Reporter: In interviews, I heard some local officials and people talking about that the “yellow earth” coastal area of Ningde Prefecture had failed to catch up with the “last train” of great economic development for various reasons, and now when they are ready to join in the development but it is already too late. Some people therefore say with regret that time is not working in their favor. What do the prefecture's leaders think about this?
Xi Jinping: Now the country is focusing on rectification, and this truly does have an impact on the economic development of the Ningde Prefecture. But we also saw that rectification and improvement are similarly indispensable for economically underdeveloped regions. We used to regard Ningde Prefecture as a region at the front line. For nearly 40 years since the People's Republic was founded, state investment in this region only accounted for 4% of the amount invested in the province, and the prefectural economic foundations were quite weak. Despite the small scale of capital construction, there was overheating and disorder. There are still varying degrees of nonconformity to economic law such as blind investment, unclear thinking, and a rush to completion, and this is an impediment to developing the economy. Therefore, we must start rectification.
However, I want to stress that rectification does not mean recalling or putting an end to reform. Instead, it creates good conditions for further reform and helps the economy develop smoothly and healthily. Therefore, rectification will not have a negative impact on the economy of our prefecture, but it will provide our economically underdeveloped region with new opportunities for development. Ningde Prefecture is mainly mountainous, and has poor industrial foundations. But it has fairly good agriculture, and we can say that we are in a good position to take advantage of the mountains and seas and to develop “big agriculture.” Now the central authorities are trying to reduce overheating and overexpansion, and are driving the point home that the entire Party and country must give due attention to agriculture. These policies will favor our agricultural development. Therefore, this is a new opportunity for our prefectural development. Based on this awareness, in our overall prefectural development strategy, we are mainly focusing on developing agriculture and fully tapping mountain- and sea-based resources. We want to first develop the foundation of agriculture and make good use of our advantages in three areas: township enterprises; forests, tea, and fruits; and aquatic product production. Through the development of modern “big agriculture,” farmers will come out of poverty to prosperity, our foundations will grow, and a production system suited to local conditions will be steadily established.
There's another point I want to mention: the main reason that Ningde Prefecture is economically underdeveloped is because it lacks electric power and has poor transportation. Without ample electric power there is no way we can develop industry and agriculture and open up to the outside world. We have rich hydroelectric resources here, and some small hydroelectric stations have been built, but run-of-the-river power generation is limited during the dry season. The country is currently adjusting its industrial structure and strengthening its energy, transportation, and raw material industries, so it is a good time for us to develop our power generation and transportation infrastructure. We are currently preparing to link up with the provincial grid and develop two medium-large hydroelectric plants to get our power issues resolved. Transportation is another issue, as we do not have railways through the region, and our roads don't meet high standards. The people complain of the shoddy quality of the roads[1]. We plan on improving the current standards of our roads through private initiatives with public assistance. The coastal Highway 104 will be upgraded section by section, and with key state support we aim to complete it in seven to eight years. We will also focus on wharf construction and program-control telephone systems with 10,000-line capacity. Building such infrastructure both conforms to the current requirement of rectification and lays the necessary foundation for the prefecture's economic development to take off in the future.
Reporter: There is truly much promise in this work you talk about, but some of our colleagues feel like they will always be one step behind Fuzhou and Xiamen and can't get excited about their work.
Xi Jinping: Fuzhou and Xiamen are both in plain regions. They are also centuries-old trading cities with good urban foundations and transportation conditions. We are in a mountainous region with starkly contrasting natural features, so we cannot blindly make unrealistic comparisons with other places. I was transferred here from Xiamen in June of this year, so I have experienced this myself. What is Xiamen all about? A development zone has been set up there, and the state has made a large investment of RMB3 billion. You are in for nothing but disappointment if you try to compare yourself with Xiamen.
Ningde Prefecture, on the other hand, has been named one of China's 18 impoverished regions; of its nine counties, six are impoverished. To be fair, life is pretty hard in some impoverished counties like Shouning and Pingnan. In other counties, they don't have it as rough as people joke about them being “impoverished counties where everyone wears a suit.” I've had discussions with other leaders in the prefecture, and we have learned that “there are times… when a foot is too short, and there are times when an inch is too long” and “the pines and cypresses need not be envious of the peach and plum trees”– we are not inferior to others in every way. This is an old revolutionary soviet area with large minority populations. We are recognized as having impoverished counties and receive preferential policy treatment. On the one hand, our economy is underdeveloped. On the other hand, the state also shows its concern for the region. We must face up to this problem and not let poverty bring our spirits down.
Poor as we are, we shouldn't lose our lofty ideals. We mustn't get used to talking about how poor our county or prefecture is because our county is designated as an impoverished one. Over time we will see ourselves as inferior to others and lose spirit, and this sense of inferiority will lead to a “poor-county mentality.” For example, people would not want to sit in the front row during provincial meetings, would wait until last to speak, and would not dare speak in a loud voice. I worry that the badge of being an “impoverished county” may give some people an undeserved “poor-county mentality,” and this will affect our poverty alleviation work. Therefore, I want to rouse our spirits and pour cold water on such ways of thinking. On the one hand we must admit that conditions here are poor and the economy is backward. We cannot unrealistically compare ourselves with developed regions and compete with them in the number of mega projects and in the rate of development. On the other hand, we must see that this place is like every other place in China in that over the past 40 years it has truly made great strides and seen huge changes. For example, there is industry where there was none before, and we have formed a diversified industrial base with RMB1 billion of output that mainly produces light textiles while also featuring high-end, new, niche, and rare products. Our agriculture can hold its own against any other region in the province, and our culture, education, and public health have developed greatly. Such huge changes did not come overnight, and instead were like water droplets drilling through rock. They were achieved under poor conditions with little investment from the state – quite an accomplishment in itself. Recognizing our own achievements and strengths can bolster our confidence and self-respect, which will go a long way in helping us steadily march down the path of development.
Reporter: During our interviews we learned that officials and the people have a strong desire to move quickly out of poverty to prosperity, and they hope that some large projects such as railways, large ports, or development zones will fundamentally change the backwardness of this area overnight.
Xi Jinping: The three main economic topics of our prefecture are building a coastal railway from Fuzhou to Wenzhou, developing a 500,000-ton port at Sandu'ao, and creating the Saiqi Development Zone, which will eventually become a central city. Officials and the people urgently want to move out of poverty toward prosperity as soon as possible. This kind of desire is good, and such enthusiasm is valuable. But it is simply not realistic to place our hopes in huge projects and hope to suddenly be given a “gold mine.”
Railways need huge funds to build, and it is up to the state planners to decide where and when to build them. That is not something we can just go and do ourselves. Of course, we can provide reasonable recommendations and work hard to promote the idea, but such a project will not be realized in the coming period. Development of the Sandu'ao port involves the issues of some old ports in Fujian still not running at full capacity and where limited state funds should be channeled. Ningde Prefecture is neither a central region nor a producer of raw materials or logistics center. These factors all restrict the building of railways and ports. As for turning the Saiqi Development Zone into a central city, this is no simple task. Central cities cannot be thrown up just anywhere, and instead must naturally be formed gradually through economic development. I threw some cold water on these three hot topics of conversation. That is, we cannot be impetuous, and we cannot hope for sudden miracles. Instead, I believe the correct path is to start from the actual local situation, make full use of current conditions, solidly build agriculture and other infrastructure, and gradually realize development. Of course, we must actively prepare for the big projects we just mentioned so we can do a proper job when the time is ripe. However, we cannot place our focus on things that we cannot accomplish right now. The same goes for opening up to the outside world. Even though this is located at the opening-up coastal belt, its foundations are the weakest, and it has many disadvantageous conditions for attracting foreign capital, so we cannot compete with developed regions in attracting the three types of foreign-funded enterprises. Our colleagues in Pingnan County say others have “3+1 industries,”[2] while they only have “3+1 roadblocks.” With poor transportation, the path to riches becomes deadlocked. Therefore, our thinking is that we must throw our doors wide open and actively create the conditions to attract foreign investment. We should act as the local conditions allow – open up more in coastal counties with good conditions and not try to force the matter in mountainous counties with poor conditions. We advocate real results rather than phony achievements, and we don't want to open up just to say we did it.
We will develop the three types of foreign-funded enterprises according to our abilities, working on trade with Taiwan, using traditional ports and major coastal towns to develop trade, and working hard to create our own features in opening up to the outside world. As of now, there are more than 50 foreign-funded enterprises in our prefecture. This year we have already completed negotiations on foreign investment projects totaling more than 10 million US dollars. Nevertheless, the work we are doing now can only be chalked up as training for opening up, cultivating awareness, and laying the foundation for future development.
[1] This refers to the primitive construction of the roads.
[2] This refers to industries that process imported materials, process materials according to imported samples, assemble imported parts, and engage in compensatory trade. This form of international trade was developed as a business model in the beginning of the reform and opening-up period.
(1) This is an interview with a reporter from Economic Daily, first published in Economic Daily on October 21, 1988.