Binjiang zone balances growth and livability
The Hangzhou Binjiang High-tech Zone is paying attention to both urbanization and economic growth. The zone has strengthened its competitiveness through industrial development and urbanization, but it is also striving to build an inhabitable city with abundant natural and cultural resources.
In 2014, the zone's GDP reached 69.2 billion yuan ($11.1 billion), up 11.5 percent year-on-year. Its fiscal revenue totaled 16.9 billion yuan, an increase of 20.4 percent over the previous year, the highest among all districts in Hangzhou.
It has now claimed the top spot for three consecutive years. The added value of the zone's industrial output reached 35 billion yuan, up 17.1 percent year-on-year, and to generate industrial added value worth 10,000 yuan just 70 kilograms of coal was consumed on average, a figure one-tenth the average in Hangzhou as a whole.
The zone has launched 179 projects to rein in water pollution in recent years. The rural relocation project at the Whitehorse Lake Creative Eco-city was granted the National Award for a Model Habitat in 2008.
At the same time, urbanization has created new space for accelerated industrial development, and the zone has made big investments in areas of public concern, such as education, culture, health and facilities related to people's livelihoods.
From 2002 to 2014, the zone invested a total of 60.6 billion yuan in such people-oriented areas, including 3.59 billion yuan in education and 45.7 billion yuan in infrastructure.
The zone has also adopted free compulsory education for primary and junior middle school students in 2006, making it the first to do so in Zhejiang province.
Major hospitals, including the Binjiang Hospital and the Binjiang branch of the Children's Hospital Attached to Zhejiang University School of Medicine, have been put into operation.
In 2014, the zone also held the 10th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival and the Hangzhou Cultural and Creative Industry Expo.
dongjidong@chinadaily.com.cn
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An investment and financing salon is held every Thursday at the Overseas High-level Talents Innovation Park. |
(China Daily 03/30/2015 page10)
