Box 9: Implementation of the Three Initiatives
2) The development of the four regions became more coordinated. Efforts were increased to accelerate large-scale development in the western region, while effective measures were adopted to respond to the downward pressure on economic development in the northeast. The development of integrated transportation hubs and eco-economic zones in the central region was accelerated. And the eastern region continued to play an exemplary role in carrying out reform and innovation, transforming and upgrading industries, and improving the quality and performance of the economy. In addition, state-level new areas enjoyed sound development.
Box 10: Development of the Four Regions
Box 11: Development of Major Function Platforms
3) The New Urbanization was advanced in an active yet prudent way. Projects to help rural migrant workers become permanent urban residents, to cultivate emerging small and medium-sized cities, and to promote new models of urban development all made smooth progress. Twenty-seven provinces (including autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) as well as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps published their guidelines for carrying out reform of the household registration system, and provisional regulations concerning the residence certificate were published and implemented. Steady progress was made in advancing new models of urban development and in the cultivation of emerging small and medium-sized cities. Plans for the development of city clusters were completed for the Yangtze River Delta, and for the Chengdu-Chongqing and Harbin-Changchun regions. We further extended the state comprehensive pilot project for the New Urbanization to two provinces and 135 cities or towns. Positive results were achieved in implementing the reform to replace multiple plans for city (county) development with one master plan.
5. We accelerated the transformation of the agricultural growth model and made solid progress in agricultural modernization. Agricultural and rural development remained steady, and grain output increased for the twelfth consecutive year.
1) Support policies for agriculture were innovated and improved. Investment in agriculture, rural areas, and farmers continued to grow, and for the fifth consecutive year the proportion of funds appropriated for investment in these three areas from the central government budget exceeded 50% of total funds. The program for the review of state funds for agricultural development was successfully completed, and the trials of integrating and optimizing the use of provincial funds for agricultural development were launched. We worked steadily to improve the policy for setting minimum state grain purchase prices and the policy for the temporary state purchase and storage of grain, and solid progress was made in implementing pilot reforms for guaranteeing base prices for cotton in Xinjiang, and for soybean in the northeast and Inner Mongolia. We strengthened regulation over the market for major commodities such as grain, cotton, edible oil, sugar, and chemical fertilizers.
2) Agricultural and rural infrastructure development was further strengthened. Construction on major water conservancy projects was accelerated. We stepped up efforts to upgrade water-saving facilities in medium-sized and large irrigation areas and carried out farmland improvement projects to support the plan to increase China's grain production capacity by 50 million metric tons, while also developing the infrastructure needed for a modern seed industry and expanding the capacity of grain silos. Further progress was made in strengthening rural infrastructure such as roads, housing, and water, power, and methane supply capacity. In order to increase cooperation and connectivity, urban and rural areas moved faster to jointly build and share infrastructure as well as public service facilities. Pilot projects were launched to control pollution from non-point agricultural sources, utilize and protect chernozem soil in the northeast, and improve the management of grassland reclamation areas; and progress was made in the trials for treating heavy-metal pollution on farmland and the over-abstraction of groundwater.
Box 12: Agricultural and Rural Infrastructure Development
3) New strides were made in agricultural structural adjustment. Grain output reached 621 million metric tons, and harvests and production levels remained high for major agricultural products such as meat, egg, milk, fruits, vegetables, tea, and aquatic products. As much as 54% of livestock and poultry farming is now carried out on a large scale; trials to replace grain crop cultivation with feed crop cultivation and to rotate crops between grain and soybean were launched across the board. The overall level of mechanization in plowing, sowing, and harvesting reached 63%, and advances in agricultural science and technology contributed to 56% of agricultural production.
4) Steady progress was achieved in rural reform. Pilot reforms relating to rural land requisition, the marketization of rural collective land designated for business-related construction, and the system of land used for rural housing were carried out in 33 county-level administrative areas; and trials to allow contracted rural land-use rights and farmers' home property rights to be used as collateral to borrow money were implemented in 278 county-level administrative areas. The pilot reform relating to granting shareholder rights for rural collective assets proceeded in an orderly manner. The number of family farms, farmers' cooperatives, leading agricultural enterprises, and other new types of agribusiness amounted to nearly 2.5 million.
6. We intensified efforts to promote ecological progress, and surpassed this year' s targets for energy conservation and environmental protection. Energy consumption per unit of GDP dropped by at least 5.6%, carbon dioxide emissions by at least 6%, sulfur dioxide emissions by 5.8%, chemical oxygen demand by 3.1%, ammonia nitrogen by 3.6%, nitrogen oxide emissions by 10.9%, and water consumption per 10,000 yuan of value-added of industry by 3.9%.
1) Efforts to promote ecological conservation continued to intensify. We promulgated and implemented both the guidelines on accelerating ecological advancement and the integrated reform plan for promoting ecological progress, and continued to ensure the smooth development of pilot demonstration zones for promoting ecological progress. Environmental policies relating to functional zones, the national plan for marine functional zones, and the revised national plan for ecosystem service zones were published and implemented. We expanded the scope of a new round of projects to return marginal farmland to forest or grassland and afforested 6.32 million hectares of land, and the national vegetation fractional coverage of grasslands reached 54%. Efforts were intensified to prevent the expansion of stony deserts and protect wetlands, and integrated measures were taken to bring soil erosion under control on an additional 5.4 million hectares of land.
2) Further progress was made in energy conservation and emissions reduction. A ceiling on total coal consumption was imposed in each major air-polluting city, and the action plan to promote energy conservation and reduce emissions through the upgrading of coal-fired power plants was fully implemented. The pilot demonstration projects to commission a third party to treat pollution, encourage the trading in of old equipment and parts for remanufactured ones, and implement a system for extended producer responsibility were all carried out in an orderly manner. We promoted both the construction of green buildings and the comprehensive utilization of crop straw.
