Persist in sci-tech view of development, 118 resources cities in China on transition

"The cities of resources type in China are experiencing an agony of transition." At the seminar on the economic transition of the cities running short of resources and for sustainable development brought to end the other day, some experts pointed out.

There are 118 resources cities in China according to the investigation by Xiao Jincheng and Wang Qingyun, research fellows with the State Development and Reform Commission. The cities have a total population of 154 million, of which 34 million are non-agricultural urban dwellers with 12.5 million workers.

Though some scholars hold a different view about the number of resources cities yet they share the very common view. That is, the mineral resources are running out daily with economic development lagging behind while the biological environment is being damaged with daily heavier of pollution and the livelihood of the people witnesses an increasing difficulty. As data materials of the State Statistic Bureau indicate, the income of the miners in the past stood at the top of all walks of life, but now the per-head income in quite a number of miners' families averages lower than the disposable income of a local farmer.

According to the analysis of Xiao Jincheng, "cities of resources type depend heavily on their resources. However, resources will run out one day and so for cities of resources type to realize sustainable development they have to promote the transition of their economic structure."

Prof. Ding Sibao with the Institute of Comprehensive Development of Shenzhen is of the opinion, For the Chinese people, the per-head GDP to reach USD 1000 is a doorsill. At the very moment, all such bothering problems as political system, social, environment problem and problem for sustainable development, are coming to crop up. The overall problem of the country can no longer be solved by depending on part of the people to get rich first. Therefore, the transition of urban economy, especially for those cities of resources type has been brought to a place of importance as never before."

At the present moment, a batch of cities of resources type in China is now on the road for the transition of economic structure. That Fuxin of Liaoning, the first experimental city for economic transition as defined by the State Council is targeting at "modern agriculture", has been carried on for three years already. And likewise, Jiaozuo of Henan ever flourished by depending on its coal deposits has in recent years implemented three strategic transfers. The properties of the city began to change from the original city of coal industry to a city of comprehensive industries, a city of tourism and a city of landscape garden and so on and so forth.

Transition for cities of resources type must persist in sci-tech view for development

In a resource-exhausted city in west China when learned that the knocked-off worker carried his wife to work in a singsong house Sun Lei, a research fellow in Chinese Academy of Sciences got shocked. "The transition of resources type must be carried out under the guidance of a sci-tech view for development." He hopes that the tragedy won't come to happen again.

"Over 20 years in the past, I, as a general adviser on Planning and Study for Construction of Energy Resources Base in Shanxi Province, proposed that the economic development in Shanxi should implement a "cross-pattern development strategy" but the conception couldn't be realized at that time. Shanxi Province, as a national energy base, the first and foremost task was to ensure the doubling of the national economy, exploiting on a great scale the coal deposits to be transported out of the region. However, the local economy still lagged behind."

"What I say is the lesson got from Shanxi. In the past we wanted to have coals lopsidedly and so we suffered." When mentioning the past Xu Shoubo, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering said in retrospection, people didn't have enough understanding of the sci-tech view of development in the past, holding that for a city of minerals to depend on its resources for livelihood was quite reasonable, and so a series of problem came to occur in these cities of mining industry.

The lesson of Shanxi is by no means isolated. An insider told the reporter not long ago: "Ma Bo, municipal Party secretary of the time suggested the "strategic transfer" some 20 years ago. However, it was a pity that no common view could be reached then. Or Fuxin can be otherwise than what it looks like now."

"Why Ma Bo brought forward such a motion is because of the fact that a former county-level city of Chaoyang used to be behind Fuxin on all aspects, 1984 witnessed it overtaking Fuxin for the first time in gross products of agriculture and industry. Then Ma Bo appealed to Liaoning Province to put in more investment for Fuxin and the provincial government promised a support of 2,700 million-yuan of fund support. However, the amount realized came only to one tenth of the promised."

"Therefore, in 1986, Ma Bo wrote to the Party Committee of Liaoning Province, stating frankly that the gross economy in Fuxin then couldn't support an urban population of 540,000. And the big problem bothering the city was the major four of drinking water, water drainage, for children to go to school and the roads of the city. In the letter, Ma Bo pointed out seriously: 'our experience is we've succeeded in putting up a city of coal and electricity but the lesson gained is we have an insufficient understanding in regard of the city of a resources type'. At the end of the letter, Ma Bo noted such words as 'sign this written pledge to be preserved as a basis for verification by history'".

"Part of the people echoed to the letter of Ma Bo but was criticized by the then leader at the helm, holding that Fuxin has "not enough spirit for self-reliance". And due to this Ma Bo's official career was affected. However, Ma Bo was right."

The development of a number of domestic cities of resources type has come to prove that they came to different ends by different strategies for economic development. One is the "exhaustion of mineral resources made the city to go downhill" while another is "the city works all right though the mineral resources are running out". Dongchuan in Yunnan Province can be cited as a site of "Dongchuan Pattern" in copper industry. The city was made one at the prefectural level in 1958 for the production value and taxation of the copper industry ever accounted for two thirds of the total industrial and financial revenue of the city. But towards 1990s, along with the incessant exhaustion of the copper minerals all four copper mines under the Dongchuan Mining Bureau went bankrupt. In 1999, Dongchuan, the former prefectural city was reduced to be a county district of Kunming, turning out a "city weakened along with exhaustion of mineral resources", the first of its kind in the history of new China.

"Cities that work all right though the mineral resources are running out are mostly those in which great efforts have been made to develop industries of non-resources type for stepping up the transition of economic structure when they developed to certain scales and with bases. For instance, the Ruhr in Germany, Jiaozuo and Tangshan in China are the cities of suchlike.

According to statistics, of the state-owned mines constructed in the middle of 20th century two thirds have already entered into the "senility". 440 mines are about to close down, and of the 390 mining cities, 50 are facing with the exhaustion of resources with 3 million workers knocked off and the livelihood of 10 million of their families affected.

"The central committee of the Party put forward the sci-tech view for development, which has provided the mining cities and the cities of resources running out with a very good opportunity," academician Xu Shoubo told the reporter. And he hopes that all those cities of resources type at the juncture of economic transition will be able to make a good use of the opportunity and persevere in the sci-tech view for development.

He said, "any city is faced with a problem of transition. It cannot last long to depend on resources and it runs a risk to depend on funds only. However, the most prolonged and reliable resource is the science and technology and the genius of the people."

By People's Daily Online