The work conference of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project has set improving quality and raising efficiency as the overall requirement and task in 2018. Improving quality is critical as the direction of the constructors' work; raising efficiency is fundamental as the goal of the constructors' work. They should understand comprehensively and grasp exactly the rich content of the overall requirement and make further progress in improving quality and raising efficiency.
China is still in a critical stage for deepening reform and opening-up, and transformation and upgrading. The basic feature of China's economic development is that the economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. Promoting high-quality development is a fundamental requirement for adopting development approaches, formulating economic policies, and enforcing regulation at the macro level at present and in the years to come.
As a major national strategic infrastructure, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project plays an important role in ensuring water security in both urban and rural areas, economic development, social stability and ecological restoration in China's northern regions. The project also faces the issue of improving quality and raising efficiency. How to enhance the project's competitiveness centering on building a modernized economy system? How to provide more sufficient and higher quality diverted water to people in need? How to quicken the pace of subsequent projects to meet the water supply requirement for the coordinated regional development? How to achieve the development featuring harmony between human and nature and to play a greater role in building China into a country with a good environment? The constructors are obliged to give satisfactory answers to these questions when considering the goals of improving quality and raising efficiency.
Improving quality requires great efforts on the management of project operation, adhering to high standard, and continuously strengthening standardization and informatization. By steadily raising the modernization level of the project operation management, the constructors are expected to make the project into an example of best practices of project construction management, as well as a demonstration model for water diversion projects.
Improving quality requires strengthening water quality protection, and building an integrated water monitoring system that involves inspection, prevention and promotion, so that a steady flow of clean water could feed the north. Improving quality requires more thought given to assisting the displaced residents, merging the various policies and measures regarding the assistance provision, and taking measures in targeted poverty alleviation to help the displaced residents find their feet. Improving quality requires strengthening supervision of implementation of the rule of "saving water before diverting water, treating pollution before providing water, protecting environment before using water," and raising the public's awareness to make new progress in water conservation, limiting exploitation of ground water, and other efforts. Improving quality requires taking the initiative in advancing successive projects, enhancing coordination and exerting subjective initiative under the guidance of the national regional coordinated development strategy, and stepping up preparation work of successive projects to give them a head start.
Raising efficiency primarily requires increasing water supply efficiency. Constructors should take action to quickly fulfill the planned water supply goal for established projects, tap the full water supply potential of the projects, and expand the reach and coverage of the diverted water. Raising efficiency requires adequately increasing the value output of the project's assets. Constructors should give full play to the land, talent and technology resources based on their own characteristics, actively expand businesses, tap the full potential of fixed assets, and strive to transform the unitary management of the project into the integrated management of project, assets and capitals. Raising efficiency requires steadily improving the work and products from contracting companies. Constructors should build a modern enterprise system with clear property rights, well-defined roles and responsibility, a separation between the government and enterprises, and scientific management methods. Raising efficiency requires fully increasing social benefits. While ensuring that the project's water supply capabilities, constructors should also consider the project's capabilities in promoting industrial structure upgrading, flood control, environmental pollution control, targeted poverty alleviation, and tourism development.
To fulfill the goal of improving quality and raising efficiency of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, there is a pressing need to building valuation systems for quality, policy, standards, data, and job performance. These systems could boost quality development, and formulate and improve institutional environment. Constructors should fully grasp the importance of improving quality and raising efficiency as the overall requirement, and strive to advance quality development of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project toward greater achievements.