Zhejiang looks to boost digital, private and green economy
Provincial Leaders One-on-One:
Zhejiang looks to boost digital, private and green economy over next 5 years
Zhejiang's top leading official Yuan Jiajun has accepted an interview by China Global Television Network. During the interview, the Provincial Party Secretary gave out a blueprint for the province's development with a special focus on digital reform over next five years, and expressed his warmest welcome to friends over the world as the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou is coming soon.
Wu Lei,
CGTN Reporter
Building a digital society has been a key trend across most countries around the world. Zhejiang province recently held a special meeting to promote digitalization and plan a global digital hub. How do you plan to achieve these targets?
Yuan Jiajun,
Party Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee
So the goal of this digital reform is to promote the modernization of provincial governance. At the same time, we need to systematically improve our economic growth, social development, legal system and the provincial government, boosting overall vitality. In the past we made certain breakthroughs in certain areas of the digital transformation. But this time, digital reforms cover every aspect of our society. We will encourage enterprises, social organizations, legal and government departments to move forward with digital reforms. We’ve set up a systematic and intelligent public data platform. We’ll focus on five major applications including the digital government, the digital economy, digital society and the digital legal system. In addition, we also need to enhance the theoretical and legislative system of digital reforms. At present, our whole province is in action. We hope to achieve some positive results in a year, big changes in two years, and a systematic upgrade in five years, which will be at the end of our 14th Five-Year Plan. We hope Zhejiang Province can offer a new set of solutions in this digital age.
Wu Lei,
CGTN Reporter
Global trade and foreign investment has been hit hard by the pandemic. What progress has Zhejiang made in attracting foreign investment and expanding opening up in the past year, and what are the next steps?
Yuan Jiajun,
Party Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee
Indeed, the key to Zhejiang’s recovery was to get the pandemic under control first and then resume our work and production. Our foreign trade volume reached a record high in 2020. The total value of Zhejiang Province's imports and exports reached 3.38 trillion yuan. And the export volume reached 2.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 9%, which accounted for 14% of China’s total share of exports. We also achieved rapid growth in attracting foreign investment, Last year, the province had 2,821 foreign investment projects at a total amount of 15.78 billion U.S. dollars, a year on year increase of 16.4%. Zhejiang’s foreign investment amount accounted for 10.9% of China’s total foreign investment share in 2020. And we also made significant progress in expanding the free trade zone. Besides the Zhoushan free trade zone, we also added cities like Ningbo, Hangzhou and Yiwu into the free trade zone. In this way, we have a larger free trade zone and platform. Through this series of initiatives, we hope to boost domestic consumption and dual circulation in both domestic and overseas markets. As far as dual circulation is concerned, we will focus on enhancing cooperation with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. We will expand the opening up of the market for Zhoushan’s oil and gas industrial chain. At the same time we will build a global commodity storage and transportation trade hub to push forward global business reforms. In particular, we will coordinate major ports including airports, seaports, land ports and the internet to promote the development of dual circulation.
Wu Lei,
CGTN Reporter
The 14th Five-Year Plan and Vision for 2035 are key agendas for this year's Two Sessions. As a National People's Congress Deputy from Zhejiang province, can you outline what Zhejiang will look like in the next five years and how it will adhere to the 2035 goals?
Yuan Jiajun,
Party Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee
To build an important window to fully demonstrate the superiority of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics is a key mission for Zhejiang province in our 14th Five-Year Plan. So we will follow the strategy of “making full use of eight advantages and implementing eight major measures,” which was proposed by President Xi Jinping when he worked in Zhejiang province from 2002 to 2007. We will strive to build a pioneer province in a modern socialist country. Specifically, we will focus on several golden name cards for Zhejiang's economic and social development. These golden cards will include leading private enterprises, dynamic digital economies, regional coordinated development, updated overall governance, expanded opening up, social safety, ecological and green development, and at last a loyal and innovative public servants team. So we’ve made systematic planning and policies around these objects in the 14th Five-Year Plan. All in all, Zhejiang’s future development is to build a happy and beautiful grand garden for people living and working here.
Wu Lei,
CGTN Reporter
Private enterprises play an increasingly important role in the Chinese economy. Zhejiang is home to many leading private manufacturers. So what measures will you take to promote the growth of the manufacturing sector further?
Yuan Jiajun,
Party Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee
The private economy is seen as the biggest feature of Zhejiang’s economic growth. Private entrepreneurs have also become the most valuable asset of our society. These private companies play a leading role in Zhejiang's society. For example, these private companies accounted for 66% of GDP growth, 74% of taxes, 80% of exports, 87% of employment. 92% of all the companies in Zhejiang are private ones. Each year China has a key list of its top 500 private companies. In 2020, there were 96 private companies from Zhejiang in that list, a number that has ranked first across China for 22 consecutive years. So our next step is to continue to introduce tailor-made measures to help these private companies. We have made specific plans to help and foster listed companies, to attract more multinational companies and to boost small and medium innovative companies. The most important thing is to create a market-oriented rule of law and an international business environment. Last year due to the impact of the pandemic, Zhejiang Province took five measures to help these private companies. We reduced tax cuts, rent, interest and the government's own spending cuts. In 2020, we reduced over 480 billion yuan for enterprises, and mostly private enterprises benefited from that policy. And after our investigations, the hardest thing for private companies is now financing. It usually took a very long time for them to borrow money. So the province launched a special project to solve the problems and difficulties of financing. We are doing our best to make enterprise investments more convenient, taking innovative means to promote the healthy development of the private economy in Zhejiang.
Wu Lei,
CGTN Reporter
China aims to achieve carbon dioxide peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. As a major province in eastern China, how does Zhejiang plan to meet these requirements while maintaining economic growth?
Yuan Jiajun,
Party Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee
Zhejiang is the origin of the concept that lucid waters and green mountains are invaluable assets, which President Xi Jinping proposed. So Zhejiang has always followed the green and high quality development pattern. We’ve set up a special team to carefully analyze a series of indicators in terms of our total energy consumption, total carbon emissions, energy consumption and so on. The overall idea is to achieve low-carbon transformations in social production. We need to adjust and reform the structures including industry, transport, agriculture and energy. We need to extensively promote the application of green energy. The third is to promote low-carbon and green lifestyles, and at last I think we still need to achieve carbon capture and trade through scientific and technological innovation. We are now in accordance with the requirements of the central government, making very detailed plans and analysis. We are very confident that we’ll achieve carbon dioxide peak emissions before the national timeline. This is one of the major targets in our 14th Five-Year Plan.
Wu Lei,
CGTN Reporter
Hangzhou, Zhejiang province's capital city, will host the 19th Asian Games in 2022. How is the preparation going?
Yuan Jiajun,
Party Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee
Because the 2022 Asian Games is set to be held in September next year, we're making sure that all venues will be finished by next April, and that the rest of the infrastructure is basically in place. At the same time, we are also improving the city's overall quality, enhancing barrier-free and other necessary facilities, We are all working together, and in particular a large number of volunteers are joining us. We all hope that the global society will have a better understanding and affection about Hangzhou through hosting the Asian Games. Marco Polo, a 13th-century Italian-Roman traveler, once travelled to Hangzhou. He described Hangzhou as the most splendid city in the world. President Xi Jinping has also praised Hangzhou as a historic and cultural city full of innovation and vitality. The G20 Summit in Hangzhou has presented the world as a unique combination of history, and the modern development of the city. Now the Asian Games offers Hangzhou a new opportunity so that Asia and the whole world will know more about Hangzhou. So we're still in the process of intense preparations. We are very confident that we’ll offer you a wonderful, unforgettable, green and frugal Asian Games.
Wu Lei,
CGTN Reporter
Any welcoming words for global athletes and audiences?
Yuan Jiajun,
Party Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee
Zhejiang Province has the most beautiful landscape, a rich cultural heritage, an innovative dynamic economy, especially in terms of the digital economy. We have a loving and warm-hearted society. We have a beautiful countryside, we have lucid waters and green mountains. We have a creative and dynamic team of entrepreneurs. We have a pragmatic and efficient government. Above all, we have intelligent, hardworking, friendly and beautiful people, so I would like to give our friends from Asia and the whole world our warmest welcome to the city of Hangzhou. I'm certain that you will have a fulfilling trip. Thank you so much.
视频及文稿素材来源：CGTN