Changchun Mayor Cui Jie pledged to maintain the continuity and stability of government work to ensure the achievement of various economic growth goals.

Cui, a new mayor voted in at a Changchun Municipal People's Congress session on Feb. 15, said great efforts would be taken to carry out the tasks proposed in the government work report for 2007.

The government will put together a special team to investigate serious problems affecting people's lives, such as endowment insurance of urban workers and the security line for minimum subsistence. When these issues are clarified, systemic solutions will be worked out in terms of goals, period of completion and measures to achieve these goals, the mayor said.

This year has been earmarked as a "project construction year" for Changchun, the capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, and the mayor promised significant breakthroughs in the total amount of investment as well as the number and quality of projects.

Overall investment is expected to reach 130 billion yuan this year, up 35 billion yuan from the last. Some 3,000 projects are in the pipeline, one-third of which will see a minimum investment of 30 million yuan each, with 500 projects receiving a capital of more than 100 million each.

In addition, 58.5 billion yuan will be injected into the industrial sector, accounting for 45 percent of the total investment.

All industrial projects will be set up in economic development zones or areas with industrial concentration.

Investment in the development zones at various levels should be no less than 2,000 yuan per square meter, and in case of the four major development areas of Changchun, the minimum capital outlay is 3,000 yuan per square meter.

Regarding urban construction, Cui said Changchun is undergoing a historical phase of "big expansion, big investment, big change and big development".

Infrastructure construction will be strengthened to complete the city road network, surrounded by the Ring Freeway, which covers 520 square kilometers.

Traffic order in key areas such as the railway station, the People's Square, and the Farmers' and Workers' Square will be improved. The building of the Light Rail Line 4 will begin in the second half of the year, while preparations for urban subway construction will be launched at the same time.

In terms of environmental improvement, the mayor promised to remove all boilers under 10 tons from the central districts of Changchun and achieve intensive heat supply in three years.

Furthermore, all buildings within 150 meters of either side of the Ring Freeway will be knocked down within two years, half of them this year.

Cui added that no matter how much effort is required and what difficulties have to be confronted, the city government will strive to build Changchun into a national-level sanitary city.

Auto Industry

"Changchun, by its very essence, is a city of automobiles," said Cui. The output value of the automobile industry in Changchun last year was nearly 70 percent of its total industrial production, and the city will continue to rely on this pillar sector to accelerate development.

The mayor said the government will wholeheartedly support First Automotive Works (FAW) to improve property development capacity and achieve the goal of producing 1 million vehicles annually during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10).

The manufacture of differential products such as Zhongxing SUVs and pickups, Junsheng tractors and Hengli special vehicles will be encouraged, with an emphasis on the bus segment.

Further, the construction of the auto spare parts export base will begin this year in the hope of developing products that can substitute the ones that are currently imported. "We will not only supply FAW, but the national and the international markets as well," the mayor said.

The base is expected to supply over half the spare parts required by FAW in five years. A 400,000-square-meter auto trade center is also on the cards.

(China Daily March 15, 2007)