With the international financial crisis still far from ending and debt crisis of European countries spreading, the general situation of the world economy will remain severe and complicated and the uncertainty of the economic recovery will greatly increase. In such a context, the city's economic work meeting held on January 4 set down the overall aim for Ningbo's economic development in 2012, that is, striving for better progress while maintaining stability.
Then the question comes: how to maintain stability and what progress to make? It is learned that to make progress while maintaining stability means to make greater endeavor to implement the "six quickening" strategy, to strive to make progress in spite of all kinds of difficulties, and to promote further development of various undertakings, while maintaining the stable and rapid economic development, stable prices level and a stable society. On the other hand, to make better progress means to strive to embark on a new path with better development quality, better livelihood service, better urban and rural environment and better social harmony by promoting the sustained economic development through putting more efforts in the industrial transformation and upgrading based on the stable and rapid economic growth.
The confidence for such a development results from the following four aspects:
Firstly, there is a good beginning for the 12th Five-year Plan Period and the good trend for the long-term economic development hasn't changed. According to statistics released from the meeting, the overall GDP in 2011 is expected to exceed 600 billion yuan, the total volume of imports and exports reached $100 billion, and some major economic indexes, such as the general financial budget, the gross output value of the above-scale industries, investment in the fixed assets and the total retail sales of social consumer goods, have maintained a double-digital growth. To be specific, the investment in the fixed assets increased by 17.4% and investment in industries by 5.1%, both growth rates being rare in the recent years. Secondly, in terms of the central macro-control policies, while maintaining continuity, a greater emphasis is put on targetedness, flexibility and foresightedness. Thirdly, the structural adjustment is faced with a good opportunity. And fourthly, the working enthusiasm for cadres and the mass have been inspired by the "Three Thinks and Three Pursues" campaign.
A strong signal is released in yesterday’s meeting, that is, enterprises are to be encouraged and guided to focus on business, to develop their principal industry and to invest more in real economy. But affected by the macro-economic control, the real estate investment is currently in the trough. Then the question becomes this: how can we attain the growth rate of over 10% in the investment in fixed assets? An answer is proposed in yesterday's meeting. It is said that the priority of this year's economic work is to expand the effective investment. Specifically speaking, the investment gap left by the lack of investment in real estate can be bridged by the investment in some major infrastructure projects, major city block projects, major industrial projects and major livelihood projects.
Interpretation
How can private enterprises deal with the plight of lack in capital and land?
Lack of capital and land has become a constraint to restrict the development of private enterprises in Ningbo. In the Economic Work Meeting held on January 4, solutions to this plight were proposed.
One initiative is to expand financing. All the commercial banks are encouraged to expand credit lines and increase the efforts in special financing so as to guarantee a credit growth rate that is no less than that of the last year in Ningbo and no less than the average of Zhejiang Province.
A second initiative is to increase land supply. By applying for the major state and provincial projects, the major projects in Ningbo can have access to both land supply in the state co-ordination plan and that in the provincial reserve plan.
The third initiative is to optimize element allocation so as to promote the transformation and upgrading of industries. By establishing the linking system between the plan for use of power, land and energy and the enterprises’ contribution in revenue, the authority may concentrate the essential resources in those high-end enterprises in line with the industrial-orientation, major projects with strong leading power and quality enterprises with better profits and more revenue. And priorities will be given to areas where t here is a solid working foundation and where the preliminary work has been carried out smoothly.
The fourth initiative is to reduce taxes. The structural tax-reducing policy should be implemented and a comprehensive clean-up in departmental charges should be conducted. By cancel some unnecessary charges and lower the standard of some charges, the government can avoid such problem of the increase of actual charge with a reduction in tax.
How can the "blue territory" become a highlight of Ningbo's economy?
How to make the "blue territory" a highlight of Ningbo's economy as Ningbo possesses a sea area of 10,000 square kilometers? The layout on this was also conducted in yesterday's meeting.
Ningbo will introduce the implementation of accelerating marine economic development, conduct important policies in talent introduction, shipping service development, sea island protection and development and marine resources exploitation. Specifically, the city will develop the Xiangshan marine development and protection experimental zone and the Zhejiang and Taiwan (Shipu) economic and trade cooperation zone. And it will speed up its establishment of developing plans and supporting policies.
In the meantime, Ningbo will promote the development of the unified port and shipping logistics service system, promote the construction of the bulk material storage base and transaction platform centered on Ningbo bulk commodity exchange market, and actively build the five markets of ship trade, crew service, container space, chemical tanker hiring and shipping finance.
Ningbo will also develop such modern marine fishery industries of marine aquaculture and sea products processing, promote such port manufacturing industries of petrochemical, shipping, steel and iron, automobile and parts, and support such strategic emerging marine industries as marine equipment manufacturing, comprehensive utilization of seawater, marine biomedicine and marine clean energy.
In addition, through full implementation of the Ningbo University framework agreement between Ningbo and the State Oceanic Administration, Ningbo will introduce the high-end teaching and researching resources on marine economy and speed up the construction of the major sea-related laboratories, research bases and the high-end engineering research center.
What are the highlights of the major livelihood projects?
It is learned from yesterday's meeting that some major infrastructure projects such as the Xiangshan Port Bridge and Hangzhou-Ningbo Passenger Railway will be completed this year. The construction of the No.1 and No. 2 urban rail transit lines, Ningbo Railway Station project, the south ring road and the north ring expressway will be accelerated. Sanmen Bay Bridge and the hill reclamation project in Shuangpan Shoal of Ninghai County will be launched, the construction of Chuanshan freeway will be completed, and the preparatory work from the second round of the rail transit construction, the double-track construction of Hangzhou-Ningbo Freeway and the expressway of the Century Avenue will be carried out. In the downtown area, led by the upgrading project of "three rivers and six banks", 100 major projects in 50 major blocks will be promoted with high quality, fast pace and high intensity. Besides, the city will also make significant moves in terms of major industrial projects and major livelihood projects.
Source: Cai Tiefeng, Ningbo Evening, January 5, 2012