Hangzhou Municipal People's Congress gets underway

The fourth session of the 13th Hangzhou Municipal People's Congress kicked off in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province on the morning of Jan 21, with 506 deputies in attendance.

Xu Liyi, mayor of Hangzhou delivered the 2018 work report of the municipal government at the plenary, saying that achievements have been made in different aspects, including innovative development, rural revitalization, social governance and improving the living standards of residents.

He noted that against the backdrop of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, the capital city of Zhejiang should seize the new opportunities brought by the modern era and accelerate its international development by giving full play to the unique advantages of the city in innovation, culture, and ecology.

According to Xu, the city's economy has experienced historic growth in the last year, with its GDP projected to surpass 1 trillion yuan ($147.8 billion), up 7 percent year on year, making Hangzhou the 10th city in the nation to join the "1 trillion yuan club", backed by its digital economy.

Statistics reveals that the added value of the core industries of the city's digital economy is expected to see a 15 percent increase to 332 billion yuan.

Looking to the future, Hangzhou will strive to achieve a seven percent growth rate of its GDP in 2019 while maintaining R&D expenditure at 3.4 percent and synchronizing the growth rate between people's disposable incomes and overall economic expansion.

To achieve these goals, Xu emphasized the importance of high-quality development driven by supply-side structural reform and new driving forces for development.

The session lasts four days and will end on Jan 24.