Xue was in an interview with the reporter of Nanfang Daily. 

Is it possible for a city with only 1% of the provincial area and 3% of the provincial population but ranking NO.5 in the provincial economy to create another legend? Yesterday, Party Secretary Xue Xiaofeng was interviewed by Nanfang Daily to talk about Zhongshan’s next move in economy.

NFD: In the 11th Provincial Congress of Party Representatives, the task was put forward to speed up industrial transformation & upgrading to build a happy Guangdong Province, but many cities are now faced with an economic downturn due to the macro environmental factors. Can Zhongshan, a traditional manufacturing city, overcome the current challenge?

Xue: The key for Zhongshan to address the problem is to transform and upgrade its industrial structure. After developing in full swing for 30 years, Zhongshan has tapped almost all its potentials, so we have to find a new way out, and that is accelerating transformation and upgrading. While we try every effort to transform and upgrade the industrial structure, we also need to maintain a steady growth, to promote the quality and sustainability of the growth. In recent years, Zhongshan has formulated a lot of policies and adopted a lot of measures to set up a friendly environment for the development.

In the first half of 2012, Zhongshan’s economy has grown by 9.2%, but the happier thing is to see the acceleration of structural adjustment. During this period of time, the growth of heavy manufacturing overtook that of light manufacturing by 7-8%, the growth of hi-tech industry overtook that of traditional industry by 7-8%,and 50,000 less people were hired but productivity was improved by 20%. In the first 6 months of 2012, 600 enterprises were shut down or moved out of Zhongshan, each with an investment intensity of 500,000 yuan, and 600 new enterprises were set up, each with an investment intensity of 50,000,000 yuan. The 100 times growth of investment intensity is a convincing evidence of the growth quality.

New moves:

In the first 6 months of 2012, 600 enterprises were shut down or moved out of Zhongshan, each with an investment intensity of 500,000 yuan, and 600 new enterprises were set up, each with an investment intensity of 50,000,000 yuan. The 100 times growth of investment intensity is a convincing evidence of the growth quality.

Next move:

6 billion yuan will be injected in the future 3 years to recreate a clear Qijiang River.

Driving force:

The 2012 Competitiveness Report of Chinese Cities composed by Chinese Academy of Social Science revealed that Zhongshan has 2 indexes (social environment and innovative environment) ranking among top 10 and the competitiveness of social environment even ranked No.1 in the mainland.