Mayor Zhang Guangning laid out a list of priorities for the city
government this year at the conclusion of the city's nine-day
people's congress yesterday.
Zhang, who was re-elected mayor of Guangzhou,?capital of
south China's Guangdong Province,?said the city
government would focus on improving the day-to-day lives of the
city's residents.
He said the government would take measures to reduce crime,
accelerate the development of rural areas, upgrade the
infrastructure of the city's elementary and secondary schools,
reduce traffic congestion, protect the environment and fortify food
safety.
To address the city's high crime rate, the mayor said Guangzhou
would increase the number of plainclothes police officers
patrolling its streets to 2,000 from just over 1, 000 this year.
The city will also recruit another 3,500 security personnel,
bringing the total number to 10,000.
Guangzhou has also set aside 205 million yuan (US$26.28 million)
to develop a city-wide security monitoring system.
Zhang said the city government would better manage its immigrant
and migrant populations by monitoring home rentals, cancelling
registration fees for migrants and other measures.
"We admit that most of the floating population has benefited
Guangzhou's development," he said. "However, we can never neglect
the fact that the floating population is also responsible for about
80 percent of the city's criminal cases and other misdeeds that
have caused disorder."
He also said the city government would accelerate the
development of the city's rural areas to narrow the development gap
between urban and rural areas.
He said the city government would work to increase the net
income of the rural population by 7 percent this year. The city's
rural population earned 7,788.27 yuan (US$998) last year.
The city will also earmark 4.96 billion yuan (US$635 million) to
support the construction of elementary and secondary schools in
rural areas this year. The city spent 4.96 billion yuan (US$635.9
million) on schools in 2005 and 2006, he said.
The mayor said Guangzhou would spend 2.3 billion yuan (US$294
million) this year to improve elementary and secondary schools with
comparatively poor educational infrastructure.
Guangzhou will also offer more training programs to adult
farmers to help them find jobs in the secondary or tertiary
industries to reduce the amount of redundant laborers in rural
areas, the official added.
And the city will expand its medical cooperation system to cover
94.5 percent of the rural population this year, and 100 percent in
2008.
He said the city would also have to take aggressive steps to
reduce traffic congestion. The number of private cars and the
city's ban on motorcycles have both contributed to the clogging of
Guangzhou's roads.
He added that another urgent area would be for the city to
standardize educational standards at its different elementary and
secondary schools to give children access to equal educational
opportunities.
(China Daily January 31, 2007)