Make the People Prosperous and the Province Rich, and Take the Lead in Realizing Modernization

-- An Interview with Hui Liangyu, deputy to the National People's Congress, on the development of Jiangsu Province in the New Century

On the morning of March 8, 2001 this reporter went to interview Hui Liangyu, governor of Jiangsu Province, at the Jingxi Guesthouse where the governor and province deputies were staying. In the space of two hours, the governor gave a detailed description of the province's past and future development.

Hui Liangyu was born in 1944 in northeast China. Since starting work at the age of 20, he has held the leading posts of deputy director of Jilin Provincial Agricultural and Trade Department, secretary of Anhui Provincial Party Committee, and Governor of Jiangsu Province. His first post was in Baichengzi Prefecture, the most impoverished area in Jilin Province, having been promoted, step by step, from grass-roots level. During the 20 years of his political career, he has always been the youngest among fellow cadres of the same rank.

Hui Liangyu left Anhui for his new post in Jiangsu Province in December 1999. "Jiangsu is really a good place," replied the governor when asked his impressions of Jiangsu after having worked there for one year. He then gave a general introduction to the province, stressing its advantages in education standards and economic force. In 2000, the province made three breakthroughs in its economic growth. One was achieving US $100 billion in GDP, making up 10 percent of the country's total; another was its US $10 billion in revenue; and finally its US $45 billion total import and export volume, with exports exceeding US $25 billion, accounting for 10 percent of the national total. All these are indicators that economic development in Jiangsu Province has taken a significant turn for the better.

Hui also gave his viewpoint on the future development of Jiangsu. He said that the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress is of great significance for being held at the beginning of the new century, as the entire nation strives to achieve the third strategic objective set in the Tenth Five-year Plan period, having fulfilled the goals for the Ninth Five-year Plan. During the last five-year plan period, local economic growth placed Jiangsu Province on a higher platform. The Tenth Five-year Plan period will be of great import in raising the opportunity to lay foundations for a rise in the living standards of local people, as well as for the province to take the lead in basic realization of modernization. Against the ethos of rapid development in China elsewhere, the governor acknowledged that not to advance would be to retreat, and that advancing slowly would amount to a retreat for the province. He stated his belief that reform and opening have broadened the vision of the Jiangsu locals along China's eastern coast. They can, therefore, determine the strategic orientation of future development in terms of a global economy. They also hope to seize this favorable and historic opportunity to meet the challenges following China's entry into the WTO, to strengthen the competitive power of the local economy on the international market, and to gain a greater scope of development through technical innovation and structural reform.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Jiangsu Province is at the forefront of China's economic and social development, and has set itself the objectives of making its residents prosper and itself rich. In so doing, Jiangsu may take the lead in realizing modernization, since making local residents prosperous is the foundation upon which the province itself may flourish. We have every confidence that this objective can be achieved.

By staff reporter MEI ER