Coal city in Henan turns to tourism for new life

At a recent news conference, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, said this year's plan to cut 250 million metric tons of excess coal production might be finished ahead of schedule.

That's good news for the economic structure, but what about the workers in the coal industry?

Pingdingshan, a city in Henan province that relied on coal production for its economy in the past, was hurt by the policy change. Now it has creatively solved its problem by developing green industries to employ former coal workers.

China Pingmei Shenma Group, one of the city's main coal companies, has shut down 14 mines and cut 2.58 million tons of production. It says it plans to cut more before year's end. Nearly 18,000 jobs have disappeared so far. And the company is only one of those cutting back.

Compared with five years ago, the output of six high energy-consuming industries in the industrial sector has dropped by 14.3 percent.

Analysts say jobs are a problem not only for individuals but also for companies and local government, because jobs are linked to social stability.

Pingdingshan came up with one solution: The municipal government has been actively cultivating green industries to prevent the unemployment rate from rising.

The city has good local conditions that help. For example, it owns the Yaoshan Mountain Buddha Sculpture, which is a national 5A-level tourist site, the highest rating, as well as a nation-level ecological tourist area. In addition, there are six 4A-level tourist sites and 19 A-level ones.

"Pingdingshan has been recognized nationally as an excellent tourism city, and we have many tourism resources," said Zhang Guowei, the city's mayor.

From January to August this year, its tourist sites received 21.2 million visitors in all, bringing in revenues of 8.8 billion yuan ($1.3 billion). Currently, the tourism sector provides at least 100,000 jobs for the city, including those at 3,000 local hotels and 49 travel agencies.

Besides tourism, Pingdingshan has also provided favorable policies for high-tech companies to make their industries greener.

"Enterprises must improve their innovation capability, which also helps optimize the economic structure," says Henan Governor Chen Run'er.

Pinggao Group, a branch of State Grid Corp of China, the nation's electrical power giant, is one of the companies developing high tech.

At a time when China lacked a domestically produced oil circuit breaker, Pinggao Group first introduced the technology for a SF6 circuit breaker and developed other new technologies.

The city invested 1.5 billion yuan on R&D during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), and got 568 patents. Official data show that the percentage of high-tech industries in the industrial sector increased by 9.8 percentage points from 2012 to 2016.

Contact the writers through zhangzhouxiang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 12/02/2016 page30)