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Beijing Shifts Fiscal Focus
Beijing will take steps to shift its fiscal investment away from fields such as infrastructure construction, transport and pensions.
The move will free up money for environmental protection, fledgling high-tech enterprises and the maintenance of the old city's traditional culture in the coming years.
"We started to shift our focus during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000), and we have decided to further deepen the fiscal investment reform in the future," a spokesman from the municipal government said.
During the last Five-Year Plan period, fiscal investment for infrastructure construction and environmental protection amounted to 40.13 billion yuan (US$4.83 billion), 9.4 per cent of which was earmarked for the prevention and treatment of air pollution.
"The shift is meant to win the bid for 2008 Olympic Games," the spokesman said.
From 1998 to 2000, the annual fiscal expenditure on repairing and renovating Beijing's historical relics reached 330 million yuan (US$39.7 million), an amount that is expected to rise sharply in the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005).
Last year, the municipal government began putting 1.5 billion yuan (US$180 million) per annum aside to develop the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, the center of China's high-tech industry.
So far, three venture capital funds have been established to help high-tech firms and business start-ups in the park and 39 high-tech projects have been granted capital support by the city's fiscal department.
According to official statistics, Beijing's fiscal revenue has been looking healthy, with annual rates of increase exceeding 20 per cent from 1995 to 2000.
The city's fiscal revenue of last year was 34.24 billion yuan (US$4.13 billion), 22.7 per cent more than that of the previous year and two times that of 1995.
Source: China Daily
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