, core parts and components, to promote balanced development of import and export. We will develop new models and new forms of foreign trade at a quicker pace, advance service trade and service outsourcing, propel the development of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone and the market procurement trade pilot project. We will carry on fee-cutting and efficiency-improving efforts in import and export, accelerate the construction of smart ports and further reduce the time for customs clearance.
（II）Securing decisive progress in the three critical battles against potential risk, poverty and pollution
We will take effective measures in fighting "three critical battles" of controlling risks, reducing poverty and tackling pollution. We shall not only be able to wipe out threats in direct confrontation but also be prepared for the toughness in “seesaw battles” and resolutely secure social stability and economic growth.
In the battle against potential risk, we will take resolute efforts to prevent and defuse risks in key sectors. Local governments are required to keep holding onto the debt limits, make full use of the newly-issued bonds, settle due debts, and proactively defuse the risk of hidden debts. Borrowing in violation of laws and regulations will be strongly prohibited. We will further the reform on the local financial regulation, improve the mechanisms for risk monitoring, early warning and disposal. We will continue the restructuring of rural cooperatives and complete the transformation into rural commercial banks, substantially reduce non-performing loans with multiple measures. We will tackle risks in internet finance with proactive and prudent approaches, specially in regulating the P2P online lending. We will strictly guard against “disguised campus lending” and plotted loans, dissolve risks of equity pledge, and launch comprehensive checks and crack-down activities on illegal financial practices in prevention of systemic financial risks. We must ensure that “Houses are for living in, not for speculation”. Accordingly we will encourage local governments to adopt policies based on their cities’ situations and provide categorized guidance to the cities in support of the healthy growth in local real estate markets.
We will continue to spearhead in the fight against poverty. We will keep track of the households in poverty and tailor-made alleviation tactics for villages, households and individuals, leaving out no single family or individual. We will concentrate on spurring local industry growth, enabling every capable and committed household in relevant poverty to actively engage in profitable business. We will advance alleviation programs in relation to education and social security to better address the vulnerability caused by poverty, expand the coverage of allowance to poverty-stricken students and provide basic social security for those incapable of work. Employee programs, effective health care system and affordable housing will constitute our efforts to elevate people out of poverty. In case of reversals, counties after being lifted out of poverty are still entitled to alleviation policies while the battle is going on, so as to better secure the progress in poverty alleviation. We will take supportive measures to boost development in counties with revolutionary histories including those in the original Central Soviet Area and Hai-Lu-Feng and the traditional habitation area of ethnic groups. We collaborated with neighboring provinces like Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou in poverty elimination for building a moderately prosperous society for all.
We will redouble efforts to fight against pollution. We will devote serious energy to ecological conservation, ensure a comprehensive implementation of the River (or Lake) Chief System throughout the province, launch the campaign of “Clear Rivers in Guangdong”, and complete the Clean Waterway Project to a high standard. We will launch a collective action against violations in protective areas for drinking water sources in the counties. In particular, we are expected to wrap up the comprehensive treatment along the Maozhou River, carry on the construction of infrastructure for environmental protection along the Lianjiang River, and address the pollution in the waterways across Guangzhou and Foshan. On a case-by-case basis, we will meet the standards in the nation’s assessment on the quality of surface water, conduct the treatment of black and malodorous water bodies in the urban area , and build another 5,000 kilometers of sewage pipelines. We are resolute in winning the fight for blue skies. We will keep tightening control on ozone pollution, reduce carbon consumption, pollution in transportation and dust control in manufacturing and construction. Unplanned, unregulated and polluting enterprises will all be put into suspension until rectification is in place. We will set up exemplary projects for soil pollution control and restoration, improve public awareness of waste classification, and regulate landfill sites in the countryside. We will strengthen solid waste disposal, prohibit garbage from being brought into China and severely crack down on illegal transfer and dumping of solid waste. We will serve the enterprises with better guidance on pollution control, and avoid the “one size fits all” approach in ecological environment supervision and law enforcement. We will integrate various land use plans into a master one for the draft of the province’s land and spacial planning. We will complete the afforestation over a landmass of 3.35 million mu, reforest 600 hectares of mining fields and quarries, support the national pilot project in Shaoguan of ecological protection and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes and grasslands, and facilitate restoration projects in the Leizhou Peninsula and the Maoming Oil Shale Mine. We will carry on the efforts to better preserve mangroves and wetlands and continue to restore the ecological system in coastal areas and islands.
(III) Advancing supply-side structural reform to promote high-quality economic development
In economic development, we need to focus on the real economy represented by the manufacturing sector, and step up efforts to “consolidate, enhance, upgrade and facilitate” the economy, so as to further improve the supply structure and promote industrial transformation and upgrading.
We will step up efforts to build Guangdong into a leader in manufacturing. We will enhance the technological innovation capability of manufacturing industry, and develop world-class advanced manufacturing clusters in areas of electronic information, green petrochemicals, automobiles, smart home appliances, robots and etc. We will press ahead with the development of the advanced equipment manufacturing industry belt on the west bank of the Pearl River, and vigorously introduce high-quality high-end equipment manufacturing projects. We will speed up the formulation of the R&D and manufacturing plan for integrated circuits. We will enhance the promotion and application of industrial robots, encourage the innovative application of industrial internet, promote another 3,000 industrial enterprises to migrate to the Cloud and Platform, and accelerate the digital, IT-based and intelligent development of the manufacturing sector. We will accelerate the construction of the National Printing and Flexible Display Innovation Center, establish 5 more provincial-level manufacturing innovation centers and work to build another national-level one. We will continue to implement a new round of industrial technical transformation with 8,300 enterprises. We will accelerate phasing out the outdated production facilities, resolutely cut ineffective supply, and carry out a pilot evaluation of “benefit per mu” of manufacturing enterprises. We will promote the in-depth integration of advanced manufacturing and modern service industries, develop service-oriented manufacturing, and build public service platforms for producer service industries. We will carry out campaigns to improve quality, deepen the reform on standardization, and strengthen brand cultivation and protection, so as to build Guangdong into a leader in quality. We will do well in the fourth national economic census and further improve comprehensive performance evaluation system for high-quality development.
We will accelerate the cultivation and expansion of emerging industries. We will vigorously develop the new generations of information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, green and low-carbon industry, bio-pharmaceuticals, digital economy, new materials, marine economy and other strategic emerging industries. We will implement the development plan of digital economy, promote the in-depth integration of the Internet, big data, cloud computing and the real economy, and build a national digital economy development pilot zone. We will cultivate a number of key enterprises in artificial intelligence comprehensive research, chip manufacturing, intelligent electronics, and other fields and build certain number of artificial intelligence industrial clusters. We will launch 5G network deployment in the Pearl River Delta region and accelerate 5G commercialization. We will vigorously develop the 4K ultra-high definition video industry and accelerate the development of the hydrogen energy industry and the new energy vehicle industry. We will promote the applications of new technologies and new models such as sharing economy and mobile payment.
We will bolster up the real economy. We will conscientiously implement the national tax and fee reduction policies, formulate the provincial-level measures on tax and fee cuts, put the Ten Policies on Real Economy in place, and introduce more targeted measures in support of corporate financing, land use, and intellectual property rights protection. We will stabilize the social insurance collection policy and moderately lower the share paid by businesses for contributions to certain types of social insurance. We will improve the policy-backed finance and credit rating guarantee system, promote the development of private banks and community banks, and the listing of high-quality enterprises to the technology board and the National Equities Exchange and Quotations System, allowing the financial sector to better serve the real economy. We will launch targeted actions on the charging activities of public institutions, and industry associations. We will establish a “one-stop” online platform to release provincial-level policies on enterprises, strengthen policy publicity and interpretation, and improve the policy evaluation mechanism.
We will promote green, low-carbon and circular development. Focusing on energy conservation and emission reduction, we will strictly implement the “double control” of the total amount and intensity of energy and water consumption and construction land use. We will build an energy sector that is clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient. We will accelerate the construction of natural gas main pipeline network, coastal LNG terminals, and coal-to-gas supporting projects. We will advance the construction of offshore wind power industrial base in Yangjiang, operation and maintenance assembly base in eastern Guangdong, and R&D and manufacturing base in Zhongshan. We will implement the “Hundred, Thousand and Ten-thousand” campaign of key energy consumers as an important measure to promote the energy efficiency in key sectors. We will improve the policy system for “Three-Old Renovation” (old towns, old factory buildings and old villages), and focus on the key projects in contiguous areas. The area transformed will be no less than 50,000 mu for the whole year, and the disposal rate of lands left idle should exceed 15%. We will resolutely crack down on illegal constructions of more than 100 million square meters for the whole year.
(IV) Taking innovation as the primary driving force and expediting the efforts to develop Guangdong into a science and technology innovation powerhouse
We will adhere to self-reliance and self-innovation, continue the implementation of the Eight Measures on Science and Technology Innovation, focus on tackling the bottleneck problems, and further enhance the innovation capacity of the province.
We will strengthen basic research, basic research in applied sciences and make breakthroughs in key technologies. We will establish and improve the funding mechanism for basic sciences, and raise the share of investment in basic research in the total R&D expenditure. We will form the provincial-level committee to manage the fund for researches in basic science and application. We will make efforts to implement the R&D programs of nine major fields, encouraging national key science and technology projects and platforms such as laser equipment and device, service robot, international math center to be set up in Guangdong. In terms of cutting-edge frontier technologies like new generation of communication & internet, quantum science, brain science, artificial intelligence, high-level research institutions will be deployed accordingly. We will further the new round of industry-academia-research cooperation and synergy of enterprises, universities and research institutes. We will press ahead with the development of “Double-First” universities and major disciplines. We will support the development of leading innovative enterprises, cultivating more innovative achievements either taking the lead or keeping abreast of the top tier players in the world. Aiming to establish the National Military-Civilian Integration Demonstration Zone, we will develop a batch of collaborative innovation platforms for militarily-civilian science and technology coordination, and propel the construction of National Defense Science and Technology Achievements Industrialization Application and Promotion Center.
We will work to strengthen the role of enterprises as main players in innovation. We will continue to implement the initiative to set up role models of new and high-tech enterprises and improve quality, strengthen their innovation capability, and support them to go listed. The leading innovative enterprises will be encouraged to establish overseas R&D centers, enhancing their global innovation resources allocation ability. We also support the large-and-medium-sized backbone enterprises to set up provincial-level technological innovation centers, corporate institutes and key labs. The ratio of R&D institutions owned by industrial enterprises above designated size will rise to over 40%. We will strengthen the synergy of enterprises, universities, and research institutes. We will carry out the full coverage of national high-tech zones in municipal cities, speed up the upgrading of high-tech zones in Shaoguan, Yangjiang, Meizhou and Jieyang, support the competent zones to foster high-level innovation platforms, and expand the innovative industrial cluster with international competitiveness.
We will develop international innovative talent highland. With the aim to facilitate the innovative development of doctoral and post-doctoral professionals, and gather more top-tier talents, we will further implement the key talent initiatives including the Pearl River Talent Program, Guangdong Special Supportive Program for High-caliber Talents, and Sailing Program (talent recruitment initiative dedicated to the less-developed region in Guangdong). To allow research institutes and leading talents greater say over their research, we will improve the talent incentive mechanism, urge the higher education institutes to speed up the pilot reform on the science and technology achievements disposal right and technology appraised as capital stock. We will deepen the reform of the talent classification and evaluation system as well as the professional title system, fully implement Guangdong Talent Card (You Yue Ka) policy and improve the visa service for talents. With the commitment to cultivating Guangdong Craftsmen, we are to strengthen the cultivation of high-skilled talents, support the qualified technician institutes to be included in higher education, and do a good job in the construction of training bases for high-skilled talents, public training bases and workshops for skilled masters.
We will improve the innovation environment in an all-round way. The Twelve Policies on Science and Technology Innovations and its supportive policies to benefit all entrepreneurs and innovators will be carried out earnestly. In order to alleviate the burdens on research institutes and researchers, we will deepen the reform designed to delegate power, improve regulation, and provide better services for science and technology projects and funding management. We will speed up the establishment of the Pearl River Delta National Science and Technology Achievements Transfer and Transformation Demonstration Zone, fostering a batch of technology service agencies. We will develop venture capital investment, science and technology credit service and International Venture Capital Investment Center. We will continue the move in the nationwide business start-ups and innovation initiative, foster more business start-ups and innovation demonstration centers, maker spaces, and specialized incubators. We will press ahead with the development of Intellectual Property Protection Center and Trademark Examination and Coordination (Guangzhou) Center, host Guangzhou Intellectual Property Trade Expo, enhance intellectual property mortgage financing, and severely crack down on the illegal acts of infringement and counterfeiting. We will adhere to the law of science, advocate the true spirit of science, and strengthen the ethics of science and academic atmosphere. We will redouble efforts on science popularization so as to enhance the scientific literacy of the public.
(V) Making strong moves in the rural revitalization strategy and accelerating the breaking of the urban-rural dual structure
We will give priority to the development of agriculture and rural area. To build rural areas with thriving businesses, pleasant living environments, social etiquette and civility, effective governance, and prosperity, we need to put in place sound systems, mechanisms, and policies for promoting integrated urban-rural development, and speed up the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.
We will focus on developing the industries from which both the individual and the entire village will benefit. We will deepen the supply-side structural reform in agriculture sector by building strength in the traditional sectors including rice, pig and aquatic products, strengthening the specialized sectors including fruits and flowers, scaling up the emerging sectors such as recreational agriculture, smart agriculture, facility agriculture, and cultivating a number of whole-chain enterprise clusters, so as to achieve integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas. Efforts will be made to build up 50 provincial level modern agriculture industrial parks and to promote the “One Featured Product for One Village, One Pillar Industry for One Town” program. We will provide assistance to 100 specialized towns and 1,000 specialized villages to develop their featured industries, and develop famous Guangdong brands for the agriculture sector. We will cultivate new agribusiness and develop more industrial consortia. We will work to promote the operation model integrating leading enterprises, cooperatives and rural households, kick off the development of new rural agriculture service system, and establish e-commerce demonstration counties to promote on-line business in rural area. We will strive to make breakthroughs in agricultural technologies through leveraging the development of modern seed industry and precision agriculture, and develop the Guangzhou National Modern Agriculture Science and Technology Innovation Center. Efforts on prevention and control of animal and plant diseases will be strengthened. We will also improve the tracing system for agricultural products, chemical fertilizer and pesticide.
We will speed up our efforts in improving rural living environment. We will make development plan for villages and further implement the initiative of Green Rural Revival Program. Priority should be given to areas along the traffic network, borders, tourist attractions and urban suburbs. We aims to basically complete the living environment improvement program by the end of the year, building 10 to 20 demonstration counties, 100 to 200 demonstration towns and more than 1,000 demonstration villages. We will speed up the development of Beautiful Village Demonstration Belt in inter-provincial corridors of Shaoguan, Zhaoqing, Heyuan, Meizhou and Chaozhou and work to build provincial-level contiguous demonstration areas of new countryside. We will improve rural water conservancy, garbage and sewage treatment facilities, and launch the construction of township-level sewage treatment plants in an all-round way. We will complete the pollution-control of small and medium rivers in the five cities of mountainous areas, and fully launch the second phase of the project with total length of 2,000 kilometers.
We will deepen the rural reforms in all aspects. We will steadily pursue reform to separate rural land ownership rights, contract rights and use rights, so as to see more contracted rural land covered by this reform. We will expedite land circulation and joint-stock cooperation, and enhance the large-scale operation. We will regulate the management on the rural land designated for housing as well as the rural housing construction, and put more efforts to resume farming by demolishing unused housing. We will take rigorous measures to protect farmland. We will increase the area of high-standard cropland by 1,200,000 mu and reclaim 70,000 mu of paddy fields, followed by sound maintenance afterwards and appropriate arrangement on offsetting cultivated land used for other purposes. We will increase the quota of land used for village construction, practice the model of segmented land supply, improve the policy of land used for agricultural facility, and spur the new forms of rural business development. We will reinforce the outcomes of the three pilot reforms regarding rural land system, promote the reforms on land expropriation and commercialization of rural collective construction land. We will press ahead with the reform of the rural collective property rights system and develop more models in rural collective economy. Further reforms on agricultural reclamation, supply and marketing cooperatives, state-owned forest farms, collective forestry property right will be carried on. We will establish a long-term mechanism for the integration of agricultural-related funds, innovate the approval and administrative mechanism of rural projects, and improve the use of rural revitalization funds.
We will exert efforts to promote the revitalization of party organizations and culture in rural area. We will implement the Primary-level Party Organization Bellwether Program and the Pioneer Project for Party members in Guangdong. We will train professional rural service personnel who have a good knowledge of agriculture, love rural areas, and care about rural people. In line with core socialist values, we will make great efforts to promote the fine traditional culture and remove the outdated social mores from village rules and regulations. We will launch more initiatives to improve the etiquette and ethical standards at the community level, build a number of well-known towns & villages and demonstration counties & villages, promote local operas in the countryside, and establish rural culture brands with Cantonese characteristics. We will strengthen the protection and development of historical trails, ancient villages, revolutionary sites and traditional culture of ethnic groups in Guangdong, so as to enhance the Lingnan features in the rural landscape.
We will work to promote the integrated urban-rural development. The new type of people-oriented urbanization will be fully enhanced by granting permanent urban residency to eligible ones migrating from rural to urban areas. We will develop county-level economy, upgrade the infrastructure of counties and towns, improve urban-rural connectivity, and provide more public service and social programs to the countryside. We will encourage more private investment for rural revitalization with the initiative of 10,000 Enterprises to Aid 10,000 Villages. We will work on the program of New Rural Elites returning to their hometowns, continue to support volunteers of teachers, doctors, planners, architects and engineers to conduct professional practices in rural areas. Committed to building up famous brands to support employment and entrepreneurship, we will carry out Cantonese Chef Program and other skill training programs, trained at least 50,000 skilled farmers, support migrant workers returning hometown for employment and business start-ups, and encourage veterans and graduates of colleges and technical schools to devote themselves to rural development.
(VI) Stepping up efforts to create a new landscape in coordinated regional development through the formation of the One Core Region, One Belt and One Area layout
Under the new strategy of taking functional areas as regional development drivers, we will take targeted measures to improve resources allocation and industrial structure, promote the diversified but coordinated development based on the complementarity among different regions of the province.
We will create a better and stronger Pearl River Delta core region. We will deepen the integration of industry, business environment, ecology and basic public services in the core region of the Pearl River Delta, speed up the construction of cross-Pearl-River estuary corridors, promote the integration and coordinated development along the banks of the Pearl River estuary, and join hands with Hong Kong and Macao to build a world-class city cluster. We will exert efforts to revitalize the old downtown of Guangzhou and make new highlights in comprehensive urban functions, cultural soft power, modern service industry and international business environment; develop Shenzhen into a pioneer of reform and opening up in the new era, a pilot demonstration zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics, and a model city of socialist modernization; and speed up the development of Zhuhai special economic zone so as to build it into a core city on the west bank of the Pearl River. We are committed to enhancing the city profile by building internationally-recognized brands of exhibitions, competitions and forums. We will strengthen lean management in urban governance like doing embroidery, carry out micro-renovation of old urban communities, promote urban civilization and improve living environment. We will speed up Guangzhou-Foshan urban integration and reinforce the leading role of the Pearl River Delta core region. We will improve the regional counterpart cooperation mechanism, speed up Guangzhou-Qingyuan integration and the construction of Shenzhen-Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone, and promote the quality and efficiency of the industrial transfer parks.
We will support the development of coastal economic belt on the east and west wings. We will develop Shantou and Zhanjiang into provincial sub-central cities, further revitalize Shantou SEZ and promote the construction of Zhanjiang in connection with Hainan Free Trade Port. We will nurture and develop Shantou-Chaozhou-Jieyang urban agglomeration and Zhanjiang-Maoming-Yangjiang urban area, linking up the coastal area along the Pearl River Delta. A number of major industrial projects will be developed along the the eastern and western coasts of Guangdong, with focuses on port-related chemical industry, ocean-engineering equipment, marine bio-tech, offshore wind power and the like, and the oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea will be enhanced. We will support the construction of Shantou Harbor-related Economic Zone, Shanwei High-tech Zone, Yangjiang Coastal New District，Zhanjiang Donghai Island, Maoming Petrochemical Base，Chaozhou Port Economic Development Zone, and Jieyang Dananhai Petrochemical Industrial Zone. A number of modern fishery ports and deep-sea fishery bases will be built accordingly. Coastal and island tourism will be further enhanced.
We will develop ecological development area in northern Guangdong. Giving priority to ecological protection, we will strictly control the development intensity and industrial access thresholds, strengthen ecological protection and restoration, and build up solid green ecological shelters for the whole province. The nature reserve areas will be better managed. Aiming at establishing national parks, a pilot ecological special reserve zone across Shaoguan and Northern Qingyuan will be developed for ecological restoration of Nanling, the mountainous area in northern Guangdong. Those small, decentralized and low-efficiency industrial parks will be improved, revoked or merged. We are to develop new green low-carbon industries, modern agriculture and forestry, health care and other ecological industries in view of local conditions, and support Yunfu and other places to build South China Traditional Herbal Medicine Base. With the commitment to developing tourist resorts serving the GBA, we will draft the blueprint for Nanling Eco-tourism Highway and tap into featured tourism resources. We will support the improvement of urban function in central urban areas, further improve the regional ecological compensation mechanism, and increase the financial transfer payments to the ecological development area.
We will resolutely implement the central government’s deployment, continue to do a good job in targeted assistance to Xinjiang, Tibet and Ganzi of Sichuan, focusing on livelihood projects, industrial development and talent support. We will strengthen counterpart cooperation with Heilongjiang and firmly promote cooperation in the fields of grains, pharmaceuticals, equipment manufacturing, and etc. We will further promote regional cooperation in the Pan-Pearl River Delta.
(VII) Stimulating consumption and investment in a solid manner to unleash the potential of domestic demand
We will give full play to the fundamental role of consumption in economic development and the key role of investment in supply structure, and foster a strong domestic market, so as to provide solid support for stable operation of the economy.
We will actively upgrade consumption. We will formulate policies and measures to promote consumption, further relax the control on private capital access, and proactively develop service industries such as information, elderly care, education and health care. We will increase the supply of high quality products and services, expand the import of premium consumer goods to cater for the demand for high-end consumption. We will plan and construct large-scale commercial areas with high standard, renovate and upgrade urban pedestrian streets and build more convenience stores. We will encourage the upgrade of consumption on automobiles and facilitate the transaction of used cars. We will boost online shopping, remote medical care, new retail and sport-related consumption. We will encourage paid leaves, develop all-for-one tourism, upgrade tourism infrastructure, and build the brand of Lingnan Featured Tourism. We will tap into consumption markets in the rural areas, improve the rural circulation network, and upgrade the consumption of rural residents in food, clothing, housing and transportation. We will severely crack down on illegal activities of manufacturing and selling counterfeit and inferior goods in order to create a good environment for consumption.
We will proactively shore up the weak links in infrastructure. To lay a solid foundation for long-term benefits and balanced development, we will deepen supply-side structural reform of infrastructure, accelerate the construction of key projects with a total annual investment of 650 billion yuan. We will expedite the construction of high-speed and rapid transportation channels that connect the Pearl River Delta region with the eastern, western and northern Guangdong by pushing forward the construction of Ganzhou-Shenzhen, Guangzhou-Shanwei, Shanwei-Shantou high-speed railways, starting the construction of Guangzhou-Zhanjiang high-speed railway, striving to start the construction of Longchuan-Meizhou high-speed railway and the Shenzhen-Jiangmen section of Shenzhen-Maoming Rail, and completing Meizhou-Shantou railway. We will do well in the construction of Shantou-Zhanjiang, Chaozhou-Shantou Ring, Heyuan-Huizhou-Dongguan, Guangzhou-Zhanjiang expressways, and the renovation and expansion projects of congestion black spots. We will push forward the preparatory work of Huangmaohai Bridge that connects Zhuhai and Jiangmen, and the expressway extending from Shenzhen to Shenzhen-Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone, promote the construction of national and provincial highways and work to build, manage, maintain and operate the rural roads well. We will expedite the construction of Zhanjiang New Airport, Shaoguan Airport, complete the expansion of Jieyang-Chaoshan Airport and Huizhou Airport. We will press ahead with Unit 2 of Taishan Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 5 and Unit 6 of Yangxi Power Plant, and Maoming Bohe Power Plant. We will conduct the renovation and expansion of 30,000-tonnege waterway in Zhanjiang Port, complete the Phase II project of Shantou Guang’ao Port, speed up the construction of 30,000-tonnege navigation route in Maoming Bohe New Port, push forward smooth operation of waterways in Beijiang River and Xijiang River, and speed up the construction of the Pearl River Delta water resource allocation project, Hanjiang River-Rongjiang River-Lianjiang River connection project, Hanjiang River Gaobei water conservancy project, Xijiang River trunk stream treatment project, and Pajiang River flood storage and discharge area. Investment in infrastructure such as information network and municipal projects will be increased.
We will stimulate industrial investment with the construction of major industrial projects. We will strengthen strategic cooperation with central government enterprises, large-scale private enterprises and foreign enterprises, establish “green channel” for introducing major industrial projects and attracting more quality industrial projects to settle. We will expedite major projects including the BASF Verbund in Zhanjiang and the petrochemical complex of ExxonMobil in Huizhou, and push forward the projects such as Sino-Venezuela Guangdong Petrochemical (Jieyang) project, Foxconn Guangzhou 10.5-generation panel plant, Guangzhou LG OLED project, Shenzhen CSOT 11-generation panel plant, Huizhou CGN Taipingling Nuclear Plant Phase 1 project in a solid manner. We will grant support to the projects of Zhuhai Integrated Circuit Whole Industry Chain, Dongguan Uni-cloud Industrial Town, and Foshan “Robot Valley”. We will strengthen overall planning in land, sea and forest use, infrastructure facilities, environmental impact assessment review and approval, and financial input, ensuring major projects be implemented in a timely manner. We will proactively guide private capital to invest in major industrial projects, establish the long-term mechanism of promoting projects to private capital in order to fully tap on the growth potential of private investment.
(VIII) Promoting the full development of all social programs to better secure and improve people’s wellbeing
We will remain committed to the people-centered development philosophy, conscientiously resolve each and every one of the issues that most affect and worry our people, see that the achievements of reform and development better benefit all people in a fair way and strive to establish a social governance model based on collaboration, participation and common interests.
We will take proactive and solid measures to boost employment and entrepreneurship. We will give high priority to employment and implement the Nine Policies on Promoting Employment. We will open more channels for university graduates to find jobs, provide more skill training, facilitate the employment of migrant workers and those in extreme difficulty, and secure at least one job for a “zero-employment” family. We will further reduce companies’ cost of recruitment, and help employees of companies with economic hardship to stay on their job or to be relocated to new posts. We will offer eligible migrant workers equal supportive policies and related services of employment and entrepreneurship. We will increase assistance in business start-ups and support the construction of incubation bases for those who start business in rural areas. We will construct a coordinated mechanism of unemployment insurance, basic living allowance and employment promotion measures, and improve the mechanism of preventing and resolving labor disputes, so as to ensure harmonious labor relations.
We will give priority to developing education. We will fully implement the guiding principles of the National Education Conference by carrying out the comprehensive reform and development of basic education in a coordinated manner, and piloting the scheme in which senior high school education is coordinated at the municipal level, and pre-school and compulsory education at the county or district level. We will increase the coverage of public kindergartens and affordable private ones, and build more small schools in villages and boarding schools in townships. We will press ahead with building well-established universities into first-class ones, improving the performance of universities in less developed areas and enhance the featured disciplines of specialized universities. We will improve regional structure and raise gross enrollment rate of higher education. We will increase the enrollment of occupational education and improve its quality to better facilitate the economic development, and will build Guangdong’s strength in technical education. We will develop special education and private education to a higher level. We will address the problem of heavy extra-curriculum burdens on students, regulate after-school tutoring agencies, strengthen the students’ physical exercise, and prevent and control myopia of children and teenagers. We will press ahead with the “New Normal School” initiative, and strengthen the professional ethics and competence of teachers.
We will improve the health-care and medical care service. We will deepen the reform of medicine and health-care system and coordinated reforms of health-care system, medical insurance system and drug production and circulation system. We will push forward reforms in public hospitals, establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism for medical service price, improve the disease-based payment system, include more life-saving and emergency drugs into medical insurance scheme, and ensure the supply and safety of clinical drugs. We will press ahead the development of compact medical consortia in view of local conditions, raise service quality of family doctors, and expedite the development of tiered medical diagnosis and treatment. We will widely promote the group-purchasing practice of medicines, and improve the “internet+drug” purchasing platforms of Guangdong province, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. We will speed up the development of high standard hospitals, and strive to be the national center of medicine and regional center of medical treatment. We will raise the service quality and strengthen the professional training of community-level health-care units, and scale up efforts to cultivate pediatricians, obstetricians, anesthetists and general practitioners. We will initiative the action plan to inherit, innovate and develop traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to build Guangdong’s strength in TCM. We will improve the management of vaccine circulation and inoculation, strengthen the prevention and control of AIDS, tuberculosis, severe mental disorder and other major diseases, enhance vocational health management, improve the health service for the elderly, and integrate health-care and elderly care. We will further develop the cause of women and children, improve the health service for them, prevent and control birth defect, and protect the rights and interests of women and minors.
We will expedite the building of a multi-tiered social security system. We will work to see that everyone has access to social security, and strive to enlarge the coverage of social security. We will consolidate and build on the results of coordinating old-age pension of enterprise employees at the provincial level, ensure the central system for the funds of the pension to be used inter-provincially, and deliver on raising the old-age pension benefits for enterprise retirees, rural and unemployed urban residents. We will carry on the urban-rural integration of health-care insurance, expedite the coordination of health-care and work-related injury insurances at the provincial level, and improve the critical illness insurance system and medical assistance system. We will improve the social assistance system, raise the standards of subsistence allowance and nursing standards in dire poverty, and push forward the building of the caring and protection system of left-behind children in rural areas and the security system of deprived children. We will speed up and improve elderly-related programs by providing more home- and community-based elderly care services. We will improve rehabilitation services for people with disability, promote the undertakings of the disabled and press ahead with charity undertaking. We will encourage both housing purchase and renting, improve the market system and security system of housing, address the housing problems of middle- and low-income urban residents and new citizens in a phased manner, pilot the development of shared ownership housing, and rebuild 24,000 units to resettle households in rundown urban areas.
We will further build up Guangdong’s strength in culture. We will nurture and practice core socialist values, proactively implement the project of strengthening morality and ethics, and further consolidate the unity in thinking throughout the province. We will launch more initiatives to improve public etiquette and ethical standards and pass on the traditions of revolution. We will push forward the construction of major iconic cultural facilities of the province. We will work to vitalize philosophy and social sciences, protect and develop Lingnan operas, Guangdong fine art, Guangdong music and other cultural icons, create more masterpieces of Lingnan style and of the times, and enable more people to benefit from high art. We will strengthen the protection and utilization of cultural relics, the protection and inheritance of cultural heritages, and the revitalization and reuse of historical buildings. We will promote Lingnan culture to go global and tell the “Story of Guangdong” well. We will proactively develop cultural industry parks and creative industry, upgrade the competitive industries including press and publications, films and television, animation and comic, and cultivate new cultural sectors including smart radio and television, digital publications, internet culture, mobile new media, etc and promote the integrated development of the media. We will do well in counseling, historical records and local chronicles. We will further launch the Fitness-for-All programs, build more public sports venues and facilities, further the reform and development of football, build strengths in sports industry, organize international sports games, including the FIBA Basketball World Cup and the Orienteering World Cup.
We will safeguard a harmonious and stable society. We will strictly guard against and crack down on the activities of subversion, infiltration and sabotage by hostile forces inside and outside China. We will further crack down on organized crimes and local mafia, deliver crippling blows to the manufacturing and selling of counterfeit goods, smuggling and selling of smuggled goods, telecommunication fraud, underground banks, illegal fund-raising, pornography, gambling, drugs and other illegal and criminal acts, and continue to push forward the drug-free society campaign. We will strengthen comprehensive administration of social security, push forward the building of the smart system of the police, create friendly and helping neighborhoods. We will promote the public awareness of the Constitution and rule of law, improve the public legal service system, resolve the conflicts reported by letter petitions, and optimize the mechanism of identifying and resolving social conflicts. We will strengthen the oversight of food and drug safety. We will coordinate, integrate and optimize the capacity of emergency response and rescue, comprehensively push forward the building of a modern system and up-to-date capacity of natural disasters prevention and control. We will adopt advanced approaches to conduct meteorological work. We will take concrete actions to build the accountability system of workplace safety, deepen targeted rectification campaigns of road traffic, hazardous chemicals, fire service and other key sectors, so as to resolutely prevent the occurrence of serious and major accidents.
We will strengthen the military-civilian integration. We will steadfastly enhance national defense mobilization system, public awareness of national defense, and the mutual support between and concerted efforts of servicemen and civilian. We will enhance the quality of conscription in accordance with the law, and the protection of national defense facilities. We will fully support the reform and development of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) stationed in Guangdong, continue to unite the military with local governments and people, and deepen the military-civilian integration. We will improve the policies and measures of services and management, of employment and business start-ups, of prioritized and preferential treatment and of honor recognition, so that veterans will be well treated and resettled We will establish veteran service and management system, and construct a centralized and unified mechanism with clearly-defined duties to serve and support veterans. Such efforts aim to create a sound atmosphere in the society that respects veterans and honors military service.
We will accomplish the ten livelihood programs with all efforts.
·increase the level of the six social security programs that guarantee the minimum living standards, such as the basic pensions for non-working urban dwellers and rural residents;
·establish a system to guarantee a certain amount of funding per student covering all the phases of education from pre-school to senior high school;
·improve the talent training and capacity building for the community-level medical service providers in the eastern, western and northern Guangdong;
·enhance support for skill training, entrepreneurship and employment;
·improve the quality and safety of rural roads by conducting the program of “building, managing, maintaining and running rural roads well”;
·support the program of “One Featured Product for One Village, One Pillar Industry for One Town” to enrich the rural residents and vitalize the villages;
·promote free admission of public cultural facilities and better preserve the cultural heritages;
·vigorously promote “Toilet Revolution”;
·strengthen safety supervision and testing of food and drugs;
·make government services more easily accessible through Yue Sheng Shi Guangdong Administrative Service Mobile Platform;
(IX) Deepening reform in key sectors and building up new strength in systems and mechanisms
We will follow the top-level design by the central government, achieve breakthroughs in reforms in fundamental and key sectors with an enterprising spirit, and strive to break the bottlenecks that impede development.
We will deepen the reforms designed to delegate power, improve regulation, and provide better services. We will guarantee that provincial administrative power is delegated to local governments, continue to delegate a series of provincial administrative authority, and cut the list of provincial rights and responsibilities from 3,018 items to a little over 1,000. We will entrust local governments to perform the function of micro approval and administration, so as to better define rights and responsibilities between the provincial government and local governments. Efforts will be made to improve the functional system of provincial government departments and complete the institutional reform of municipal and county-level governments in all respects. We will further the reform to integrate multiple certifications and licenses into one business license and to separate permits and certificates from business licenses, improve the market exit mechanism, implement classified investment project management and local facilitation reform for the enterprises, and work to ensure that government approval will take no more than 41 working days for civil construction projects and no more than 45 working days for industrial projects before the construction starts. We will strengthen work on building the social credit system, and promote the sharing of public credit information across regions, administrative levels and departments, and form an overall credit network in Guangdong for rewards and punishments. We will continue to cut numbers of certificates needed for administrative approval, and initiate 100 ways to reduce traffic congestion.
We will vigorously promote the development of digital government. We will speed up the provincial government service big data center to promote information sharing among departments, improve the integrated online government service platform, rebuild the administrative service procedures, standardize administrative approval, and focus on solving prominent problems concerning the enterprises to start construction, gain construction permit, and pass joint review of construction drawings. We will promote online intermediary supermarket, regulate the agencies and lower the institution-related transaction cost of businesses. The service scope of Yue Sheng Shi Guangdong Administrative Service Mobile Platform will be further expanded to achieve full coverage of frequently-sought service in Guangdong. We will integrate government service terminals and extend the existing service resources to the community level. A unified collaborative working platform based on mobile technology will be set up to promote collaboration in government institutions at all levels.
We will continue to deepen the categorized reform of provincial public institutions. We will complete the reform of the public institutions with administrative functions in all respects, and return the administrative functions undertaken by the public institutions to government organs, so as to relieve them of government functions. Actions will be taken to continue the reform of public institutions specialized in manufacturing, and steadfastly advance the institutional reform or cancellation of 64 such public institutions in the second round. We will further the reform of public welfare institutions and vigorously promote the integration and optimization of resources for the Category I & II public institutions. Efforts will be made to accelerate the reform of integrating inspection and testing institutions in Guangdong, and cultivate a number of inspection and testing groups. We will advance the reform of logistical service agencies of provincial organs, explore and promote the overall staffing management in public institutions, and implement a fixed staffing quota system in eligible public institutions.
We will advance the reform of state capital and SOEs. With differentiated policies based on actual conditions of enterprises, we will promote the strategic reorganization of provincial state-owned enterprises, actively move forward with reforms introducing mixed ownership in SOEs, and further focus on the main business. The goal is to ensure that more than 70% of the state-owned capital in Guangdong is concentrated on important industries and key areas with basic, public, platform-oriented and steering significance. We will strengthen risk management and control of the debt, capital and overseas assets of state-owned enterprises. Efforts will be made to accelerate the relief of provincial enterprises in dire straits, and fully realize market-based liquidations of zombie enterprises before the end of the year. Actions will be taken to deepen the pilot reform of investment companies and those in operation with state-owned capital. We will fully implement the wage determination mechanism and work on market-based recruitment of managers in SOEs to further stimulate their vitality. We will strengthen party building in SOEs, enhance the supervision of state-owned assets with capital management as the main focus, and strengthen, expand, and increase returns on state capital.
We will create a better environment for the development of private sector. There will be no irresolution about consolidating and developing the public sector and no irresolution about encouraging, supporting, and guiding non-public sector development. We will encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector, and treat the state-owned and private economy equally. We will implement policies and measures including the Ten Policies on Private Sector，and focus on solving problems for private enterprises with regard to access permits and operations. Efforts will be made to strengthen regular and standardized communication between the government and enterprises, continue to implement Guangdong Entrepreneur and Governor Face-to-face Consultation mechanism, promote the system in which government officials are assigned to coordinate with enterprises, and build a new type of cordial and clean relationship between government and business. We will protect the personal and property safety of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law, clean up and abolish various regulations and practices that hinder the level playing field and fair competition, and improve the incentive and restraint mechanism for private enterprises to operate in good faith. We will vigorously advocate for entrepreneurship, implement the new Guangdong entrepreneur training program, and encourage private enterprises to grow into time-honored brands.
We will deepen fiscal reform. We will implement a proactive fiscal policy, comprehensively plan budgetary funds, government assets and bond funds, improve the fiscal expenditure structure, concentrate financial resources on key projects, and guarantee funds in key areas and projects. We will further reform the supervision and management of provincial budget preparation and enforcement, streamline administration and delegate power, ensure that the responsibility of the main budget enforcement department is in place, and improve the effectiveness of fiscal funds. Actions will be made to promote and implement dynamic management of local governments’ debt projects, and improve the quality and progress of bond projects. We will reform to separate administrative fiscal authority and expenditure responsibility, and fully exempt the expenditure responsibility of basic medical insurance, basic pension of rural and unemployed urban residents and basic public health services in the original Central Soviet Area, poverty-stricken counties in old revolutionary base areas in Hai-Lu-Feng and counties with ethnic minorities. We will establish a fiscal system that promotes coordinated development between urban and rural areas, establish a subsistence support mechanism, and increase fiscal transfer payments to the east, west and north of Guangdong.
(X) Strengthening administrative capacity in an all-round way to modernize the ability for governance
We will uphold and strengthen the Party’s overall leadership, and take the government institutional reform as an opportunity to intensify efforts to transform government functions, bear in mind the responsibility and mission, effectively enhance the capability to perform duties, and continuously improve government service.
We will strengthen political Party building. We will effectively raise political stance, become deeply conscious of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment, strengthen confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, resolutely uphold the core position of General Secretary Xi Jinping, and resolutely uphold the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, and closely align with the Central Committee with General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core, ideologically, politically and in actions. Efforts will be made to solidly carry out the theme campaign to remain true to our original aspiration and keep our mission firmly in mind. We will ensure full and rigorous Party self-governance, rigidly clarify political discipline and rules, maintain political orientation, grasp the political direction, and foster a healthy political atmosphere of integrity within the Party.
We will build a rule of law government. We will strictly abide by the Constitution and laws, resort to law-based logic and approaches to handle affairs. We must subject ourselves, as required by law, to the oversight of the People's Congress and its Standing Committee, implement the system of reporting to the Standing Committee of Provincial People’s Congress before formulating key policies, readily accept the democratic oversight of CPPCC Committees, and earnestly handle the proposals made by the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress and CPPCC Guangdong Committee. We will broadly listen to the views of other political parties, federations of industry and commerce, public figures without party affiliation, and people's organizations. We will strictly implement democratic centralism, adhere to scientific, democratic and law-based decision-making, and strengthen life-long accountability and investigation mechanism of major decisions. Efforts will be made to strengthen government legislation in key areas, implement the government legal advisory system, and deepen the reform of the administrative law enforcement system. We will strengthen administrative reconsideration, perform well in administrative response, and require the administrative organs to perform the effective judgments made by the court.
We will strengthen the building of a clean government. We will conscientiously put into action the central Party leadership's eight-point decision on improving conduct and staying engaged with the people and its detailed rules for implementation, take concrete actions to ensure all aspects of government performance will be improved, consciously subject ourselves to the oversight of discipline commissions, supervisory commissions, resident offices and inspection teams, and effectively lock power in an institutional cage. We must draw lessons from the case of Zeng Zhiquan that severely violated the disciplines and the laws, focus on the supervision and risk prevention and control in major projects, key areas, and key posts. Actions will be taken to make government affairs more transparent, build a centralized, unified, comprehensive, authoritative and efficient audit and supervision system, and keep high pressure on corruption. We will take serious measures to carry out anti-corruption campaign at the community level, and intensify efforts to address corruption that occurs on the people's doorsteps. We will launch more initiatives to raise the the awareness of and foster the culture of clean governance, and make sure that officials will always be people-oriented, pragmatic and honest.
We will work to improve Party conduct. We will work ceaselessly to address the practice of formalities for formalities’ sake, bureaucracy, hedonism, and extravagance, and resolutely guard against their new forms. Actions will be taken to strengthen and improve investigation and research approaches, tackle the prominent problems that prompt the strongest public reaction, and build a service-oriented government. We will further reduce the number of meetings and documents, strictly standardize supervision, inspection and evaluation, improve the incentive mechanisms as well as mechanisms to allow for and address error, and encourage officials to undertake responsibilities Governments at all levels must take the lead in keeping their belt tightened, and insist on practicing strict economy. Except key areas and rigid mandatory expenditures, general expenditures should be reduced by no less than 5%. Strict measures will be taken to control the budget of spending on official overseas visits, official vehicles and official hospitality. We will steadfastly build model government departments, encourage and guide officials to learn new knowledge, master new skills, be courageous and tactical at work, and build a high-quality civil service that is loyal, upright and responsible.
Fellow deputies!
The new era urges us to forge ahead while the new mission needs our tangible efforts. Let us rally even closer around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Let us remain true to our original aspiration, keep our mission firmly in mind, strive unceasingly, rise as the sun rises, and press forward day and night alike however the hardship may be. Let us open a new front of work in Guangdong with new undertakings and new achievements, strive to be “a forerunner of the country in four aspects”, continue to be “two important windows of China”, and celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China with outstanding achievements!
Appendix 1
Ten Livelihood Programs of Guangdong Province for 2019
In 2019, the provincial government is committed to implementing the ten livelihood programs under the principle of “exerting maximum efforts within the capacity and implementing the programs on a case-after-case and year-on-year basis”.
1. We will increase the level of the six social security programs that guarantee the minimum living standards, such as the basic pensions for non-working urban dwellers and rural residents. The minimum monthly payment of the basic pension scheme for non-working urban dwellers and rural residents in Guangdong province will increase from 148 yuan to 170 yuan. The average monthly payments to subsistence allowance recipients in the urban and rural areas to guarantee the minimum living standards will increase from 503 yuan and 228 yuan to 554 yuan and 251 yuan respectively. The basic living standard for the people with extreme difficulties (i.e. people without any income, the ability to work or people legally obligated to support them) will be no less than the current level and 1.6 times of the local minimum living standard guaranteed. The average minimum monthly living standards for orphans brought up in orphanage or individual foster families will increase to 1,685 yuan and 1,025 yuan from 1,560 yuan and 950 yuan respectively. The coverage rate of basic medical assistance for rural and urban low-income residents and registered population in extreme poverty will reach 80%. The average monthly living subsidies for the disabled people in poverty and nursing subsidies for severely disabled people will increase from 157.5 yuan and 210 yuan to 165 yuan and 220 yuan respectively.
2. We will establish a system to guarantee a certain amount of funding per student covering all the phases of education from pre-school to senior high school. We will address inadequacies of educational funding mechanism and build an appropriation system as well as a gradual-growth system covering the stages from pre-school to public senior high schools. The minimum annual subsidy for public kindergartens will be no less than 300 yuan and affordable private kindergartens that meet the requirements will be entitled to the same level of funding. The minimum annual subsidy per student for public senior high schools will be 500 yuan. The policies of public funding for compulsory education and appropriations for the secondary vocational education will continue to be implemented. The annual public funding per student will be no less than 1,150 yuan for primary schools and no less than 1,950 yuan for junior high schools. The annual appropriations per student for secondary vocational schools will be no less than 3,000 yuan (tuition subsidies excluded) and no less than 5000 yuan for those in the Pearl River Delta.
3. We will improve the talent training and capacity building for the community-level medical service providers in the eastern, western and northern Guangdong. We will cultivate 5,580 general practitioners, 1,000 obstetricians (including midwives) and 360 pediatricians for the eastern, western and northern Guangdong, increase the enrollment of medical students assigned to community-level clinics in these areas after graduation to 1,400 a year and employ 100 qualified chief experts for upgrading 47 health centers. We will also equip 2,277 health stations in provincial poor villages with 8 categories of health monitoring facility packages, so as to provide better and more accessible medical care services for people living in these areas.
4. We will enhance support for skill training, entrepreneurship and employment. Eligible start-up entrepreneurs will each receive a maximum of 300,000 yuan in guarantee loans and interest subsidies for as long as 3 years. 10,000 chefs of Cantonese cuisine will be cultivated. We will provide training subsidies for the workforce and unemployment benefit recipients, and will subsidize 300,000 person times of the legal working age who attend the training sessions in Guangdong province. For financially troubled graduating students, the employment and entrepreneurship subsidy will increase from 1,500 yuan to 2,000 yuan. We will also lower the contribution rate of some social security programs. The rate of employers' contribution of the basic medical insurance for eligible employers in cities above the municipal level will be lowered by no less than 0.5% for a period of time; that of the work-related injury insurance will be reduced by 30% on average for a certain period of time on top of the full implementation of the floating rate.
5. We will improve the quality and safety of rural roads by conducting the program of “building, managing, maintaining and running rural roads well”. Facilities will be built along 16,000 kilometers of roads that are next to cliffs or water, with sharp turns or prone to accidents to ensure the safety of traffic; 520 Category IV & V bridges on the rural roads that are not safe will be retrofitted. Construction of 4,000-kilometers of Smooth Road Network Program that connects administrative villages with towns and with other administrative villages, and. the hardening of 1,000 kilometers of roads that connect 2,277 provincial poor villages to natural villages of over 20 households will be completed. The improvement and expansion of roads linking the modern agricultural industry parks, old villages with a long history and rich cultures, the Guangdong historical trails, 3A-and-above tourist destinations and rural tourist attractions.
6. We will support the program of “One Featured Product for One Village, One Pillar Industry for One Town” to enrich the rural residents and vitalize the villages. We will support the 100 towns and 1,000 villages in the eastern, western and northern Guangdong as well as the poor mountainous areas to develop “One Featured Product for One Village, One Pillar Industry for One Town”. We will make compensations for the economic losses of more than 68,057,600 mu of land, which became public ecological forests at the provincial-and-above level, with the average compensation standard increased from 32 yuan to 36 yuan per mu.
7. We will promote free admission of public cultural facilities and better preserve the cultural heritages. We will fund free admission of 189 museums, memorial halls and art galleries, conduct 100 conservation and reuse projects of cultural relics, and support the revitalization of the 18 crafts that are included in the first batch of national r program for revitalizing traditional craftsmanship. We will also implement the general plans in 9 cultural and ecological conservation pilot zones, and launch large knowledge sharing and cultural appreciation events, including the Cultural and Natural Heritage Days and Guangdong Intangible Heritage Week.
8. We will vigorously promote “Toilet Revolution”. The number of newly built and revamped public village lavatories will reach 3100. 98.5% of rural households have harmless lavatories. 512 public lavatories will be built and 415 old ones will be revamped in the sightseeing areas, The number of newly built and revamped lavatories in the service areas of expressways will reach 103. We will also accelerate the building of public lavatories in old urban area, and continue to improve the management and service, by building or revamping 1,000 urban public lavatories.
9. We will strengthen safety supervision and testing of food and drugs. We will complete no less than 550,000 spot checks on food, ensuring 5 checks annually for every thousand people. Based on full coverage of supervision and spot checks, we will conduct quick testing on more than 2,000 farm produce fairs, especially targeting vegetable, seafood and meat. The testing results will be made public in a timely manner, and 100% of substandard products will be disposed of. No less than 8 million quick tests will be conducted throughout the year. The coverage of spot check on the basic drugs made in Guangdong should reach 100%.
10. We will make government services more easily accessible through Yue Sheng Shi Guangdong Administrative Service Mobile Platform. We will further broaden and deepen the service of Yue Sheng Shi mobile platform, enhance the role of provincial departments of public security, human resources and social security, and medical insurance in the fields of residency administration, safety and prevention technology, medical rescue, talents, labor arbitration, social security and medical insurance. We will offer over 150 additional frequently used government services and expand the service and application in municipal governments. We will further optimize the online services and processes of the platform, cutting 50% of form-filling, document-filing and legwork and migrating more than 80% of services online. With the platform, we aim to enhance the public legal services and offer lawyer defense service for all criminal cases.
Appendix 2
Explanation of Terms
1. “Forerunner of the country in four aspects” and “two important windows” of China: on March 7, 2018 when General Secretary Xi Jinping attended the group deliberation of Guangdong Delegation for the First Session of the 13th National People’s Congress, he instructed Guangdong to be a “forerunner of the country in promoting high-quality economic growth, developing a modernized economy, making new grounds in pursuing opening up on all fronts and establishing a social governance model based on collaboration, participation and common interests” (to be a forerunner of the country in four aspects), and clearly positioned Guangdong as the “window for China to showcase reform and opening-up and for the international community to understand China” (two important windows of China).
2. Zombie enterprises: enterprises whose production is completely or partly suspended due to production and management difficulties with high debt-to-asset ratio and years of operation losses. They mainly rely on government subsidies and bank loans to maintain operation, and have defaulted on salaries, taxes, interests and fees for a long time.
3. ESI ranking: the acronym of “Essential Science Indicators” released by Thomson Reuters of the U.S. It analyzes and assesses the academic influence of the research institutions and their disciplines based on the SCI/SSCI papers and the citation data of 22 disciplines in the past 11 years. It serves as an important indicator to evaluate the academic performances of higher education and research institutions across the world.
4. New Economy: a term that covers 13 key items, including the overview of new economy, emerging modern agriculture, emerging strategic industries, new products, new services, high-tech industries, tech-firm incubators, maker spaces, enterprise innovation, e-commerce, Internet platforms, urban commercial complexes and development zones.
5. “Migrate to the Cloud and Platform”: it refers to enterprises and industrial enterprises migrating their businesses to the cloud and online platforms. “Enterprises’ migration to cloud” means encouraging enterprises to deploy their basic systems, businesses and platforms on the cloud by purchasing public cloud service, which helps to reduce the digitalization costs. “Industrial Enterprises’ Migration to Platform” means to support the industrial enterprises to conduct digital, Internet-based and intelligent upgrading on the basis of the industrial Internet platform.
6. “Volunteers of planners, architects and engineers going to rural area”: it refers to the activities to organize volunteers of planners, architects and engineers to conduct professional practices in rural area.
7. “Consolidate, enhance, upgrade and facilitate”: in December 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward four key tasks to deepen the supply-side structural reform on the Central Economic Working Conference, namely, consolidating the achievements of “cutting overcapacity and inventories, deleveraging, reducing cost and strengthening weak links”, enhancing the vigor of micro entities, upgrading industry chains and facilitating economic circulation.
8. “Hundred, Thousand and Ten-thousand” campaign of key energy consumers: as an important measure proposed by the central government to promote the energy efficiency, the Campaign includes key energy consumers with an annual comprehensive energy demand of over 3 million TCEs (ton of standard coal equivalent), 0.5 million TCEs and 5,000 TCEs respectively into the List of One Hundred Enterprises, List of One Thousand Enterprises and List of Ten-Thousand Enterprises so that the central, provincial, municipal/prefectural governments could assess and evaluate their objectives and responsibilities accordingly.
9. “Separation of the three rights” for rural contracted land: the separation of the ownership, the contract rights, and the management right for rural contracted land.
10. “The program to build, manage, maintain and operate rural roads well”: it means to do well in building, managing, maintaining and operating rural highroads.
11. “Coordinated reforms of the health care system, the medical insurance system, and the drug production and circulation system”: it refers to the joint and interactive reform of the medical insurance system, the health system and the drug production and circulation system. The Province strives to coordinate the reforms of the three systems by constantly innovating public health services, improving the medical insurance system and better regulating the production and circulation of drugs. The goal is to provide health care that is affordable for the public health fund and sustainable for hospital development without inflating the residents’ medical expenses.
Acknowledgements
School of Foreign Studies, South China Normal University; Southcn.com, Nanfang Media Group
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