By Yuling Chen, EDITOR
The Chongqing Delegation met the Chinese and foreign journalists on March 6, 2019, during China's two sessions. Leaders including Chen Min’er, Deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Secretary of CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee, and Tang Liangzhi, NPC deputy, Deputy Secretary of CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee and Mayor of Chongqing took questions.
Reporters are at the press conference of Chongqing Delegation during China's two sessions. (Photo by Su Si)
People’s Daily: General Secretary Xi Jinping attended the deliberation meeting of the Chongqing Delegation during the 2018 Two Sessions. He proposed Chongqing focus on regional development from an overall perspective, and offer regional services for the whole situation. Secretary Chen, how did Chongqing implement the instruction to better play its own advantages and role in China?
Chen Min’er: According to the instruction, Chongqing with dual geographic importance should achieve two goals in its growth strategy and solid progress. Based on the high position, its orientation is accurate as well. During the implementation process, Chongqing should and can give full play to the following four advantages.
Hong Kong Commercial Daily: We have learned Chongqing proposed the necessity of the coordinated development of rural revitalization and urban improvement. How’s it going? What’s next?
Tang Liangzhi: Last year, we planned to implement the rural revitalization strategy. The general policy requires giving priority to agriculture and rural development. And Chongqing has to complete the hard task for China to build a well-off society in an all-around way. Based on that, it implemented the requirements for “five revitalizations” and introduced 159 policy measures in 22 categories. Chongqing also launched the classified experiment and demonstration at different levels, covering 11 districts/counties, 102 townships/towns and 220 villages.
Meanwhile, we will carry out the action plan for urban improvement. One aim is to promote the construction of modern metropolitan circles in the main urban area and western Chongqing. The northeastern and southeastern areas should also give priority to the ecological environment for green development.
Another goes to the establishment of a transportation-oriented network infrastructure system. Following the CRT-led urban development pattern, Chongqing strives to boost three-rail integration (high-speed railways, municipal railways and urban rail transit). It will implement the “Three-Year Action Plan on Transportation Construction” and the “Five-Year Action Plan on High-Speed Railway Construction”. With more focus on building a star-shaped high-speed railway network, Chongqing will also implement the urban rail transit network plan.
Third, Chongqing will facilitate its organic renewal based on “Two Rivers and Four Riversides”. It aims to highlight the characteristics of “Mountain City” and “River City”, and improve urban functions and quality.
Fourth, we will deepen the city’s fine and intelligent management through the efforts of the public. In the meantime, it is also necessary to advance the normalization and institutionalization of “working on roads”. Finally, Chongqing will develop itself into a clean, tidy, beautiful city appropriate for people to live, work and travel.
Chongqing Delegation meets the press on March 6, 2019. (Photo by Ju Jianbing)
China News Service: Chongqing is focusing on the implementation of the action plan on transportation construction. And last year witnessed the significantly increased investment in transport infrastructure. Could you please give us some information on that?
Wu Cunrong: Infrastructure improvement, a livelihood project, is of great importance to our economy. It is a key measure to address the problems of unbalanced and inadequate development. Under the vigorous support of relevant national ministries and commissions, Chongqing is accelerating its transportation construction. And this has presented three characteristics as follows.
The first one is a greater investment than ever. In spite of the limited local financial resources last year, Chongqing made progress by raising funds through multiple channels. The investment completed reached RMB 143.2 billion, accounting for 80% of the total municipal-level investment in major infrastructure projects.
The second is the coordinated construction of various transportation modes in an all-around way. There have been newly-commenced major projects such as Chongqing-Hunan High-Speed Railway and Chongqing Dong (East) Railway Station. Additionally, the projects like Chongqing-Guiyang Railway have also come into use. Chongqing is speeding up building 18 expressway projects (1,091 kilometers in total). Among 4,000 kilometers of common arterial highways, it has completed 1,100 kilometers. The project of “Four Good Rural Roads” (FGRR) requires commencing 28,000 kilometers in total. And the completion of 25,000 kilometers has lifted over 100,000 impoverished people out of poverty. With a total length of 208 kilometers, the second and third phases of CRT have welcomed their full-scale commencement. The basically-completed Wushan Airport is expected to come into use in the first half of this year. Furthermore, Chongqing has also made smooth progress in channel improvement and port construction.
The third one is the interconnection and integration of diversified transportation modes. The traffic mileage of high-speed railways increases to 492 kilometers, and that of expressways to nearly 3,100 kilometers. With the number of CRT operation routes up to eight, its mileage open to traffic has reached 313 kilometers. Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport has realized a passenger throughput of over 40 million. And the shipping center on the upper reaches of Yangtze River also comes into being.
Based on the requirements of the government work report, we will make greater efforts to boost transportation construction next. Chongqing strives to begin the construction of the high-speed railways to Kunming, Xi’an and Chongqing’s Wanzhou District within the year. According to the planning, the year of 2022 will see the full-scale commencement of eight high-speed railways (1,700 kilometers totally). Chongqing will launch the fourth phase of CRT as well. After that, it can realize a total mileage under construction and operation of over 850 kilometers. By 2020, there will be 27 expressways for export, covering 75% of townships/towns in Chongqing.
Besides reconstructing 3,300 kilometers of common arterial highways this year, building 24,000 kilometers of the FGRR project is another goal. What’s more, the terminal T3B and the fourth runway of Jiangbei International Airport will strive to start operation. We will also accelerate the construction of Wulong Airport, and the reconstruction and expansion of Wanzhou Airport and Qianjiang Airport. Chongqing will pay attention to the construction of an inland waterway transportation system of “one mainstream, two tributaries, four ports”. The system consists of Yangtze River, Jialing River, Wujiang River, Guoyuan Port, Luohuang Port, Longtou Port and Xintian Port. Based on that, Chongqing will build a shipping center on the upper reaches of Yangtze River.
Xinhua News Agency: Secretary Chen, you just talked about the topic of creating a high-quality life. Could you please tell us what measures Chongqing has taken in the aspect? And what about the achievements?
Chen Min’er: Just now, we said Chongqing should promote high-quality development and improve the well-being of citizens.
To realize the goal, Chongqing needs to hold the bottom line in the following two aspects. The first one is the rural poor population. Since there are 139,000 poor people, Chongqing still faces a tough task in poverty alleviation. To address this issue, both policy and industrial development are necessary. They can suffer no shortage of food and clothing and have access to compulsory education, basic healthcare and safe housing. Another targeted group the urban residents with financial difficulties. Chongqing, with over 400,000 people of this group, should pay high attention to keep improving guarantee standards and assistance levels.
In addition, Chongqing should focus more on the following three aspects. Children’s schooling comes first. There is still an undersupply of preschool education in Chongqing that should also improve the quality of compulsory education. And there should be further efforts in the development of vocational and higher education. We need to provide more high-quality educational resources for children to obtain a high-quality education. It is fundamental for the development of Chongqing.
The second goes to the employment of young people. 753,000 people got new jobs in Chongqing last year. And what the government did is to offer employment and related training services. For college students, young people and poor families, a stable job plays a guaranteeing role. Youth employment should combine with entrepreneurship with various forms. For that reason, they need to choose one according to their own conditions and social needs.
The last one is elderly care. There are 7.2 million registered elderly people aged over 60 in Chongqing, accounting for 21.1% of the total. This situation indicates elderly care is still a social issue of great significance. Most of them prefer the way of community support, because of its large development space and great opportunities. To solve the problem, we need the market supply as well as the public services from the government.
Last but not least, we should develop an urban and rural environment. Chongqing is implementing the rural revitalization strategy and the action plan for urban improvement. But the unified goal is to build a livable, business-friendly, tourism-feature environment. It is a spiritual realm to develop an environment of delighting people living around and attracting those living afar. And it is also a valuable pursuit. We should make unremitting efforts to create a better life for Chongqing’s citizens. For foreign workers, entrepreneurs, tourists and investors, we should offer an increasingly better environment for business, living and working. All kinds of talents can, therefore, chase their dreams in Chongqing, and eventually make them come true.
Source: CQCB