Report on the Work of the People's Government of Shaanxi Province (2018)
REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE PEOPLE’S GOVERNMENT OF SHAANXI PROVINCE
Delivered at the First Session of the 13th Shaanxi Provincial People’s Congress on January 25th, 2018
Liu Guozhong
Acting Governor of Shaanxi Province
Esteemed Deputies:
On behalf of the People’s Government of Shaanxi Province, I will now report to you on the work of the government for your deliberation and approval. I also wish to have comments on my report from the members of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
I. Achievements Confirmed at the 6th Session of the 12th Shaanxi Provincial People’s Congress and the Government’s Work over the Past Five Years
2017 was a year of fast development for Shaanxi Province. In this year, the people of Shaanxi were greatly motivated by the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Under the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the government focused on catching-up and overtaking, strive to fulfill the Five Requirements for promoting sustained and sound economic growth, advancing agricultural modernization, strengthening cultural advancements, ensuring and improving people’s wellbeing, and exercising strict governance over the Party, adhere to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, pursue a supply-side structural reform as our main tasks, and implement on all fronts the strategic tasks of “New Retail, New Finance, New Manufacturing, New Technology and New Energy” proposed at the 13th Shaanxi Provincial Party Congress. The economic growth of Shaanxi exceeded expected targets and registered urban unemployment rate, price increase, emission of major pollutants and other restrictive indicators were within the specific range. All tasks defined at the 6th Session of the 12th Shaanxi Provincial People’s Congress were completed. It reported RMB2.189881 trillion in GDP, up by 8% compared to 2016, and a fiscal revenue of RMB200.639 billion, up by 11.9% year-on-year. Its per capita income of urban and rural residents reached RMB30,810 and RMB10,265, up by 8.3% and 9.2%, respectively. The pace of catching-up and overtaking of the province obviously picked up and its economic and social development entered a new era.
I will now move on to discuss the main work that we did last year:
i. We strived to maintain a steady economic growth. Facing mounting downward economic pressure, we made it our key task for the year to keep the economy performing within an appropriate range and strived to maintain steady industrial growth, propel investment, and stimulate consumption, thus guaranteeing increases in employment and people’s income and creating opportunities for structural adjustments. For the purposes of ensuring a steady energy supply, promoting the chemical industry, developing electronics, boosting manufacturing capabilities, expanding emerging industries, and improving traditional industries, we laid out 21 measures to advance a new round of industrial development, scoring 8.2% increase in industrial added value, which is the fastest growth over the past three years. We boosted efforts to carry out projects that truly benefit the people, made structural adjustments, strengthened areas of weakness, and worked to implement the three-year public-private partnership (PPP) program. The construction of railways and highways has been accelerated significantly; major progress has been made in water conservancy projects like channeling the Hanjiang River to Weihe River; Baoji-Lanzhou and Xi’an-Chengdu high speed railways were opened to traffic; the 828-kilometer-long highway along the Yellow River went into operation; Yanchang Petroleum’s RMB21.6 billion Yan’an Coal-oil-gas Comprehensive Utilization Project picked up its pace; the manufacturing project of 8.6 version LCD panel in Xianyang was put into full operation; and the annual investment in fixed assets was increased by 14.6%, among which nongovernmental investments accounted for 10.8%. We pursued a strategy of building Shaanxi into a province of quality and actively promoted the development of new forms of business such as sharing economy, information economy and consumption economy. Eight historic sites were included into the national protected geographical indication network; 88 products were rated as Shaanxi famous products; and 19 counties were awarded as national model county for introducing e-commerce into rural areas. A batch of major RMB100 billion projects were successfully launched, including the establishment of HNA Modern Logistics’ headquarters and JD’s Global Logistics’ headquarters. The passengers of the Xi’an Xianyang International Airport reached 41 million. Shaanxi’s domestic and foreign tourists and the total travel-related revenue grew by 16.4% and 26.2%, respectively, and the total volume of retail sales of consumer goods registered RMB823.637 billion, up by 11.8%.
ii. We took further steps to advance supply-side structural reform. We have endeavored to cut overcapacity, reduce excess inventory, deleverage, lower costs, and bolster areas of weakness so as to accelerate the implementation of supply-side structural reform in agriculture and reinforce financial and monetary efforts, thereby improving the quality of supply system. We have completed 64% of the goal set in the 13th Five-Year Plan for the task of cutting overcapacity in coal industry, with a total capacity of 2.1 million tons reduced and 18 facilities that produce waste-turned steel products shut down. The cycle for reducing the excess inventory of commercial residential buildings was decreased to 12.5 months. Government debt financing was better regulated, business taxes, energy and logistics costs were cut down by over RMB30 billion. We continued to make structural adjustments, achieved large-scale increases of high-quality supplies, and benefits brought by stock assets kept rising. The automobile production exceeded 610,000, and Shaanxi has become the largest monocrystalline silicon manufacturer in the world, 32 key cultural projects attracted investments of RMB15 billion, and the added-value of the construction industry increased by 14.7%. We increased efforts to reform the rural collective property rights system. We expanded the “Three Transformations” reform of demonstration village (to transform resources into asset, capital into equity, and rural residents into shareholders) to 26 counties. The ratio for determining, registering and certifying the rights to use rural lands has reached 97.2%. All-round planning of permanent basic farmland has been completed, the grain production remained at a level of 12 million tons, and the economies of scale generated by fruits, livestock and vegetable sales continued to develop. Effective measures have been taken to put dormant funds to good use, expedite government spending, and set up 28 industrial funds with a total value of RMB83.5 billion, supporting enterprises’ financing efforts through measures like pledging mining rights and establishing financing guarantee system. In that way, increments driven by aggregate financing registered RMB592.6 billion, up by 68.6%.
iii. We accelerated and cultivated new momentum to drive development. By earnestly implementing the strategy of innovation-driven development, we have pushed forward the process of building Shaanxi into an innovative province. Great efforts were made to enhance integration between the military and civilian, relevant national ministries and provincial departments, and the central government and provincial government to build various innovation platforms and boost innovation supply capabilities. Shaanxi Aviation and Aerospace Power Research Institute and Shaanxi Advanced Semiconductor Technology Center were set up for operation. Six scholars were enlisted into the academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering. Two key national laboratories were put into operation under the joint efforts of the People’s Government of Shaanxi province and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the PRC. Thirty six Shaanxi projects won national science awards; 6 international standards were formulated, and the number of enterprises with both military backgrounds and nongovernmental investment reached 589. The total volume of transactions made in technical contracts registered RMB92.155 billion, ranking fourth across the country. We spared no efforts in promoting innovation development projects for private businesses and demonstration projects on the transformation of private economy by encouraging people to start businesses and make innovations. Therefore, the newly-built crowd innovation spaces and incubators expanded to 110 and 60, respectively; 551,900 new market entities were established, yielding an increase in registered capital by 71.1%. While advancing the transformation for sustainable development in Northern Shaanxi and the green and circular development in Southern Shaanxi, we also rolled out plans for the innovative and coordinated development of Guanzhong, Northern Shaanxi and Southern Shaanxi. Xi’an was listed as a National Central City; Xixian New Area was incorporated into the city of Xi’an; Shenmu was established as a city, Huyi and Nanzheng were established as districts; and 9 towns were included into the second batch of national characteristic towns. In a word, Shaanxi is in a good situation of coordinated growth of its northern, central and southern regions and has balanced its development of large, medium and small-sized cities.
iv. Great efforts have been made to reach new heights in the course of reform and opening up. We deepened the reform on streamlining administration, delegating more powers to lower-level governments, improving regulation, and providing better services. The online business registration, the reforms of “merge 54 forms of certification required for businesses into one certificate” and “separate operating permits and business licenses” have been fully launched. The reform of relatively centralized administrative licensing power has been explored in 35 counties, districts and cities. A campaign on market environment has been launched, starting from the investigation on substandard cables. Steady progress has been made in reforms like “replacing business tax with VAT” and “ad valorem resource tax”. Key reforms of state-owned enterprises and state-owned assets have been deepened in all respects, the transfer and separation of “the supply of water, gas, electricity and property management of state-owned enterprises” have processed smoothly, and reforms in key areas like the division of administrative authorities and spending responsibilities, state-owned forestry farms, salt industry, electricity, workplace safety and prices have been further deepened. The China (Shaanxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone has been built with high standards, with 165 pilot tasks being fully launched, the “single window” system in international trade has been put into operation, and the experience of “business license application via WeChat” has been promoted across China. The Belt and Road Five Centers have been accelerated, 14 international air passenger services including flights from Xi’an to Prague, three cargo flights including one to Chicago, China-Europe freight trains to Budapest and Kouvola have been put into operation. Besides, we made fruitful results in Silk Road International Exposition, Euro-Asia Economic Forum, China Yangling Agricultural Hi-Tech Fair, Shaanxi-Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Economic Cooperation Week, and the first World Xi'an Entrepreneurs Convention. The total investment attracted throughout the year was RMB790.9 billion, with USD5.89 billion foreign investment in actual use, an increase of 26.9% and 17.6%, respectively. The total import and export volume grew by 37.4%, in which the export volume went up by 58.8%. The growth speed ranks second in China and the first in Western China.
v. To enhance environmental protection and promote ecological progress. Tough actions and scientific measures have been taken to curb haze with coordinated efforts. The “1 plus 9” special campaign has been launched vigorously, and as a result, the air quality across Shaanxi especially in the Guanzhong Area was better than that of previous years. According to the requirement of flexible water control, major water conservancy projects have been carried out systematically, and preliminary results were made in the restoration and construction of Kunming Pool, Meibei Lake, and Luyang Lake. The number of national wetland parks has increased to 43, with a total area of 849,000 mu (1 mu ≈ 666.67 square meters). The four-tier river chief responsibility has been enhanced, focusing greater efforts on treating water pollution, and the water quality of trunk streams of Weihe River has been continuously improved. The water quality of Hanjiang River, Danjiang River and Jialingjiang River remains good. The integrated and coordinated system to treat and prevent soil pollution has been established, and solid efforts have been made to scrutinize, treat and restore polluted soil. Further efforts have been made to turn marginal farmlands into forests, protect natural forests and build the Three-North Shelter Forestation Project. Afforestation of 7,195,000 mu has been achieved and 1,054,000 mu of desertified land has been treated. The system to protect natural reserves based on national parks has been actively explored and ecological protection and restoration project of the Loess Plateau has been included in the pilot projects at the national level.
vi. Great efforts have been made to properly ensure and improve people’s livelihood, and implement various livelihood-related policies with expenditure on people’s livelihood up to RMB397.08 billion. Targeted poverty alleviation and elimination have been given top priority and the first livelihood project, eight projects like the poverty alleviation through industrial development, relocation from poverty-stricken areas have been launched, and more investments have been granted to areas of extreme poverty. Over 200,000 officials went to countryside to provide partner assistance, 454,000 people have shaken off poverty and it is expected to achieve poverty alleviation in four counties. A new round of employment and business start-ups policies have been implemented, with secured loans of RMB5.622 billion for business start-ups being issued, 455,000 urban jobs being created and the initial employment rate of college graduates reaching 89.2%. Particular attention has been paid to zero-employment families. The level and coverage of social security have been on the increase, with basic pension for retirees from enterprises in urban area on the increase for the 13th consecutive year, governmental subsidy for medical insurance for every resident in urban and rural areas is RMB20 more than the national average, healthcare costs can be settled directly where incurred in Shaanxi and cross-provincial settlement of medical bills is expanding across China, the basic living allowances have increased by 8% and 15% respectively in urban and rural areas. Steady efforts have been made to build government-subsidized housing, with a distribution rate of public rental house reaching 83.4%, and 227,900 housing units in rundown areas being rebuilt. Great effort has been made to ensure fair and quality education, with the percentage of public interest kindergartens reaching around 60%. The number of counties with basically balanced compulsory education ranks the first in Western China, and the number of demonstration counties in terms of national rural vocational education and adult education takes a leading position in China, 8 local universities have been included in the "Double First-Class" initiative. The reform of public hospitals has been carried out thoroughly, 101 medical partnerships have covered 90% county hospitals and 50% town and township hospitals, Baoji City and Zichang County have been designated as the demonstration for reform of national public hospitals. Great efforts have been made to promote cultural business to the benefit of the people. The 4th Silk Road International Arts Festival, the 4th Chinese Sun Simiao Cultural Festival of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the 8th Shaanxi Province Arts Festival have been held successfully. The stage play Anaesthetisthas won the “Five Ones” Project Award, “Three Weirs” (Shanhe Weir, Wumen Weir, and Yangtian Weir) in Hanzhong have been included in the World Irrigation Engineering Project Heritage List. The first Shaanxi Province National Fitness Sports Meeting has been held successfully, the athletes of Shaanxi Province have performed well in the 13th National Games. Safe Shaanxi Campaign has been in progress, comprehensive measures have been taken to maintain law and order, crack down on property-related crimes, public health emergencies have been addressed effectively, the supervision on food and drugs has been enhanced comprehensively and the number of accidents related to workplace safety has continued to decrease. Ethnic and religious work, and work related to seismology, meteorology, mapping, civil air defense, archives, local chronicles, etc. have been further strengthened.
Over the past five extraordinary years, General Secretary Xi Jinping attached great importance to Shaanxi and twice inspected and provided guidance for the work in Shaanxi Province. His visits greatly encouraged and motivated the people of the province. Keeping the instructions of Xi Jinping firmly in mind, we united to overcome the energy price fluctuations, regional natural disasters and other challenges, successfully completed the 12th Five-Year Plan, rolled out the 13th Five-Year Plan, achieved all-round and historic achievements in economic and social development and created a new situation in Shaanxi’s catching-up and overtaking.
Over the past five years, we have witnessed a significant growth in our comprehensive strength. Its annual economic growth has reported 8.8% and has moved one place higher from the 16th to 15th in terms of economic aggregate. Its per capita GDP has topped USD8000, ranking higher than that of the economic aggregate in China.
The past five years has been a period in which Shaanxi has optimized its economic structure. The economic structure is transforming from energy source excavation to one featuring deep energy source processing and supported by multiple non-energy industries. Despite the proportion of energy industry to above-scale industry has declined by 11.8%, local financial revenue increased by RMB40 billion and energy consumption per unit of GDP declined by 17%. Keeping continued growth in economic size and reduction in main pollutants, Shaanxi’s economy is leading to a development track of higher quality.
People’s lives have been significantly improved. People’s income growth rate has exceeded the GDP and the income gap between urban and rural residents has been further reduced. An aggregate of RMB1.73 trillion has been invested to improve people’s livelihood, covering education, health care, culture, and other public services. Social security levels have seen significant improvement. We have made greater than ever efforts to alleviate poverty by bringing 5.01 million people out of absolute poverty and relocating 1.082 million from harsh areas to new homes. Therefore, people are living a more comfortable and high-quality life.
Shaanxi has undergone profound changes in economic development. We have achieved coordinated development among the northern, middle and southern regions of Shaanxi and achieved a 6.8% increase in urbanization rate. We have built railways and highways of over 1000 kilometers respectively. Waters in Hanjiang River and Danjiang River are kept unpolluted and clean and Weihe River was honored as “Most Beautiful Hometown River”. We have significantly improved the infrastructure facility, highlighted Shaanxi’s position as a transportation hub and expanded our green coverage, making Shaanxi even more beautiful.
Innovation gives its full bloom. We rank amongst the country’s top ones in terms of scientific and technological achievements. We have made large cargo ships, new energy vehicles, flash memory chips, and high-end LCD panels name cards of “Intelligent Shaanxi”. We have made notable progress in streamlining administration, delegating more powers to lower-level governments, improving regulation, and providing better services, as well as reforms in business registration, social security, medicine and health. The China (Shaanxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone has gone through the initial launch period. With these efforts, Shaanxi is going out to the world with more confidence and openness.
Looking back over the past five years, we deeply understand that in order to build a better Shaanxi, we must stick to the right political path, maintain a high degree of consistency with the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, and push forward the catching up and overtaking progress and the “Five Requirements” unswervingly as required by General Secretary Xi Jinping. We must put development as the top priority and maintain our strategic focus. We must think about worst-case scenarios, not swayed by the short term economic fluctuations, and keep steady economic progress while maintaining economic quality and benefit. At all time, we should hold in our hearts the interests and concerns of the people, and go all out to improve people's well-being and enhance people's sense of fulfillment. While maintaining a pragmatic attitude and low profile, we should promote the Ya’an and Xiqian spirits, aim high and work in earnest, seize the time and devote all ourselves to work.
We owe all the achievements made over the past years to the firm leadership of the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the concerted efforts of the provincial committee and the people in Shaanxi, as well as the support of and compatriots at home and overseas, including compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. On behalf of the People’s Government of Shaanxi Province, I wish to express our sincere gratitude to all the officials, the people, the people’s liberation army and the armed police in Shaanxi, fellow deputies, CPPCC committee members, and to other parties and people's organizations. I also wish to express our heartfelt thanks to our fellow countrymen and women in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and in Taiwan, and to Chinese nationals overseas.
In the meantime, we are clearly aware that Shaanxi is still confronted with difficulties and challenges especially the problem of uneven development. Painstaking efforts are needed to address acute structural imbalances in the economic development, improve the business environment, cultivate and develop county economy, private economy, military and civilian integration, and open economy. Some people are still living in poverty so we are still faced with arduous tasks in poverty alleviation. The problems that we have to solve also include those in education, healthcare, living, and pension. We have a long way to go in environmental protection. We need to concert our efforts in building a law-based government and improving the Party’s work style. The party building and anti-corruption campaign are undergoing profound and complex changes as we speak. We must follow the right direction and reinforce our sense of responsibility to address these problems in earnest.
II. Overall Requirements and This Year’s Targets on the Government Work for a New Era
As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, many new demands for the work of the government have been created. In accordance with the requirements on giving top priority to the guiding principles of the 19th National Congress, fostering a strong atmosphere of learning and research, and promoting development, we must learn and develop a good grasp of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the guiding principles of the 19th National Congress of the CPC, keep it in heart and in mind and fully put it into action. We should further strengthen our consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment, and see that all of us have full confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We must uphold the authority of the Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. The Party exercises overall leadership across all areas of endeavor in government work. We must uphold the underlying principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, remain committed to the new development philosophy, continue commitment to our people-centered philosophy of development, be alert to potential dangers even in time of peace and save for rainy days. We must act in response to the evolution of the principal contradiction in Chinese society, ensure coordinated implementation of the five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy, and pursue supply-side structural reform as our main task. We must take tough steps to forestall and defuse major risks, carry out targeted poverty alleviation, prevent and control pollution, and strive to break new ground in government work for a new era.
To meet the requirements on government work for a new era, the following aspects must be the focus of our efforts:
First, we must be fully committed to catching-up and overtaking, observe the Five Requirements, and implement in earnest the General Secretary Xi Jinping’s instructions on Shaanxi. Pursuant to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, as a targeted guidance on Shaanxi, the principles of catching-up and overtaking, and the five requirements are the only path to ensure that the Party’s decisions and plans from the 19th National Congress are fully implemented. In doing so, we must give full play to the impetus and potentials of catching-up and overtaking, step up efforts to achieve larger economic aggregate, better quality and effectiveness and new development modes, and strive to write new chapter on Shaanxi’s catching-up and overtaking for a new era.
Second, we must implement the strategic tasks of “new retail, new finance, new manufacturing, new technology and new energy” on all fronts, embark on a new journey to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, work faster to make Shaanxi stronger and its people better-off. In accordance with the plans of the 13th CPC Shaanxi Provincial Congress, we must make every effort to promote the transformation from factors-driven development to innovation-driven development, devote great energy to reach new heights in the course of reform and opening up featured with strong resource allocation capability, flexible systems and mechanisms, and high service efficiency. We must stimulate the vitality of enterprises, counties, markets and people with talent, see that the gains of reform and development benefit all our people in a fair way when they make innovations and start businesses. Building on all the efforts, we must devote greater energy to build a modern and traditional Shaanxi with brilliant history and modern civilization.
Third, we must actively adapt to the stage of high-quality development, make every effort for better quality, higher efficiency, and more robust drivers of economic growth through reform. We must remain committed to the new development philosophy, put quality first and give priority to performance, and under no circumstance should we forget our development tasks and development direction of high-quality. We must place greater focus on transforming the growth model, adjusting the economic structure and promoting upgrade. We need to raise the total factor productivity, endeavor to address development’s imbalances and inadequacies, step up efforts to develop a modernized economy, and strengthen the innovation capacity and competitiveness of Shaanxi’s economy.
Fourth, we must keep up with our people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and continue to strengthen supports and improve people’s wellbeing. We will focus on the most pressing, most immediate issues that concern the people at the most. We will see that everyone performs their duties and shares in the benefits, and keep on improving the public service system, ensuring people’s basic quality of life, and promoting social fairness and justice. We will continue to build the rule of law government, further sift out and defuse social tensions and problems, and take initiative to handle risks and potential dangers in a prudent way. With this we should see that our people will always have a strong sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.
Fifth, we must apply a pragmatic approach, and keep on working with great determination to strive for a world-class province. To encourage all Party members to be politically strong and highly competent with steadfast faith, strong sense of responsibility and fine conduct, we should have the perseverance to hammer away until a task is done, shoulder and perform all our responsibilities, and work away at issue by issue, year in and year out. We must have the courage to shoulder the hardest missions, step up to the most challenging tasks, and tackle the most complex issues. We will improve conduct of our Party with perseverance and remain committed to our blueprint. We must implement in earnest the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and CPC Shaanxi Provincial Committee to seek good outcomes, so that the development achievements we made earn the people’s approval and stand the test of time.
The year 2018 will be the first year of putting the guiding principles from our 19th National Congress into action. Marking the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up policy, the year 2018 will also be a year of securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, implementing the 13th Five-Year Plan and building on past successes to further advance our course. We must pursue steady growth, advance reform, adjust economic structure, improve people’s living standards and guard against risks in all our work, so as to promote sustained and sound economic and social growth. This year’s main targets for economic and social development are as follows: we will work hard to see that the gross domestic product increases by around 8%, added-value of industrial companies above the designated scale grows by around 7.5%, fixed asset investment rises by 10%, total volume retail sales of consumer goods increases by around 10%, and local government revenue grows by around 8%. The registered urban unemployment rate shall be within 4%, and the CPI 3%. Income for people in urban and rural areas rises by around 8.5% and 9%, respectively, the total value of imports and exports increases by around 12%, R&D input stands at 2.4%, and energy consumption per unit of GDP decreases by 2.8%.
III. Major Tasks for 2018
i. Furthering supply-side structural reform and working faster to develop a modernized economy
We will actively improve the supply structure, quality and efficiency, and focus on fostering new advantages in improving the quality of development.
We will continue efforts to cut overcapacity, reduce excess inventory, deleverage, reduce costs, and strengthen points of weakness, and improve the market-based allocation of factors of production. We will get rid of ineffective supply, draw up lists for addressing the issue of “zombie enterprises”, complete the annual task of shutting down outdated coal production facilities, and prevent the reappearance of waste-turned steel. We will carry out the campaign to improve product, engineering and service quality in all aspects. We will work to deleverage, encourage financial institutions to participate in market-based debt-to-equity swaps according to law, support enterprises to make good use of existing assets, and reduce the asset-liability ratio of enterprises. We will carry out the cost reduction action plan, implement the system of “zero administrative fees” at the provincial level for relevant enterprises, and reduce energy consumption, logistics and institutional transaction costs. We will spare no effort in implementing the measures to strengthen points of weakness.
We will accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading, and energetically revitalize the real economy. We will promote the steady growth and structural adjustments of the industry in a coordinated way, carry out the provincial implementation plan for the “Made in China 2025” initiative, implement the three-year action plan to enhance the core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry and the new round of technological upgrading, and accelerate the development of a number of advanced industrial clusters. In order to achieve production capacity of three million cars by 2021, we will vigorously develop the auto industry, accelerate the building of the key national auto industrial base and export base, and increase vehicle output to 700,000 this year. We will boost the development of the electronic information industry, accelerate the deployment of the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), bolster 5G network construction, and promote further integration of the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence with the real economy. We will actively foster platforms for the emerging service industries, create a safe environment in which people are confident in consumption, accelerate the development of new forms of consumption such as information and health care for the elderly, and support Xi’an and Baoji in building the national e-business demonstration cities. We will promote the integration of cultural and tourism resources, projects and industries, accelerate to build Shaanxi into a region-based tourism demonstration province, and develop a batch of cultural and tourist attractions with distinctive characteristics, cultural industry bases and landmark cultural infrastructures. Focusing on fostering cultural markets and leading cultural enterprises, we will increase the supply of quality cultural products and services, develop the distinctive homestay, fitness and health industries, and promote the growth of network entertainment, digital publishing, and cultural and creative industries.
We will take strong steps to carry out major projects and enable investment to play a crucial role in improving the supply structure. We will make arrangements for 600 key projects at the provincial level, with a total investment of around RMB500 billion. The construction of major projects such as the China Coal Yulin coal deep processing base will be started. We will see that the Zhidan LNG phase-II project will proceed smoothly, the preliminary work of Northern Shaanxi-Wuhan power transmission project will speed up, and the phase-II projects of Samsung and ZTE will be completed as soon as practical. We will improve the crisscross high-speed rail network, complete the construction of the intra-city rail line linking Xi'an North Station and the Airport New City, and the construction of Xi'an Metro Line 4, accelerate the construction of four high-speed railways from Xi'an to Yinchuan, Hancheng and other cities, commence the construction of the Xi'an-Yan’an high-speed railway, and start work on the construction of the Xi'an-Shangluo, Xi'an-Ankang, and Yan’an-Yulin high-speed railways and the Xi'an Metro Line 1 Phase III. We will launch the Xianyang Airport phase-III expansion project, and speed up the expansion and relocation of Yan’an, Yulin and Ankang airports. We will complete the construction of four expressways including the Zhashui-Shanyang expressway and Wuqi-Dingbian expressway, accelerate the construction of 20 expressways including the Xi'an outer ring expressway and Xixiang-Zhenba expressway. We will start the Dongzhuang reservoir construction, and push forward with the Hanjiang River-Weihe River water diversion project and the Yellow River water diversion project of Yan’an and Yulin.
We will strengthen our work in finance and taxation, and improve our ability to serve the real economy. We will adopt innovative methods of financial spending, advance the reform of special fund management, strengthen performance management of industrial development fund, advance public-private partnership in a standardized and orderly manner, and do our part in guiding financial capital and industrial funds. We will earnestly strengthen tax collection and management and the implementation of tax policy, and provide convenient services for taxpayers. We will encourage enterprises to get listed in the capital market at various levels, and to raise funds through issuing corporate bonds and debts. We will support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, the private sector, as well as agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, and achieve the full coverage of government financing guarantee at the county level. We will continue to attract financial institutions, and support the development of local financial institutions such as Chang’an Bank, Qinnong Bank and Shaanxi International Trust Co., Ltd. We will strictly control local government debt risk, guard against financial risks in key areas, industries and institutions, crack down on illegal fund-raising, financial fraud and other criminal acts, maintain the order of the Internet financial and trading market, support Shaanxi Financial Assets Management Company to accelerate the building of an integrated financial services platform to prevent and defuse financial risks and serve the real economy, and make sure that no systemic financial risks arise.
ii. Leading innovation-driven development and promoting rapid and consistent growth of new driving forces
We will energetically advance the building of an innovative province, the comprehensive innovation and reform experiment of Xi’an, and the construction of the national independent innovation demonstration zone of Xi’an Hi-tech Industries Development Zone and the innovation and entrepreneurship demonstration bases of Xixian New Area and Yangling Demonstration Zone. We will improve our innovation abilities in all aspects.
We will deepen military-civilian integration, ministerial-provincial integration and central-local integration, and translate innovation into development advantages. We will vigorously carry out the military-civilian integration industrial innovation and development projects, accelerate the construction of the Xi’an national aviation industrial base, aerospace industrial base, ordnance industry base, electronic information industry park and Hanzhong aviation smart city, promote the development of unified military and civilian standards, foster more than 50 private enterprises engaged in military construction, strive to increase the military-civilian integration industrial output to RMB260 billion and build a leading national military-civilian integration innovation and demonstration zone. We will adopt innovative modes of cooperation with Shaanxi-based universities and research institutes under the ministries and commissions of the central government and, accelerate the construction of the China West Sci-Tech Innovation Port, CAS Xi’an Science Park, the Silk Road Science and Education Innovation City, and the drone town of Northwestern Polytechnical University and establish the integration and innovation mechanisms featuring collaborative innovations, collective advantages, and collaborations between enterprises, universities and research institutes. We will fully implement the major projects in strategic cooperation with central enterprises, accelerate to foster a number of distinctive enterprises in support of such cooperation, promote the two-way integration of Shaanxi’s industries and the capital, technology and brand advantages of central enterprises.
We will ensure that enterprises lead in making innovations and strengthen the building of the scientific and technological innovation system. We will further the reform of the science and technology system, and encourage enterprises to increase investment in R&D. We will make more efforts to foster high- and new-tech enterprises and strive to build a number of leading innovation-driven enterprises. We will give full play to the role of the fund for the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, set up a batch of industrial technology alliances and industrial innovation parks centered on the key industries, and align the industry chain and innovation chain. We will actively participate in major national science and technology projects, make breakthroughs in key technologies to remove barriers to the province’s development, and unleash the vitality of scientific and technological innovation. We will expand the functions of the science and technology resource management center and the Xi'an science and technology market, support other cities and counties to share Xi’an’s scientific and technological resources, encourage local governments to establish the scientific and technological achievements transfer and commercialization platform and the scientific and technological resources service system, promote the sharing of innovation resources among universities, research institutes, key laboratories and engineering centers, and proceed with the county-level innovation-driven development demonstration projects.
We will improve the environment for making innovations and starting businesses, and do a solid job in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. We will implement the whole-chain service system to foster technology enterprises, support the development of small, medium-sized and micro innovative businesses, and accelerate to cultivate a batch of scientific and technological innovation and entrepreneurship projects. We will build the national innovation and entrepreneurship demonstration base up to high standards, and establish a number of high-level demonstration spaces for crowd innovation and incubation platforms. We will tighten the intellectual property protection system, implement the distribution mechanism intended to increase knowledge value, and allow research personnel to gain more benefits from the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements. We will stimulate and protect entrepreneurship, foster respect for model workers, promote quality workmanship, implement more open and convenient talent recruitment policy, and encourage more entities to make innovations and start businesses.
iii. Energetically implementing the rural revitalization strategy and speeding up the modernization of agriculture and rural areas
To build rural areas with thriving businesses, pleasant living environments, social etiquette and civility, effective governance, and prosperity, we will advance the agricultural supply-side structural reform, bring into full play the leading role of the Yangling demonstration zone in building a modernized agricultural industrial system, production system and management system building, work to improve the quality and efficiency of agriculture, promote social progress of rural areas, and increase the income of farmers.
We will put a premium on the quality of agriculture and develop modern agriculture with distinctive characteristics. We will designate grain production functional zones, strictly uphold the red line for farmland, implement the grain security responsibility system, and improve the grain production capacity. We will beef up high-quality farmland construction, accelerate the upgrading of irrigation areas, and see that small farmland water conservancy facilities reach the appropriate standards. We will speed up the building of the apple and kiwi fruit industry belts, and improve the development quality of the fruit industry. We will promote standardized animal husbandry, foster the sheep industry chain worth hundreds of billions of yuan, and support the development of the Qinchuan beef industry. We will steadily expand tea production, and support the development of specialty industries such as seedlings and flowers, woody oil plants, edible fungi, walnuts, jujube, pepper, and Chinese medicinal materials. We will develop new industries such as the under-forest economy, leisure agriculture, rural tourism and rural e-commerce, advance the building of agricultural products processing, marketing, warehousing and logistics systems, and promote the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas. We will establish the provincial agricultural big data platform, and actively implement the “Internet plus modern agriculture” initiative. We will promote pollution-free agricultural products, green food and organic agricultural product certification, geographical indication and standardized production, strengthen whole-process supervision over agricultural product quality and safety, and further expand the brand influence of our agricultural products. We will promote the building of the dominant regions of specialty agricultural products, actively develop facility agriculture, accelerate the construction of modern agricultural industrial parks and agricultural science and technology parks, and improve the industrial system and ancillary facilities.
We will abide by the laws of development, and speed up the building of a more beautiful and livable countryside. We will map out planning for rural areas, and make village construction plans covering more than 80% of the administrative villages. We will strengthen the construction of rural infrastructure, improve the transport, drinking water and power infrastructure in the villages, increase efforts in the implementation of safety protection projects, and continue to do an excellent job in rural road construction, operation and maintenance. We will vigorously strengthen agricultural pollution controls, and carry out the pilot program to safely dispose of sick and dead livestock and poultry, and the action plan to promote alternatives to chemical fertilizers. We will carry out the beautiful countryside campaign, step up efforts to improve the rural living environment, and strive to build 640 beautiful and livable demonstration villages this year. We will improve the governance model in rural areas based on a combination of self-governance, rule of law, and rule of virtue, and continue to change outdated habits and customs in rural areas.
We will push forward rural reform and strengthen institutional supply for rural revitalization. We will improve the urban-rural integrated development mechanism, and remove all obstacles to steering factors of production towards rural areas. We will advance the land system reform, extend the current round of contracts for another 30 years upon expiration, and make explorations in separating homestead ownership, qualification, and right of use. We will further the reform of the rural collective property rights system, carry out rural collective asset verification and collective member identity authentication, pilot the reform to transform resources into assets, funds into share capital, and farmers into shareholders in selected villages, and establish county-level rural property rights and trading centers according to local situations. We will actively promote the orderly circulation of land, and develop appropriately scaled agricultural operations of various forms. We will experiment with the agricultural disaster insurance system. We will implement the preferential fiscal, tax, land use and electricity price policies, and encourage industrial and commercial capital to participate in rural revitalization and promote the increase of farmers’ income and the development of the collective economy. We will cultivate new types of agribusiness and new types of farmers, gradually improve specialized whole-process agricultural services, and encourage small household farmers to become involved in modern agriculture.
iv. Actively participating in the Belt and Road Initiative and accelerating to develop the new area in reform and opening up
We will concentrate on the economic reform by focusing on improving the property rights system and market-based distribution of factors of production, further improve the business environment, relax control over market access, lay equal emphasis on “bringing in” and “going out”, step up efforts to create a new pattern of opening up, and strive to build Shaanxi into an important window connecting the land and the sea, and the east and west.
We will press ahead with reforms in key areas and key links, and fire all types of market participants with new vigor for development. We will step up improved distribution, structural adjustment, and strategic reorganization of the state-owned economy, deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises and assets, take systematic steps to implement the reform of introducing mixed ownership to SOEs, advance the national and provincial pilot reforms, and continue to separate gas, heat and water supply and property management of the residential areas for employees from state-owned enterprises. We will deepen reform of the business system, speed up the reform of market-based pricing of factors of production, and cut down on the scope of government pricing to prevent market monopoly. We will push forward reforms in key areas such as electricity, oil and gas, and salt.
We will build the pilot free trade zone based on high standards, and make efforts to cultivate an international, law-based and convenient business environment. We will further facilitate investment and trade in the pilot free trade zone, and strive to accumulate more experiences in economic cooperation and cultural exchanges that can be replicated in areas outside Shaanxi. We will carry out the “Year of Better Business Environment” campaign across the province, and implement ten actions to reduce the operating costs of enterprises, streamline construction permit application procedures, monitor and evaluate the county-level business environment, and so on. We will deepen the reform to delegate power to the lower levels and improve services, pilot the market access negative list system according to national deployments, and continue to reduce the tax burden of enterprises. We will implement the regulatory system of randomly selecting enterprises for inspection assigning inspectors, making public the inspection results, and putting in place the corporate credit information disclosure system and the mechanism to reward credible enterprises and punish discredited ones. We will implement the “Internet Plus Government Service” initiative, and promote online handling of all items for administrative approval. We will push forward the campaign to reduce licenses, make public the list of certification items and stamping procedures, and work to bring the greatest convenience to the people.
We will vigorously develop the hub, portal and circulation economy, and bring together factors of production such as capital, information, talent and technology. For the purpose of transforming Shaanxi into an international transport corridor and aviation hub, we will speed up efforts to build a batch of general airports, and establish a modern transport network driven by air transport featuring the seamless connection of high-speed railways, roads and subways. We will accelerate the building of the national airport economy demonstration zone, strengthen the building of the international marketing network, attract consulates, visa centers, large enterprises, financial and commercial agencies, domestic and foreign businesses, and perform our function as a portal that connects the east and west, reaching out to the whole country. We will develop the internet and modern integrated transport and logistics system, explore new industries such as the sightseeing rail transit and drone logistics, effectively integrate logistics resources, foster leading logistics enterprises, boost multimodal transport, and improve the operation of the Xi’an Port and Chang’an international freight trains.
v. Stimulating regional development vitality and promoting coordinated development of central, northern and southern Shaanxi
We will ensure equitable access to public services, coordinated development of infrastructure, balanced living quality of the people, increase efforts in strengthening the areas of weakness in the county economies, and further boost the coordinated development between regions in both urban and rural areas.
We will follow the general ideas of consolidating the development of the central Shaanxi plain, optimizing the development of northern Shaanxi and southern Shaanxi, and improve the regional coordinated development strategies. We will continuously bolster the collaborative and innovation-driven development of the central Shaanxi plain, promote collaboration on high-tech industrial parks, and expand technology- and knowledge- intensive industries and the headquarters economy. We will accelerate the building of national key bases for knowledge and technological innovation and commercialization of scientific and technological achievements. We will foster the competitive edges of northern Shaanxi in the modern energy and chemical industry chains, energetically build the diversified industrial system, and remain firmly committed to the path of turning resources into development advantages, promoting industrial upgrading, and transforming the development modes. We will support southern Shaanxi to bring into full play its ecological advantages, actively integrate itself into the Hanjiang River ecological economic belt, and advance ecological and environmental protections, industrial development and a new type of urbanization in a coordinated way. We will deepen the strategic cooperation with Beijing and Tianjin, rejuvenate the old revolutionary areas of Shaanxi, and strengthen regional cooperation of the Hohhot-Baotou-Ordos-Yulin city cluster and the Yellow River golden delta.
We will push forward the “Greater Xi’an” strategy, and promote the coordinated development of large, medium-sized and small cities and small towns. We will embrace the opportunities brought by the Central Shaanxi Plain City Cluster Development Planning approved by the State Council and the initiative of building Xi’an into a national central city, advance the “Greater Xi’an” construction based on multiple axes and centers, and accelerate the integrated development of Xi’an and Xianyang as well as integrating the development of Fuping and Xianliang. We will improve the coordination mechanisms of the central Shaanxi plain city cluster, increase the construction of the intercity rapid transit system, strengthen cooperation with the neighboring city clusters, and strive to build a state-level city cluster with international influence. We will deepen the “one city, one policy” development strategy, support the transformation and upgrading of Tongchuan and other resource-based cities, and actively promote the construction of ecological towns along the Yellow River and the Hanjiang River. We will build 50 demonstration counties to high standards, and form a number of sub-central cities at municipal level. We will strengthen the construction of key demonstration towns and famous cultural tourism towns, increase efforts in fostering small cities, and promote the healthy development of characteristic towns.
We will develop and strengthen the non-public sector of the economy, and expand and improve the structure of the county economy. We will actively form a new type of cordial and clean relationship between government and business, implement the policy on property rights protection, improve the mechanism allowing entrepreneurs to participate in business policymaking, get rid of discriminatory restrictions and various hidden obstacles, and vigorously support the development of private enterprises. We will take action to make sure that villages and counties prosper through industrial development, build 20 demonstration counties with characteristic modern agriculture and a batch of rural e-commerce demonstration counties, and create a new development pattern of “one village, one specialty product” and “one county, one characteristic industry”. We will develop the action plan for the construction of county-level industrial clusters and industrial parks, which can be run by development zones above the provincial level or large enterprises. We will make greater efforts to foster market entities, and promote the formation of a county-level development pattern composed of both leading enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises.
vi. Ensuring and improving the people’s well-being in the course of development and enhancing their sense of fulfillment, happiness and security
We will see that our people realize their aspirations for a better life, implement targeted policies to address the issues that concern the people the most, and make steady progress in ensuring people’s access to childcare, education, employment, medical services, elderly care, housing, and social assistance.
We will stick to the strategy of targeted poverty reduction and make unrelenting efforts to win the battle against poverty. We will ensure that poor residents have access to sufficient food and clothing, compulsory education, basic health care and basic housing, make assistance and relief efforts more systematic, synergic and targeted, and ensure the quality of poverty relief under current standards. We will improve the mechanism of shared benefits to lift people out of poverty through industrial development, and promote stable employment of the poor people with the ability to work. We will increase efforts to resettle poor households and renovate dilapidated rural houses, and strive to build 90,000 apartments for resettlement, and renovate houses for 60,000 registered rural households in the year. We will implement the policies of poverty alleviation through education, better health care, and proceeds from assets to meet the basic needs of the poor. We will focus on key poverty-stricken areas, carry out major poverty alleviation projects, extend help to the villages and households in need, and increase poverty alleviation funding for poor counties by 20% on the basis of the normal growth rate. We will strengthen collaboration with Jiangsu in poverty alleviation, push forward campaigns such as “poverty alleviation alliances of state-owned enterprises”, the “school-government talent program” and the “enterprise-village targeted poverty reduction program”, and advance poverty reduction drawing on the joint efforts of government, society, and the market. We will pay particular attention to help people increase confidence in their own ability to lift themselves out of poverty and see that they can access the education they need to do so, and stimulate their internal motives to shake off poverty. We will improve the infrastructure and basic services in poverty-stricken villages, and put in place an effective mechanism for poverty alleviation. We will work to help 20 poor counties and 997,000 people to get out of poverty in 2018.
We will give priority to education and deliver education that satisfies the needs of the people. We will expand inclusive preschool education resources, promote the integrated development of urban and rural compulsory education, strengthen the construction of rural boarding schools, improve the conditions of schools in poor areas, and make efforts to address outstanding issues such as infant care, early childhood education, heavy after-school learning burdens of primary and secondary school students, school selection, and extra-large classes. We will strengthen the construction of standardized ordinary high schools, and accelerate the popularization of high school education. We will implement the second-phase special education promotion program. We will pilot a modern apprenticeship system, promote the establishment of school groups and school-enterprise cooperation in running schools, and work to build a modern vocational education system. We will push forward the construction of first-class universities, first-class disciplines, first-class departments and first-class majors in a coordinated way, and establish a long-term mechanism of classified management and characteristic development for universities.
We will pursue a more proactive employment policy, create more rewarding and higher quality jobs. We will create more jobs by encouraging business startups, give particular attention to tackling structural unemployment, promote employment of key groups such as migrant workers, people having difficulty in finding jobs, and people out of work due to the reform to cut overcapacity, and vigorously attract college graduates to stay in Shaanxi to work or start their own business. We will carry out three pilot programs to promote entrepreneurship by expanding policy-backed finance, support migrant workers who return home to start businesses, and provide support for small and micro-entrepreneurs. We will, in accordance with the plans made by the central government, further the reform of the income distribution system, improve the system for adjusting minimum wages, and press ahead with trials for the reforms of the remuneration system in public hospitals and the management of executive compensation in SOEs.
We will act on the policy requirements to help those most in need, to build a tightly woven safety net, and to build the necessary institutions, and develop a sustainable multi-tiered social security system. We will work to see that everyone has access to social security, increase efforts in promoting the second-generation social security cards, implement the general plan for the reform of basic pension schemes, and advance the reform of the pension system of government bodies and public institutions. We will advance the reform of the medical insurance payment modes, and improve the systems of basic medical insurance and serious disease insurance for rural and non-working urban residents. We will steadily carry out investments with social security funds to maintain and increase their value. We will advance our work in social assistance, special treatment, social welfare and charity, improve the system for supporting and caring for children, women, and elderly people left behind in rural areas, as well as children living in difficult circumstances, conduct annual reviews on the work to ensure pay to migrant workers.
We must not forget that housing is for living in, not for speculation. With this in mind, we will move faster to put in place a housing system that ensures supply through multiple sources, provides housing support through multiple channels, and encourages both housing purchase and renting. We will vigorously develop the housing rental market, especially long-term renting, and support the development of enterprises specializing in housing rental services. We will promote the new round of work for the rebuilding of rundown urban areas, and start the reconstruction of 202,000 housing units in rundown urban areas this year. We will improve the infrastructure for public rental, and speed up the construction and distribution of public rental housing. We will establish the housing price statistics and market monitoring and warning indicator system, tighten regulation over the order of the real estate market, and promote the steady and sound development of the real estate market.
We will deepen reform in the medicine and healthcare system, and advance the building of a healthy Shaanxi. We will push forward the pilot reform in medicine and healthcare, and improve the basic systems for tiered medical services, modern hospital management, and medical supplies and comprehensive supervisions. We will shift the focus of the healthcare work and steer medical resources towards the community level, carry out the three-year plan aimed at improving the community-level medical service capacity, strengthen the team building of general practitioners, and accelerate the development of private hospitals and health-related industries. We will emphasis more on prevention, and consolidate the achievements in the prevention and treatment of serious diseases. We will increase the development of traditional Chinese medicine, vigorously foster clinical advantages of traditional Chinese medicine, and build the “Shaanxi medicine” brand. We will develop a number of institutions providing both health care and elderly care, and promote the integration of the health care industry and other industries such as tourism, sport, food and the Internet. We will push forward the “toilet revolution” in scenic areas, urban areas and rural areas, and continuously improve the living quality of the people.
We will build a stronger cultural confidence, and improve the basic cultural service system. We will raise socialist cultural-ethical standards, bring core socialist values to households, communities, rural areas, government bodies, enterprises and schools, strengthen the protection of historical and cultural heritages, accelerate the construction of historical and cultural bases demonstrating Chinese culture, pass on the traditions of revolution, and tell Shaanxi’s stories well. We will do solid work in cultural relics, radio, television and publishing, advance major cultural projects including the new provincial library, provincial cultural and art center, and strengthen the construction of cultural activity rooms, rural bookstores, community museums, and the “Scholarly Shaanxi” reading campaign. We will encourage the creation of literature and art, foster a large number of eminent figures who have moral integrity and outstanding artistic appeal through the 100-talent program, and produce a number of high-quality cultural works. We will improve policies and mechanisms and deepen reforms to accelerate the development of the cultural industry. We will make a catalog of traditional arts and crafts that need to be revitalized, build up the “Glamour of Shaanxi” cultural brand, and enhance the brand influence of the Silk Road International Arts Festival. We will vigorously develop a new sports industry, carry out the “sport for all” campaign, press ahead with the preparatory work for the 14th National Games of China, and make the 16th provincial games a success.
We will improve the social governance system, and establish a social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests. We will deepen reform of the social organization management system, strengthen and improve urban and rural community governance, promote collaboration between communities, social organizations, social workers and community volunteers in community governance, and see that the selection of the 10th village committee proceeds smoothly. We will implement the 7th Five-Year Plan across the board to raise public awareness of the law, and accelerate the building of the public legal service platform. We will improve the work related to the handling of complaints in the form of letter or visit, put in place the mechanism to express, coordinate and protect people’s interests, timely detect and resolve social problems and defuse risks and latent dangers, and actively respond to people’s concerns. We will advance the work related to ethnic and religious affairs. We will strengthen the food and drug administration across the board according to the strictest requirements. We will underline the production safety responsibility system, reinforce effective supervision, advance the work on safe urban safety in all aspects, and guard against and prevent the occurrence of major workplace accidents. We will improve the multi-dimensional and IT-based social security system, launch a new round of fights against crimes, and continue to crack down on frequent property-related crimes and telecommunications frauds.
vii. Vigorously promoting green development and accelerating the building of a beautiful Shaanxi
We will take solid steps to prevent and control pollution, adopt the strictest ecological and environmental protection system, press ahead with systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes and grasslands, and act on the understanding that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.
We will focus on pollution and smog control in central Shaanxi plain, and strive to address outstanding environmental issues. We will push forward the “1+9” campaign, focus on key regions, key areas, key periods, key industries and key aspects of work, take effective measures against serious air pollution, strengthen collaboration in pollution prevention and control, draw up the new three-year action plan on making our skies blue again, and improve air quality across the province. We will strengthen prevention and control of the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and groundwater, bolster the construction of urban sewage and waste treatment facilities, protect the water source of the middle section of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and the source of drinking water, and ensure the quality of water. We will strengthen comprehensive control over heavy metal pollution and soil pollution, and the treatment of solid waste. We will keep a close eye on key risk areas such as oil fields in northern Shaanxi and tailings ponds in southern Shaanxi, strengthen daily risk detection and inspection, and take tough steps to forestall serious environmental pollution accidents.
We will give top priority to protecting the Qinling Mountains, and strengthen ecological and environmental supervision in an all-round way. We will adopt the ecological and environmental protection plan for the Qinling Mountains, complete the formulation of municipal and special plans, and move faster to improve the planning system for protection of Qinling Mountains. We will strengthen supervision and inspection over the Qinling Mountains and 62 natural reserves, solve the problems revealed in the central environmental protection inspections, and resolutely curb and punish behaviors that do harm to the environment such as unauthorized deforestation and construction. We will increase efforts in the comprehensive management and ecological restoration of mines, and strengthen monitoring and control of geological disasters. We will reform the ecological and environmental supervision system, comprehensively promote environmental supervision and inspection, explore new approaches to environmental supervision and administrative law enforcement, and establish an environmental governance system in which the government takes the lead, enterprises assume main responsibility, and social organizations and the public also participate.
We will place emphasis on flexible water management and national park construction, systematically carry out ecological protection and restoration projects, adopt the river chief system, and establish the lake chief system within the year. According to the ecological restoration requirements of reproducing the specular landscape of “eight rivers and lakes surrounding Chang’an”, we will push forward the restoration of water system, lakes and wetlands in central Shaanxi plain, launch a project to improve the environment of Jinghe River, and strengthen ecological management of the west bank of the Yellow River and the protection of water sources in the upper reaches of the Hanjiang River and the Danjiang River. We will press ahead with the national water saving action and strengthen groundwater protection and management. We will advance the building of the Hongjiannao Nature Reserve and accelerate the construction of ecological protection and restoration pilot areas of Yan’an, Tongchuan and Fuping. We will deepen the Qinling Mountains zone system reform for the giant panda national park, and start the construction of the Qinling Mountains and Yellow River national parks and the Emperor Huang mausoleum national cultural park. We will vigorously carry out the land greening campaign, further implement the strategy to preserve the central Shaanxi plain, northern Shaanxi greening and southern Shaanxi, and advance major ecological projects for protecting natural forests and turning marginal farmland to forests and grasslands, “100 forest management and protection stations along ten lines”, and “urban landscaping”.
We will continuously improve the green development system under the guidance of the functional zone strategy. We will uphold the positioning of functional zones, introduce a strict negative list system of key ecological functional zones, ensure that the upper limit of resource consumption will not be exceeded, keep the bottom line of environmental quality and ensure that the red line for ecological protection will not be crossed. We will put in place the property rights system of natural resource assets, accelerate the establishment of a market-based and diversified ecological compensation mechanism, pilot the environmental damage compensation system, and conduct natural resources assets audit on officials before they leave their post. We will further pilot the water resources tax reform, and ensure a smooth progress of the third national land survey. We will boost the development of the energy saving and environmental protection industry, clean production industry and clean energy industry, advocate green and low-carbon lifestyles, and reduce carbon emission intensity by 3.9%. We will speed up the building of zones that demonstrate best practices for promoting a sound ecology, including Yan’an, Xixian New Area, Xi'an Chanba Ecological District, and Shenmu, and explore the ecological progress models with Shaanxi characteristics and promotional value.
viii. Building a law-based, clean, efficient and service-oriented government able to satisfy the needs of the people
To satisfy the needs of the people is the fundamental goal of the government’s work.
We will take effective measures to transform the functions of the government, keep improving our work style, innovate our service mode, and move faster to advance the modernization of government system and capacity for governance.
We will perform our duties in accordance with the law and strive to build a law-based government. We will implement the requirements on law-based governance in an in-depth and comprehensive manner, enhance the awareness of the Constitution and the law, and exercise our power, perform our duties and conduct our work according to the law. We will consciously accept the law-based supervision from the people’s congresses and democratic oversight from the CPPCC committees, and earnestly take into consideration the recommendations of the deputies to the people's congresses and the proposals of the CPPCC committees. We will improve the legislation system, and strictly observe the legal procedures when making major administrative decisions. We will deepen reform of the administrative law enforcement system, shift the focus of law information to municipal and county levels, and increase efforts in law enforcement in key areas that concern the immediate interests of the people. We will earnestly perform the administrative review responsibility, and enhance the government’s credibility. We will strengthen constraints and supervision over the exercise of administrative powers, increase government transparency, and ensure the people’s rights to be informed, to participate, to be heard, and to oversee.
We must have the tenacity to persevere in the never-ending improvement of our conduct and strive to build a clean government. We will earnestly implement the central Party leadership's eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct and the implementation measures of the provincial Party committee, streamline conferences and documents, oppose mindsets and acts of privilege seeking, and address the practice of formalities for formalities' sake, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance. We will make all-round efforts to see the Party’s discipline enhanced, implement the “one post, dual responsibilities” system, intensify economic responsibility audit on officials, and increase their consciousness of strictly observing discipline and accepting oversight. We will put in place an effective mechanism to practice strict economy and eliminate waste, promote the disclosure of budgets and final accounts, and ensure that government spending on official overseas visits, official vehicles, and official hospitality are reduced. We will increase efforts in fighting corruption, continue to see that there are no no-go zones, no ground is left unturned, and no tolerance is shown for corruption, impose tight constraints, maintain a tough stance and a long-term deterrence, intensify effort to address corruption that occurs on the people's doorsteps, and win the people’s trust and support with our actions.
We will strengthen capacity building in every aspect and strive to build an efficient government. We will be competent in ideals, political building, performance of responsibility, capacity building, and conduct, focus on underpinning the Party’s governance capacity, and constantly improve the ability to adapt to the new era, achieve new objectives and implement new deployments. We will strengthen investigations and research to identify points of weakness and address practical problems. We should be ever ready to protect against potential dangers in time of peace, have the courage to assume responsibility, and take effective measures to guard against and defuse all kinds of risks. We will further advance the standardization of government services, promote experiences in bringing the greatest possible convenience to the general public, and make efforts to improve the efficiency and services of governments at all levels. We will implement all three mechanisms brought forward by the provincial Party committee, take tough steps to address incompetence, inertia, and negligence, and improve mechanisms to support those who are dedicated to their work and stand behind those who live up to their responsibilities. We will reform the evaluation measures, and strengthen inspection and accountability to ensure that all the policies of the Central Committee and the State Council and the decisions of the provincial Party committee are put into practice.
Shaanxi is the birthplace of the movement of mutual support between the military and the people, and that between the government and the people. During the times of the revolutionary war, over the period of socialist development and in the course of the reform and opening up, the PLA troops stationed in Shaanxi and the armed forces have worked together and forged deep bonds with the people of Shaanxi. We should carry on the fine traditions, make military service an occupation that enjoys public respect, support military building more consciously, raise public awareness about the importance of national defense, national defense mobilization and civil air defense, do a better job in the resettlement of and benefits for demobilized military personnel, and entitled groups’ benefits and services, so as to strengthen unity between the government and the military and between the people and the military.
The blueprint for a new era has been mapped out, and the trumpets for forging forward are playing. Let’s rally closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, follow the guidance of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, remain true to our original aspiration, keep our mission firmly in mind, and work hard to strive for excellence, and carry out the “Five Requirements” put forward by President Xi Jinping for the province. By doing so, we will make new and greater contributions toward securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, building a great modern socialist country and realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
