Daqing's development homes in on non-petroleum sectors

Daqing, the cradle of China's petroleum industry, is improving its environment, and investing in non-petroleum industries in efforts to achieve sustainable growth.

The city in northeastern Heilongjiang province produced around 40 million tons of crude oil in 2009, and three billion cubic meters of natural gas.

Local authorities are also stepping up development of non-petroleum sectors such as petrochemicals, modern agriculture, equipment and materials manufacturing and hi-end services.

The ratio of petroleum to non-petroleum economies has changed from 88.5:11.5 to 56.8:43.2.

Urban development is another area of focus. Daqing favors eco-friendly construction.

Two new urban projects in Southern Daqing and Northern Daqing are under construction, with a total planned area of 250 square kilometers, which will house 1 million people.

Theatres and museums have also been built to improve the town's cultural facilities.

The city plans to sign 365 large projects, surpassing 106 billion yuan in total investment.

Daqing has also been exploring the latest oil and gas manufacturing technologies including terrestrial sandstone oil field development and tertiary oil recovery. Daqing's technological progress has contributed 48.7 percent of the city's economic growth.

There have been achievements in energy conservation and emissions reduction. Over the past six years, Daqing has decreased energy consumption by 2 million tons of coal equivalent, resulting in reductions of 2.238 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 453.7 tons of sulfur dioxide.

During the last decade, 150 million trees have been planted over 747 million sq m of saline land.

Some 40 percent of the city's total land has green coverage, with 10.7 sq m of public green area per capita, and more than 350 days have good air quality.

Furthermore, Daqing achieved 22 of the 39 national indicators for an ecological city.

Investment has also been increasing. In the last five years over 50 billion yuan has been flowed into the city.

Foreign trade revenues were $1.1 billion and foreign investment was $140 million last year. Daqing has established business relations with 87 countries and regions.

As well as urban areas, the local government also pays attention to developing the rural economy, encouraging capital and technology to flow to those areas.

Local harvests reaped 3.94 billion kilograms crops. Farmer's incomes have increased due to pollution-free green food areas, which cover around 2.67 billion sq m, and regional agricultural sightseeing spots, which cover 4,000 hectares.

(China Daily 04/28/2010 page15)