China's largest city Shanghai posted a GDP growth of 13 percent
based on a rise of 9.6 percent in fixed assets investment in the
first half of 2007, thanks to the strategic adjustment of economic
structure, statistics from the municipal government show.
The tertiary industry contributed more than 50 percent of the
city's total GDP in the first six months, a rise of 14.1 percent
from a year earlier.
Technological and systematic innovation is to play a leading
role in motivating fast economic growth, the first time since China
adopted the opening up policy nearly three decades ago, said Chen
Xian, an economist with the Shandong Provincial Academy of Social
Sciences.
In the past years, many places in China achieved economic growth
driven by increase in investment and resources consumption, which
caused great pressure on the environment.
China has made it a strategic task to build a
resource-conserving and environment-friendly society to achieve
economic and social development.
East China's Shandong Province has given priority to the
development and manufacturing of 100 kinds of products during the
11th five-year program period (2006-2010), with the purpose of
boosting advanced manufacturing industries such as electronics
information, bioengineering and new materials, among others.
The provincial government earmarked 250 million yuan (about
US$33 million) to finance the first batch of 62 programs involving
industrial adjustment in 2006 to boost technological innovation in
local enterprises.
The Shandong-based electronic firm Hisense developed the second
generation of a digital video transact chip "Xinxin", the
application of which reduced the annual production cost by more
than 20 million yuan (about US$2.7 million).
Hisense is the first Chinese mainland TV producer to master core
technologies and possess proprietary intellectual property
rights.
With more core technologies in hands, local enterprises in the
Pearl River delta in south China have contributed significantly in
optimizing the structure of local industries.
Guangdong Province, known for fast economic growth driven by
labor-intensive and light industries in the early 1990s, has
entered a new round of development, with auto making,
petro-chemical, ship-building, iron and steel, and information
technology industries becoming new forces driving local economic
development.
Guangdong posted a GDP of more than 2.59 trillion yuan (about
US$345 billion) in 2006, ranking the first on the Chinese
mainland.
Jiangsu Province in the east is also among the coastal regions
which pursue fast economic growth via science and technology
advancement.
The province's expenditure on science and technology development
rose by 63.7 percent in the first half of this year, and currently
more than 50 percent of its economy benefit from technology
progress.
From January to May, the provincial government granted patent
rights to 11,610 products, up 73 percent on last year.
"Pursuing economic development through innovation is a
reflection of the scientific concept of development," said Zhang
Weiguo, director of the Institute of Economics under the Shandong
Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.
China has set a goal of raising the contribution to economic
growth by science and technology advancement from 39 percent to
more than 60 percent in 2020.
(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2007)