The county economy of Hunan province broke trillion yuan for the first time in 2010. The requirement for “enhancing the vitality of county economic development” was listed in the “12th five-year plan outline of Hunan economic and social development”. Huan Provincial Party Committee and Hunan Government paid high attention to the county economy development in recent years, especially on issuing series of policies to promote the healthy and fast improvement of county economy.
In 2010, per capita regional GDP of Hunan province was 18813 yuan, up 21.8%. The total GDP of counties in Hunan province was 1.045 trillion yuan, and it was the first time to break the trillion records, up 15%. There are 42 counties with regional GDP of over 10 billion yuan and 9 counties over 20 billion yuan. There are 13 counties with fiscal revenue of over 10 billion yuan. Especially for the four advancing counties with remarkable development trend, all the four counties gained 16.9% increase on GDP and 32.3% increase on fiscal revenue. It was introduced by Dai Meixiang- Vice Minister of Rural Work Department of Hunan Provincial Committee for the situation of Hunan county economy that the scale of Hunan county economy was expanded substantially in 2010 with a sound trend of increasing volume, upgrading quality, increasing profit and improving well-being condition. Four sections with different features have been formed in Hunan province like Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan core area, south Hunan area, Dongting lake area, and west Hunan area. According to these data, Hunan province is at the top of the list among the central China provinces on county economy development.
Speed, quality, ecology and well-being are the key points for the development. Not only the economy development is concerned by the government, but the greening land is concerned as well. Dai Meixiang considered that the green industry was being improving in Hunan county economy and attached more and more importance on it. Furthermore, the social security mechanism is extended further to improve the well-being condition and narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas. The new assessment index system is well matched the scientific development requirement, which excludes GDP as the restrictive assessment indicator to show the practical situation and performance quality of county economy scientifically and veritably. More attention will be paid to the well-being to adjust environmental protection indicator and increase urbanization index with the aim of guaranting the long lasting, fast and healthy development of Hunan county economy.
The policy to make people richer and to make county stronger should be laid particular stress on people. Both the two points supplement each other, because a stronger county can make people rich, while the truly rich people can guarantee and improve the county to be stronger. Dai listed the development of Changsha County and highly praised the development idea to lay particular stress on people.
As the first county in the central China and leader county in the development of Hunan province county economy, Changsha county, with the unique development experience in the county economy, was the guide for the scientific development of county economy of the central China.
From 2008, Changsha County maintained an exuberant vitality of development in order to catch up with the pace of the counties in those developed coastal areas. This leap of catching-up was benefited from its strategic path selection of “mode transformation and structural adjustment” and was the outcome for its further development of “two-oriented” society. It was learned that Changsha county kept the concept that “happiness and economy should be increased together; rural and urban areas should be prosperous together; livable ecology and development construction should be promoted together”, and 70% of the increasing financial revenue was paid on well-being projects. Taking 2010 for example, 3.53 billion yuan was invested on well-being areas, which covered 75% of the general budget. From 2011, Changsha county took further actions on the construction of a “satisfactory county”, maintained the policy to allocate 70% of the increasing financial revenue on well-being projects, accelerated the speed of integration of urban and rural areas, and upgraded the equal public service level for both urban and rural areas.
The relative link: Hunan county economy accounted for 97% of the whole province area, covered 91% of Hunan province population, created 65% of total GDP and 1/3 of total financial revenue. Meanwhile, it faced the dual tasks of “development” and “transformation”.