10 local highlights to predict national central topics
- By Chen Boyuan
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E-mail China.org.cn, February 24, 2016
The provincial people's congress of Anhui ended on Feb. 21, concluding all local legislative and political consultative sessions. That means the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), known as the "two sessions," are imminent.
Analysts say that local hot topics are often closely connected with those the deliberations at the national level. The following is a roundup of highlights from the work reports of the 31 province (or municipalities and autonomous regions).
1. Curbing air pollution
Curbing air pollution is found in the work reports of 31 provinces.
The State Council released the "Action Plan for Air Pollution Prevention and Control" in 2013, in which it marked a red line for PM2.5 density for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. Today, what achievements have been make in smog control?
At this year's local "two sessions," Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei all showcased their performance sheets for smog control during the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2011-15). In 2015 alone, the average PM2.5 density in Hebei dropped by 28.7 percent from the 2013 level; the figure for Tianjin was 27.1 percent and the density for particle matter (PM) in Beijing in 2015 was lowered by 15.8 percent against 2012.
The air quality in both the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta both improved overall. In 2015, the PM2.5 density in bigger cities in Zhejiang fell by 11.3 percent year on year, and the yearly average PM2.5 density in Guangdong Province was 34 micrograms, reaching the national criteria two years ahead of schedule.
Hebei has promised that its PM2.5 density will have fallen 40 percent from the level in 2013 by the end of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan, and the heavily polluted cities in the province would seek to disappear from the national worst 10 list. Beijing has promised this year's PM density would drop by around five percent.
2. Poverty reduction
Metadata helps precisely implement poverty reduction measures.
Poverty alleviation is the top-priority project during the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan. To improve the life quality of all impoverished, take off counties from the poverty-stricken list, and solve overall regional poverty will be the most demanding undertaking for the building of a comprehensive well-off society during the period.
Guizhou is central to the task, for it is one of the most poverty-stricken provinces. Its provincial government work report made clear, for the first time, that poverty alleviation would be at the top of the agenda, and the No. 1 livelihood project for a province with 6.23 million impoverished people.
In Gansu's provincial government work report, its resolution of poverty reduction was most evident: "The provincial authorities seek to lift more than one million people from poverty each year for the first two years of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan, and for the remaining three years, consolidate the poverty relief achievements, and ensure impoverished rural people's basic livelihood, compulsory education, basic medical care and housing." The goal of Sichuan Province's poverty alleviation for this year is "to lift more than 1.05 million people out of poverty and delist more than 2,350 impoverished villages and five impoverished counties."
How to carry out carefully targeted measures for poverty alleviation? Many western province's government work reports all directly stated their difficulties before stressing their resolve. For example, Gansu Province has already set up a precise metadata management platform for poverty relief; in the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan, the province will continue to carry on the work based on metadata. Hubei, Yunnan and Sichuan will do likewise.
3. Construction of clean government
Rules and regulations will become much stricter.
Since the CPC's 18th National Congress, the anti-corruption campaign has been intensified. The effort to build clean government has naturally been an issue of most concern.
Almost all the 31 provincial government work reports mentioned increasing the effort to build clean government. Beijing will focus on grass-root agencies and departments that directly serve the people to rectify "negligence and reckless governance." Economic audits will be applied to all agencies, including leaders leaving or who have already left their posts.
Guangdong Province will perfect the supervision mechanism for administrative power based on the cooperation among supervisory, judicial and audit departments, deepen its "sunshine governance" service, advance transparent administration, and enhance clean and honest government education among public servants. Henan Province stressed Party and government officials would have the responsibility for the Party's work style and the building of clean government. Inspection and supervision will have no boundaries or restricted areas, and there will be no tolerance ofviolations of Party discipline or laws.
4. Coordinating urban-rural development
Coordinated urban and rural development is a matter of social justice.
Gradually reducing the urban-rural gap, facilitating fair exchanges of urban and rural elements, ensuring fair access to reasonable resource allocation and basic public services are the key to a comprehensive well-off society.
In Beijing, the goal of "everyone enjoys social security" has largely been met in the senior care and medical care systems for both urban and rural residents. The urban and rural minimum living standards have been unified. There is now no difference in the public services and social security policies for urban and rural residents.
In Shanghai, the construction focus is shifting to the suburbs, along with the allocation of public service resources with a priority given to rural areas and people with difficulties.
For those less developed provinces, perfecting rural infrastructure and public service systems are the main undertaking for coordinating urban and rural development and in shaping a “beautiful countryside.“ Hunan Province, for example, will pioneer a development mode "oriented towards public transport," in that the urban and rural bus services will be unified.
Bringing cultural products to rural areas to build a public cultural service system that covers all residents is an important assignment in coordinating urban and rural development. Heilongjiang Province plans to launch a digital wireless network of radio and television, facilitating the merger of telecommunications, radio and TV networks and the Internet, so as to provide more needed cultural products and services to rural areas.
5. Reform of household registration system
Basic work will be carried out for inclusive public services.
The residence permit system has given all permanent urban dwellers access to basic public services, which is good news for the migrant population. Almost all the 31 provincial governments' work reports mentioned that they would continue with urbanization of agricultural population, and reasonably carry forward the new type of urbanization focusing on people. The comprehensive implementation of the residence permit system will encourage more people to live in cities, be part of the urban development, and share the fruits from their contributions.
Regarding controlling the size of metropolises, Fujian Province has implemented differentiated policies in issuing residents permits to lead the rural population to first move to smaller cities or newly established townships. On the other hand, it is exploring new mechanisms to urbanize the rural population without moving them to cities; instead, it encouraged development zones and industrial parks to accommodate rural people by means of offering public affordable housing.
In its urbanization effort, Guangdong Province is giving priority to those with the abilities to live in cities with stable employment, while at the same time, accelerating the reform of household registration system and resident permit system. To accommodate the housing needs of newcomers, Guangdong has carried out housing reforms to increase the supply for both affordable housing and homes for rent. For some rural people working in cities, they wish to merge into urban life while still worrying about their old homes and land in the countryside. In light of this, Henan and Shandong, the two provinces with large agricultural populations, made clear in their government work reports that the government will preserve the rights for rural people dwelling in cities.
6. Safety redline
Implementation of responsibility is a top priority.
Safety is the precondition for development, and it is the most important concept in people's livelihood. Last year, the Tianjin blasts on Aug. 12 and the landslide in Shenzhen on Dec. 20 caused heavy casualties and huge losses, sounding the alarm for the nation.
How to strictly guard the safety redline is intensively reflected in the government work report of the Tianjin Municipality. It made clear that no effort will be spared for the construction of a safe city. The Guangdong provincial government, drawing lessons from the Dec. 20 landslide, said it would step up urban safety and public safety in 2016, and raise its capability of emergency response. It stressed that Party and government officials share equal responsibility for production safety and those deemed negligent will be held accountable.
Public safety was also found in the local "two sessions" of Beijing, Jiangsu, and Sichuan. For example, Beijing will perfect its citywide safety protection system to ensure that all operations in the city become safe and orderly.
7. Investment in people's livelihood
How large is the investment? To which specific areas does the investment go? Investment in people's livelihood has always been a hot topic and focus of discussion for delegates to people's congress and representatives to political consultative conferences. How large will this investment be in this year, and will there be any special focus for this investment?
The government work report of Jiangsu Province explained its investment in people's livelihood in up to 1,000 characters. It said the government will expand such investment to “patch up the short board,” ensure basic social welfare, increase the supply of public servicesand complete 10 major undertakings involved. Noticeably, for the care and protection of the underprivileged, the province will set up 100 provincial e-commerce model stations of women volunteers, who will provide specialized care for left-behind children and women, single and impoverished women, and senior people without children to care for them. The province will also fully implement the aid and protection system for children living in difficulty.
Also in 2016, Guangdong Province will set aside 210 billion yuan (US$32.3 billion) from its financial budget to raise the basic living standard, enhance assistance to vulnerable groups, ensuring housing for low-income people, improve living and production conditions in rural areas, and improve grass-root medical services, among the 10 major tasks for enhancing people's livelihood.
Sichuan will go on increasing the expenditure on items concerning people's livelihood. The share of such expenditure in the provincial budget will remain at around 65 percent. The provincial government will launch 20 major undertakings for improving people's livelihood.
8. Facilitating the nationwide second child policy
Marriage leave, maternity leave, medical service and education should all develop accordingly.
Since the nationwide "total relaxation of the policy on a second child" was implemented, many provinces have cancelled the prolonged leave for late-marriage, along with modifications to maternity, paternal and nursing leave. For example, after the adjustment, Shanxi Province prescribed 30-day marriage leave; Anhui and Jiangxi started to grant 158-day maternity leave; in Guangxi and Ningxia, paternal leave will be prolonged to 25 days.
But to have the second child is no easy choice. The cost of bringing up the child are inescapable issues in addition to the scarce medical and educational resources. The Shanghai Party Chief Han Zheng has said: "Given the relaxation for a second child, Shanghai will be short of pediatricians in 10 years. I suggest all 3-A hospitals in Shanghai open pediatric departments."
On the allocation of educational resources, the Beijing's municipal education chief Xian Lianping, also a member to the municipal people's political consultative conference, said that Beijing would mull increasing by 150,000 the pre-school education openings in the next three years to accommodate the baby boom in the wake of the relaxation.
Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, plans to build 300 public kindergartens in 2016 to add 86,000 educational openings also in preparation for the surge in kindergarten-aged children in three years.
9. Simplifying governance and decentralizing powers
Perfecting the power list and responsibility list
Simplifying governance and decentralizing powers have always been hailed as the first moves in the comprehensive deepening of reform and the transformation of government functions. They take up much space in the government work report each year.
As a precursor of reform and a local economic power, Guangdong, in its provincial government work report, stressed it would advance reforms in the administrative approval system. During the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan, the province will implement a provincial-city-county third-level management system of government agencies' responsibility list, continue to reduce the items requiring administrative approval, rectify intermediary services and standardize administrative approvals.
Beijing's effort to simplify governance and decentralize powers will be characterized by docking with the central government in that Beijing will also accommodate the powers that the central government devolves.
Jiangsu, Henan, Hunan, Tianjin, Xinjiang all promised they will resolutely simplify governance and decentralize powers to lower agencies to ensure "minimal approval items, highest efficiency and best services."
It is foreseeable that simplifying governance and decentralizing powers will carry more weight this year. And this issue will attract national attention during the national "two sessions."
10. Paid leave
Many provinces wrote this into their report to make it institutionalized
In its latest work report, the Sichuan provincial government said that in 2016 it would "implement paid leave, encourage leave on non-peak days, allow flexible paid leaves and promote tourism expending." This raised expectancy among office workers, although many worried it might be an empty promise.
A system is only as good as its implementation. Media reports said that Sichuan would unveil policies after the Spring Festival to ensure working people can have paid leave. Through collective consultations and contracts, the provincial government seeks to consolidate "paid leaves" by institutionalizing it.
Apart from Sichuan, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Hebei, Jiangsu and Yunnan also mentioned they would implement a "paid leave system" in their latest provincial government work reports.
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