Provincial growth touching new highs
Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province achieved strong growth last year, with most of its major economic indicators recording new highs exceeding expected targets. This provided the province with a good start for the "11th Five-Year Plan" (2006-10).
The province's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 621.68 billion yuan last year, an increase of 12 percent over 2005, making it the fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth.
Agricultural development
The provincial economy has continued to grow rapidly and market prices have remained stable. The livelihoods of both urban and rural people have improved significantly and so have consumption levels.
Moreover, consumer price index for 2006 increased by 1.9 percent and the gap between urban and rural areas is narrowing.
Since China launched the strategy to build a new socialist countryside last year, the government has carried out a series of policies to benefit farmers.
Grain output of the province hit a record high of 37.8 million tons, an increase of 1.8 million tons over the previous year, and the area under plantation has increased by 18.9 percent over 2005 levels, the highest in the country.
Overcoming unfavorable factors like a sluggish market and decline in prices, animal husbandry still maintained steady growth, and the output value was 50 billion yuan, with an increase of 8 percent year on year.
Further, Heilongjiang's green food industry has entered a phase of sustained development with 1,054 enterprises qualifying as green food brands, an increase of 17.1 percent compared with 2005.
Pillar industries
Industrial production in Heilongjiang showed steady growth in 2006, thanks to the improvement of economic structural adjustment and the increased reform and efficiency of State-owned enterprises.
The six pillar industries of equipment, petroleum, energy, food, pharmaceuticals and forests played leading roles in driving the local economy forward.
Optimum usage of technology and resources also proved advantageous for the industrial sector.
The province's fixed-asset investment reached 223.59 billion yuan last year, the first time that Heilongjiang broke the 200-billion-yuan barrier.
A total of 499 large-scale projects with investments exceeding 100 million yuan each have finished construction, and 155 among them have already started production.
Heilongjiang Province has continuously implemented strategies to meet the demand of national industry policies, such as increasing investment in the building of a new socialist countryside, infrastructure construction, social development and environment protection.
(China Daily 03/14/2007 page17)
