Yang Zhongjian, mayor of Qidong, delivers a report on the municipal government's work in 2021. [Photo/WeChat account: qdrmt0513]

The first session of the 18th Qidong Municipal People's Congress opened on Jan 11 at the Qidong Poly Theater – located in the county-level city of Qidong, administered by Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province.

Yang Zhongjian, mayor of the city, delivered a report on the municipal government's performance in 2021.

Preliminary estimates project that the annual regional GDP of Qidong in the past year hit 138 billion yuan ($21.7 billion), up 10 percent, while the revenue of the general public budget reached 7.78 billion yuan.

Fixed-asset investment in 2021 showed an estimated increase of 8 percent, with foreign investment in actual use hitting $360 million and imports and exports valued at 36.7 billion yuan, up 70 percent on the previous year.

During the period, total retail sales of consumer goods reached an estimated 47.6 billion yuan. Per capita disposable incomes of urban and rural residents were 55,000 yuan and 30,500 yuan, respectively, up 9.5 percent and 10.4 percent.

Last year, Qidong ranked 27th nationwide among the top 100 counties and county level cities in terms of comprehensive strength, four places higher than it ranked in 2019.

Mayor Yang also announced the economic growth targets for 2022 in the report, setting a regional GDP growth target of at least 8 percent and a growth rate of at least 7.3 percent for the general public budget revenue. Investment in research and development is expected to account for 2.68 percent of GDP.

Yang predicted that fixed-asset investment would climb by 8 percent and retail sales of consumer goods would rise by 7 percent or more. He projected that the import-export volume would increase by at least 5 percent and the per capita disposable income of both urban and rural residents would grow faster than the local economy.

He said renewed efforts would also be made to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP and to cut carbon dioxide emissions.