Source: China Website      Time: June 29, 2004

 

Guangzhou, whose nicknames are of "Ram City" and “Rice Spikeear City", is the capital of Guangdong province. Guangzhou is the centre of politics, economy, culture, technology and traffic in south China, which was established as the open coastal city and national special district for integrated reforming praxis. Guangzhou is a green city in the four seasons and has beautiful scene, so it is also appreciated as “Flower City”.

 Guangzhou covers an area of 7,434.4 square kilometers with total population of 7.2519 million. As a cultural city with long history, Guangzhou is also a famous tourism city. After the reformation and opening, Guangzhou experienced tremendous change. In 2003, Guangzhou ranked the third place within the rank list of synthetic power of the top ten cities.

 The gross domestic product of Guangzhou in 2003 reached 346.663 billion yuan, up 15% compared with last year, which was the highest record in recent 8 years. The per capita gross domestic product was 47,000 yuan. The budget revenue in Guangzhou reached 27.475 billion yuan, up 15.5%. The investment in fixed assets reached RMB 115.777 billion yuan, up 14.7%.

The rapid development of different industries brought out the rapid economic growth. With the successful implementing of some important projects, the new economic growth points were coming into being and the industry competition power and developing aftereffect were being strengthened. The city agriculture developed healthily. The pulling effect of consumption was strengthened. The export and foreign investment increased continuously. All kinds of reformation that were centered on the mechanism creation were further strengthened too. The reformation of state-owned enterprises was the main task and the several enterprises that were full of competition power became stronger and stronger. In order to reduce the city running cost, Guangzhou development district and Nansha development district became the “district of free administering charge” as the experiment districts. The non-public economy developed healthily and the industrial value of the private owned enterprises above designated size reached  115.7.64 billion yuan, up 18%. The quantity of individual enterprises reached 78,604, up 18%. The export and import economy developed rapidly. The all-year accumulated import reached 34.94 billion US dollar, up 25.1%. The export reached 16.89 billion US dollar, up 22.6%. The export and import of the city owned enterprises reached 28.568 billion US dollar up 27.87%. Among them, the export reached 14.033 billion US dollar, up 27.4%. The approved foreign investment projects reached 870, up 12.1%. The contract foreign capital reached 4.022 billion US dollar, up 27.04%. The actual utilized foreign capital reached 3.064 billion US dollar, up 15.5%. Among them, the actual foreign direct investment reached 2.581 billion US dollar, up 13.0%. The contract foreign investment capital reached 107 million US dollar, up 37%. The turnover reached 109 million US dollar, up 19.79%. The labor forces aboard reached 4080 persons, up 20.78%. Now, there have been 115 top-500 enterprises location in Guangzhou with 204 investment projects and investment capital of 5.82 billion US dollar.

At the same time, the fundamental infrastructure construction was accelerated. Several important infrastructures such as subway, airport, freeway and wastewater disposal were constructed rapidly. The line 2 of subway that is from San Yuanli station to Pa Zhou station has operated. The line 3 and line 4 were under construction. The trial line connecting Guangzhou and Foshan has been constructed. The first phase of the migratory project of the new Baiyun airport was at the ending stage. Some high-class or main roads have been built such as the southern part of the new airport north extend road.

 The ecological environment quality and administrative level have been improved. The “Blue Mountain, Green Ground” and “Blue sky, clean water projects have been started. The forest cover rate was 41.4% and the increased and renovated road green belt reached 45 kilometers. The number of the days on which the air quality was kept above the good level occupied 86% of the all-year days. The yawp pollution has been declining for 9 years. The four-wastewater disposal systems have been constructed completely and all the living rubbish can be disposed by non-harm technology. The “safe and qualified” projects have been implemented and the city administration has been strengthened. The market order and social order have been straightened up. The vision of urban and rural area has been changed a lot.

The tasks of building the city with science, education and culture had new steps. The establishment of the new regional innovation system was expedited, so the scientific innovation capacity and international competition power were strengthened further. In 2003, the value of industrial high-tech products reached  109.431 billion yuan, up 37.6%, which occupied 23.3% of the total industrial product value of the city. The research and development fund reached 5.5 billion yuan, which occupied 1.6% of Guangzhou’s GDP. The contributive rate of the technology advancement to the industry growth was 51.6%, up 2% compared with last year. Patent application and accreditation increased by 30.5% and 37.8% respectively. The patent application of the invention increased by 52.3%. All of these figures ranked first places within Guangdong Province.

The Huanghuagang informational park was approved to be the first national “informational service Demonstration Park” by the Informational Industry Ministry. The educational reformation centering on the quality education was strengthened further. The establishment of the demonstrative normal high school and renovation of the schools that were lack of land in the old inner city was implemented successfully. The national important subjects in the city owned school became to break through the zero situations. The university town was under construction and would begin to recruit students in September 2004 according to the plan. The literature invention and mass cultural art activity were developed healthily. There were more than 300 pieces of literature and art works that got the award above the provincial level. The protection of cultural relics and historical city had great advancement, which improved the city reputation.

 The living quality was improved continuously. The policies of creating more jobs for the layoff workers were implemented completely. The task of keeping the five safeguard-lines in good state should be done continuously. The number of persons who joined the social insurance and social retire management was kept increasing. The living and producing condition of the farmers were improved. All of the administrative villages possessed running water, electricity, telephone, concrete road and cable TV. The tax reformation continued to be implemented. The burdens of the farmers have been cut by more than 80%. The average salary of workers was 28,237 yuan, up 10.4%. The per capita disposal income of the urban residents was 15,00259 yuan, up 12.1%. The per capita net income of rural residents was 6,130 yuan, up 5.1%. The per capita disposal income was 5,953 yuan, up 4.6%. The deposit of urban and rural residents reached 37.2733 billion yuan, up 19.0%.