I. Review of the Work of 2008

The 2008 year was an extraordinary period. Under the firm leadership of the Center Committee of the Communist Party of China(CPCCC) and the State Council, the people of all ethnic groups in Hunan, while thoroughly applying the Scientific Outlook on Development and following the arrangements of Hunan Provincial CPC Committee, forged ahead with the concerted efforts in a pioneering spirit and has accomplished in all respects the tasks determined by the 1st Session of the 11th People’s Congress of Hunan Province. We have made steady progress toward the goal of strengthening the province and making the people rich.

First, we surmounted rare natural disasters such as the snow and ice storms and overcome various difficulties in economic development. Confronted with the unusual snow and ice storms at the outset of 2008, the military and the people took quick actions deliberately with joint efforts and ensured the traffic rehabilitation of Hunan sections of Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway and Beijing-Guangzhou Railway with the shortest time, safety of the main grid, urgent repair and renovation of the grid of Chenzhou City as well as the market supply and settlement of the snow-striken people. Rebuilding of homes, arrangements for the people's life and production restoration immediately followed the snow disaster to minimize the loss. A spirit of fighting scientifically, solidly, tenaciously and responsibly among Hunan people was built out of the imposing and touching combat against the snow disaster. Faced with the extraordinarily large earthquake in Wenchuan, we had emphathy with the quake-hit victims and did our utmost to help them fight against the quake. In the situation of continuous tense shortage for energy and electricity supply in the third season, we strengthened coordination and spared no effort in transmitting coal from other provinces to generate electricity and laid a solid foundation for ensuring progress of economic operation against the stern situation and steady economic growth during those days. In view of the rare international financial crisis, we conscientiously implemented all major policy decisions of the CPCCC and the State Council, took early and vigorous actions according to correct judgements, proceeded actively despite difficulty and stood stern challenges and tests to grasp opportunities for development.

Second, the economic strength reached a new high. Hunan’s gross product historically ascended to a new high of 1100 billion yuan, increasing by 12.8% against 2007 as estimated. New industrialization made fresh progress. Above-scale industries realized an added-value of 350 billion yuan, rising by 18.4% over 2007 and the prime operating revenue of 50 industrial groups occupied 60% of that of above-scale industries. The prime operating revenue of the machinery industry surpassed 100 billion yuan in 2007, and the food processing, petrochemical and nonferrous metals industries followed, each with an output exceeding 100 billion yuan in 2008. The added-value of the hi-tech industry rised by 30%, occupying 10% of the gross product. The development of the solar photovoltaic industry and software & information service industry sped up, 7 celllphone brands settled down in Hunan and the output of original animated cartoons remains the top across the country.

Agricultural modernization has quickened its pace. A balance between land occupation and compensation has been kept for 9 years successively and the total output of grain has reached a new high of 29.7 billion kgs, increasing by about 0.6 billion kgs; agricultural product processing industry realized an increase of turnover by 19%; model villages with rich people, beautiful living environment and a general agreeable atmosphere during new socialist countryside construction, and 50 new model areas of  standardized agricultural production are put in place. New urbanization progressed more rapidly with an industrialization coverage of 42.15%, rising by 1.7% over 2007; the Three-year Action Plan for constructing urban sewage disposal facilities has seen a good start. The rates of safely disposing of sewage and household waste in cities with a municipal government ascended by 5.7% and 6.8% respectively.The consumption market boomed and the total retail turnover of social consumer goods exceeded 410 billion yuan, rising by over 20% year on year. The consumer price index has been controlled within 6%. The service industry boomed, which contributed to an increase of 12.7% in the gross revenue of tourism. Banking contributed much to economic growth by offering a loan of 128.5 billion yuan, rising by 16.5% over 2007; all bank balance hit a record of 1097.2 billion yuan, up by 19.8%; all financial departments in Hunan allocated subsidies totaled 942 million yuan for agricultural insurance;and the capital market was financed with 27.18 billion yuan. The development effectiveness has grown, with a total revenue of 130.86 billion yuan, an increase of 16.5% year on year; urban per capita annual disposable income rose to 13,821 yuan, an increase of 12.4% over 2007; rural per capita annual net income ascended to 4512 yuan, rising by 15.6%, 608 yuan, which is a historic high.

Third, the basis of development has been further consolidated. A sum of 558 billion yuan has been invested in social fixed assets, rising by 30% year on year. Construction of Infrastructure and basic industries have been strengthened. Construction of 18 expressways in Hunan, namely, 2 sections of Jing-Zhu Expressway Multiline, i.e., Yueyang- Xiangtan and Hengyang-Linwu, 4 sections of Erguang Expressway (Guangxi- Guangdong), i.e., Yongzhou-Lanshan, Anhua-Shaoyang, Lixian-Changde and Changde- Anhua, 2 sections of Bao-Mao Expressway ( Baotou-Maoming),i.e., Jisou-Huaihua and Huaihua- Tongdao,Yueyang section of Hang-Rui Expressway( Hangzhou-Ruili), Hunan sections of Xia-Rong Expressway (Xiamen-Chengdu) and of Sui-Yue Expressway( Suizhou-Yueyang) and expressways from Changsha to Liuyang, from Hengyang to Nanyue(Dayuandu), fromYanling to Mucun, from Daoxian to Hezhou, from Zhangjiajie to Huanyuan and from Loudi to Xinhua and Yiyang ring expressway have been started. Chang-Ji Expressway( Changsha-Jishou) and Shaoshan Expressway have been completed and open to traffic, which marks the realization of expressway connections between Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, and all the other prefectural cities in Hunan with a total length of all expressways open to traffic reaching 2001 kms. Ferries have been replaced by bridges in main ferry spots where national expressways and provincial roads stretch across Dongting Lake. Six railway programs have been started including the Hunan-Guangxi multiline railway reconstruction and Heng-Cha-Ji Railway construction. The rebuilding and expansion of airports in Changsha and Zhangjiajie progressed smoothly.A small number of major programs including the refining integration of 10 million tons of oil in Yueyang and 5 meter wide plate program of Xiangtan Steel Group have been started. Newly added power-generating capacity totaled 2.31 million kW and Taohua River Nuclear Power Station has been approved to start its prelimilary construction. Roads in counties and townships and cement roads (asphalt roads) from townships to villages, 23800 kms long in total, have been rebuilt, safe drinking water provided to 1.69 million rural residents, 158700 new methane tanks built in rural areas and reinforcement and risk elimination of 1200 dangerous reservoirs completed.

　　　　　　　　　　 
Headway was made in environmental protection via enrichment planting in snow-disaster-hit woodlands with an area of 825,000 acres, afforestation and convertion of retired farmland to forests with an area of 413,325 acres. The energy-conserving and emission reducing tasks were comprehensively accomplished. Major achievements were made in geological mineral exploration. Capacity of land and resources to guarantee economic and social development was enhanced.

Fourth, construction of Chang-Zhu-Tan City Cluster as a pilot area of building a “two-oriented”society through comprehensive and auxiliary reform has registered substantial progress. The general design of the pilot area was completed and the general reform scheme and plan were approved to be implemented by the State Council at the end of 2008. The demonstration work of the pilot area progressed steadily. Pilot areas of bond financing for infrastructure construction, of emission rights trading and of collective construction land transfer etc were launched; five model areas, namely, the Great West Region to Xiangjiang River, Yunlong, Zhaoshan, Tianyi and Binhu were all put in place. Infrastructure has made breakthroughs, marked by smooth start of construction of both Changsha-Xiangtan section of Furong Avenue and Hong-Yi Avenue( from Hongqi Toll Booth in Zhuzhou to Zhuyi Crossroads in Xiangtan); Chang-Zhu-Tan phone communication integration made considerable headway by realizing equal charge for phone communication in the three cities. Joint efforts by the three cities in environmental treatment progressed vigorously by starting to act out the three years’s plan for comprehensive treatment of water pollution in Xiangjiang River, which includes 1377 programs for treatment, and then the construction of the scenic belts along Xiangjiang River further proceeds.Chang-Zhu-Tan City Cluster, with the supporting capacity of its industries enhanced, has been approved as the national comprehensive hi-tech industrial base.

Fifth, reform and opening up further deepened.Reform of state-owned enterprises of Hunan Province have attained the targets set at the current stage by matching 61 enterprises of CPC Central Committee in 166 cooperation programs. The non-public sector of the economy held a proportion of about 56% of the gross product of Hunan province; the rural pilot areas of comprehensive and complementary reform were expanded and reform of the system of collective forest rights was carried out in all respects; all-round reform of the markets for production factors, investment, fiscal and taxation, the administrative system and the personnel system were promoted. Hunan made a significant breakthrough in opening to the outside world since Huanghua International Airport in Changsha and Chenglingji Habor in Yueyang have been approved for direct transportation to Taiwan and direct flight routes from Changsha to Osaka and to Taipei have been opened; Jinxia Bonded Logistics Center has officially come into operation; the total volume of imports and exports reached 12.5 billion dollars, rising by 29%; Hunan exploited a foreign direct investment of 4.005 billion dollars and an internal investment of 123 billion dollars, growing by 22.5% and 16.8% respectively. Hunan sped up carrying on the industrial transfer with an increase of processing trade volume by 38%; the realized outsourcing volume amounted to 118 million dollars, an increase of 3.8 times over 2007. Hunan spared no effort in implementing the ‘go-global’ strategy by approving 61 overseas Chinese-invested enterprises; a small number of competitive enterprises began to be multinational enterprises growing up in Hunan as the Zoomlion successfully purchased the Italian CIFA and has become the world’s largest manufacturer and provider for concrete project machinery, Valin has began strategic cooperation with the ArcelorMittal and introduced three world’s advanced technology of electric steel, auto sheets and stainless steel, Xiangtan Electric Manufacturing Corporation Ltd (XEMC) has cooperated with the USA Timken company in manufacturing main bearings of wind power generators, and Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric Co Ltd purchased Canadian Dynes Power Inc and has become the Asia’s largest high-power semiconductor manufacturing base; Hunan successfully held various investment invitation activities such as the two investment weeks,one in Shanghai and the other in Shenzhen, the first conference of Hunan enterpreneurs and Hunan-Tainwan cooperation in economy and trade.

Sixth, social construction has sped up. Twenty-nine targets of practical projects for people’s well-being have been completely fulfilled. Employment and re-employment have been boosted with 760600 new urban employees, dynamic employment of 4910 zero-employment households in townships above county-level, assistance to 155300 rural poor households in employment transfer and to 12.08 million rural labor force and realization of a service revenue of 95 billion yuan. The strategy of  'Developing the Province by Talents and Invigorating Hunan by Quality achieved remarkable results. Hunan’s capacity for innovation in science and technology has been further enhanced by obtaining 990 scientific and technological achievements and receiving 19 National Supreme Award of Science and Technology. The education program keeps developing. The free compulsory education is available in both urban and rural areas; the guarantee level of rural educational funds were improved since Hunan realized an investment of 3.9 billion yuan in reforming the compulsory education guarantee system in 2008.Construction of rural qualified schools has been started, quality and innovation capacity of higher education heightened and construction of the basic capability of vocational education strenghtened.

The social security system is increasingly improved, for over 6.39 million urban residents have taken out basic medical care insurance, over 45.01 million participated in new rural cooperative medical care and 409 township and town community hospitals were built. The establishment of the urban and rural emergency aid system quickened its pace. Hunan urgently tranferred and settled down 2.95 million snow-striken people and rebuilt 253,000 rooms for those houseless people among them.Hunan provided guarantee of subsistence allowances for urban and rural residents as much as possible by building, rebuilding and enlarging 272 township and town seniors' homes. Housing support was intensified by building and collecting low-rent houses with a total area of 440.7 square meters and completing a housing project for 26,000 low-income rural households. Hunan tightened oversight on the prices of key products and fees of key services for people’s well-being such as education and medical care and improved management of agricultural products-related charges. Vigorous efforts were made to manage product quality safety of food and medicine. Amateur sports and competitive sports yielded a new development as Hunan athletes won 3 golden medals in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and 2 in Beijing Paralympic Games. Efforts in population and family planning was intensified to control the natural growth rate within 5.4‰. Fresh progress has been made in the work related to ethnic, religious and Taiwan affairs, industry & commerce, quality evaluation, foreign and overseas Chinese affairs, trade promotion, foreign intelligence import，counsellation, culture and history, archives, secrecy，audit, statistics, meteorology, mapping, earthquakes, people's air defense, the elderly, the disabled etc.

Seventh, optimization of government affairs made a new step. Fees and items of administrative examination and approval have been considerably rescinded by concelling 64 administrative fees and charges for managing individual proprietorship businesses and terminal markets and 215 items of administrative examination and approval, a decrease of 23%. Hunan actively launched pilot areas of implementing the agency system for examining and approving investment programs and conscientiously cleared up the normative documents by repealing 24% of the normative documents of Hunan provincial government. Establishment of e-government progressed rapidly as Hunan took the initiative to open the English governmental portal website in China, transformed and upgraded the Chinese website, more governmental information appeared transparent to the people and office online and paperless office are being actively generalized.

Eighth, efforts to promote democracy, the legal system and socialist cultural and ethical progress were augmented. Hunan conscientiously followed and implemented the resolutions and decisions by Hunan Provincial People’s Congress and its Standing Committee, voluntarily accepted legal supervision of the provicial people’s congress and its standing committee, actively embraced democratic supervision from the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference (CPPCC) of Hunan Province and the democratic parties and paid enormous attention to strenghtening administrative, auditing and public opinion supervision. Law-based administration has yielded major achievements by taking the lead domestically in launching and implementing regulations on administrative procudures. Hunan handled all the 1159 proposals and 805 in total respectively from representatives of People’s Congress and members of the Committees of CPPCC throughout 2008.Hunan successfully completed the election of the 7th Villagers Committee.The establishment of the system of socialist core values was stengthened and the promotion of cultural and ethical progress was actively carried out. Steady improvement was made in the system of public cultural services and the cultural programs and cultural industries were developing hand in hand. Headway was actively made in upholding integrity and combating corruption and all cases involving violation of law and discipline were thoroughly investigated and dealt with. Work safety remained steady basically. Public administration was intensified in all aspects and capability of dealing with emergencies was continuously enhanced. All facets of public security were strengthened, the stable social situation is ensured and the people live and work in peace and contentment.

Hunan increasingly intensify efforts in national defense education and the motivation for national defense yielded fresh achievements. The People's Liberation Army, the People's Armed Police Force, reserve forces and militiamen made contributions to local economic and social construction and played a role of mainstay in combating the snow-disaster. Hunan governments and the people continued to support the military and give preferential treatment to the families of servicemen and martyrs, the military kept supporting the government and cherished the people and the military built closer relationships with the governments and the people.

Fellow deputies, the course of the past year is quite memorable and the experience so precious in such five respects: first, insisting on developing in a scientific fashion by thoroughly carrying out discussions on studying and applying the Scientific Outlook on Development, by making great efforts to innovate development patterns to improve the development level; second, adhere to the reform and opening up by continuously liberating and developing the productive forces and innovating systems and institutions so as to create a new development scene; third, stick to the ‘New Industrialization and Three Basics’ Strategy (accelerating new type industrialization and strengthening infrastructure, basic industries and basic work) by promoting new type industrialization as the main task of thoroughly applying the Scientific Outlook on Development, by propelling the new urbanization and industrialized operations of agriculture with new industrialization, by unswervingly grasping investment and major projects in an effort to consolidate the basis of development; fourth, persevere in improving the people’s well-being to enable them to receive more tangible benefits in reform and opening up and the last, persisting in rallying the people of all sides and fully arousing their initiative to commit themselves to concentrating on construction and development of economy.

Fellow deputies, our achievements and experience, hard-earned in the past year, are attributable to the hard work and concerted efforts of the people of all the ethnic groups in Hunan and to the vigorous support of the people across the country. Here, on behalf of Hunan Provincial People’s Government, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the workers, farmers, cadres and intellectuals, to the democratic parties, Hunan Federation of Industry Chamber of Industry & Commerce, personages without party affiliation, the people's organizations and people from all sectors of society, to commanders and political-legal cadres of both the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police Force, to institutions and organizations directly under the central government in Hunan, to our compatriots in the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao and in Taiwan as well as overseas Chinese nationals, and to our foreign friends who show concerns about and support for the reform and development of Hunan Province, to the ministries and committees of the State, brother provinces, municipalities directly under the central government and autonomous regions, innumerable enterprises and friends from all walks of life at home and abroad who assisted Hunan in fighting against the snow disaster.

We will be keenly aware of the present difficulties and problems, mainly including incompetitive overall economic strength owing to inadequately rapid economic restructuring and to the extensive pattern of growth; unsound institutions for combating agricultural disasters and more difficulty in continuous increase in farmers' incomes; the stern employment situation and the increase of jobless people due to slowdown of economic growth and return of off-farm workers; the intensified difficulty to make both ends meet due to more government expenditure, policy-supported fee decrease and substantial cancellation of administrative charges; strong response of the masses and enterprises to the development environment and demand for quick transformation of government functions, to efficiency improvement of administrative performances and further rectification of the market order; stern work safety situation especially strenuous and difficult treatment of tailings reservoirs; the arduous task to maintain social harmony and stability; further disentanglement of systems and institutions for scientific development and the rather heavy task to build a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society. We will highly value such problems and take effective measures to solve them.