Wan Qingliang, deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee of Guangzhou and Mayor of Guangzhou Municipality in the Second Plenary Session of the Ninth Party Committee of Guangzhou Municipality stated recently that: "It is imperative to build Guangzhou into a city of happiness and to constantly improve people's well-being. We need to foster people-oriented and harmonious development and serve the fundamental interests of the people. This is in line with the overall strategy of upgrading the Guangdong economy and developing Guangdong into a province of happiness".
In his report, Mayor Wan gave full details of the Proposal for Formulating the 12th National Economy and Social Development Five-Year Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Proposal). He emphasized the importance of transforming the economic growth pattern and building Guangzhou into an intelligent, low-carbon and happy city by capitalizing on the positive effects of the 16th Asian Games. He also pointed out that the government would enhance Guangzhou's core competitiveness, international influence and cultural soft power in an all-round way, so that Guangzhou would be developed into a world city.
Mayor Wan indicated that in the next five years, Guangzhou would consolidate, improve and upgrade its Asian Games legacies, so as to make greater strides in promoting a balanced development in both the urban and rural areas. To this end, a key strategy has been outlined in the Proposal, which is to optimize the functional layout of the city by building "one city axis, two new towns and three district centers".
"One city axis" means a new city center, which incorporates high-end modern services elements, such as commerce, finance, exhibition, administration and tourism. "Two new towns" refer to a landscape town in the east and a coastal town in the south. "Three district centers" refers to Xinhua in Huadu District, Jiekou in Conghua and Licheng in Zengcheng. Also included in the Proposal are the strategies of building modern satellite cities to coordinate the development between urban and rural areas, improving living and ecological environment and encouraging citizens to adopt a low-carbon style of living and consumption.
Source: english.gz.gov.cn
