Haikou, capital of Hainan province, has observed the concept of scientific development of the Party in its work and guided the city in building an honest and efficient administration.

The city's Party committee has been following the path of growth raised by General Secretary Hu Jintao during his visit to Hainan in April 2008.

In the meantime, the city completed the first phase of its quality and safety monitoring center for farm produce. Exports of Wenchang chicken and live pigs are expected to rise 37 percent and 11 percent respectively for the whole year.

The city has adopted 10 rules to speed up industrial development and take over more processing projects shifted from inland areas.

The city has added 1,000 hectares of farmland featuring favorable ecological cycle. Along the highways and the coastline, two large methane pools and 1,873 smaller ones were built this year.

The city leadership pays close attention to introducing outside investment and spur local demands. The government has shortened time of administrative procedures for 54 items.

One goal of the city is to upgrade its urban facilities, which leads to a number of transport projects that are either under construction or being planned to form a trunk road network. At the same time the city is sparing 155 million yuan for rural projects.

Budgetary spending on public utilities totaled 2.1 billion yuan this year, up 11.5 percent. The projects using the funds helped 26,500 people find jobs, built and expanded 10 schools, set up the Hainan Education and Tourism Group and improved facilities in urban hospitals and rural clinics.

In 2008 23,300 urban residents and 33,400 rural residents that are comparatively poverty-stricken receive low-income subsidies from the government. Haikou also saved 4 percent of its administrative expenses at the city level and 2 percent of those at the district level and distributed the funds to low-income people.

Political democracy

In promoting political democracy, Haikou adopted and amended five regulations through its people's congress. Political advisers also put forward valuable suggestions in city development. The city held 35 press conferences to make its governance more transparent.

The Party committee introduced competition in filling up 125 mid-level posts and held six training classes. Moreover, it sent officials from city organizations to rural towns and villages and help local people with their work.

(HK Edition 12/30/2008 page6)