City government's investment plans well ahead of schedule

This was announced at a ceremony on June 30 marking the beginning of a number of key service projects, including a hot spring resort in Jintang county that attracted investment of more than 6 billion yuan ($897.1 million).

From January to May, the Chengdu government invested 178.33 billion yuan in fixed assets in the service sector, increasing 16.8 percent compared with the same period last year, and accounting for 40.2 percent of the planned total investment for this year.

The investment included 44.17 billion yuan in 335 major projects recognized by the local government, accounting for 51.5 percent of this year's plan.

Among the major projects are 60 new ones that are scheduled to start this year, 27 of which had started construction by the end of May, including an international hospital and a furniture market.

Three projects were completed ahead of schedule.

Sixty-eight of the major projects each have investment of at least 3 billion yuan, and 10 have investment of more than 10 billion yuan each.

Local officials said the city's fixed assets investment in the service industry and the construction of major projects in the sector are rising, thanks to the The Chengdu-Chongqing City Cluster Development Program and a national campaign to build Chengdu into a regional economic, technical and innovation hub in western China.

Guo Qizhou, head of the Chengdu Commission of Commerce, said the government focused on the major projects in the first half of the year. "The major projects in the service sector have begun well thanks to the government's efforts in their introduction, construction and oversight," he said at the ceremony.

"The introduction and construction of the major projects will provide strong support for Chengdu to both reinforce the foundation of its service industry and increase its service capacity," he added.

Guo noted that investment to the emerging industries grew sharply over the past six months, with sectors such as public management, social security, education and IT services witnessing a year-on-year increase in investment of more than 56 percent.

However, local officials noted that Chengdu still faces challenges in investment structure and quality.

"The investment structure today determines the industrial structure tomorrow," said Deputy Mayor Fu Yonglin.

He added that the development of the service industry must be supported by an increasing number of high-quality projects.

"Although the total investment to the service sector in Chengdu has been rising, there is still a big gap compared with some other regional hubs and coastal areas in the country," he said, and called for further improved plans, guidelines, policies and government supervision.

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn