OVER the past five years, Shenzhen has attained comprehensive advances in many aspects from economic, social and cultural development to ecological civilization construction. Shenzhen has also beefed up efforts to promote the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and to build itself into a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

“Shenzhen maintained rapid economic development, achieved significant industrial upgrading, and accelerated the shift of economic driving forces during the 13th Five-Year Plan period,” said Guo Chi, head of the Municipal Statistics Bureau.

Before Shenzhen embarks on its next five-year plan, here are some of significant contributions made during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020).

Economic deveplopment

Shenzhen’s GDP grew by 3.1 percent to reach 2.77 trillion yuan (US$429 billion) in 2020, ranking third among domestic cities. Shenzhen achieved an average annual GDP growth rate of 7.1 percent during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. This rate is more than 1 percentage point higher than the national and provincial growth rates over the same period.

In 2018, Shenzhen’s GDP exceeded 2.4 trillion yuan, ranking among the top five Asian cities for the first time.

Shenzhen’s import and export volume reached 3.05 trillion yuan in 2020. The total export was 1.7 trillion yuan, ranking the first among domestic cities for a consecutive 28 years.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Shenzhen’s fixed asset investment exceeded 3 trillion yuan, 1.4 times the planned target.

As of the end of 2020, the accumulated total number of commercial entities in Shenzhen was 3.59 million, which ranked first among large and medium-sized cities in the country.

Shenzhen saw some 12.8 million employees in 2019. A total of more than 90,000 foreign-invested enterprises have been established, and the accumulated foreign investment has exceeded US$300 billion. For many years, the increase and total amount of foreign investment actually used have ranked first among all cities in Guangdong Province.

Quality of life

Shenzhen continued investing more than 60 percent of its fiscal expenditure in fields related to the well-being of the people. The spending reached more than 284 billion yuan in 2020.

The city poured a total of 350 billion yuan into the education sector from 2016-2020, ranking first in both the amount and the growth rate in Guangdong Province. Shenzhen now has 15 universities and colleges.

A total of five hospitals in Shenzhen have been listed among the province’s high-level hospitals. The number of medical health service providers reached 4,459, and as of 2019. They were able to provide a total of 51,318 beds.

The city’s per capita disposable income last year was 64,878 yuan while the per capita consumer spending was 40,581 yuan.

Shenzhen built or acquired some 440,000 units of public housing between 2016 and 2020, 2.4 times of that during the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

Transportation

Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport served 37.92 million passengers last year. The airport’s air cargo throughput reached 1.4 million tons, ranking third in the country. Shenzhen currently has international flights to 60 cities around the world.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Shenzhen completed a total of 35 key expressway projects, bringing the city’s expressway mileage to over 600 kilometers. Another 47 road renovation projects were also initiated.

At present, Shenzhen has 20 kilometers of subway per 100 square kilometers of land, and its line network density ranks first among cities on the Chinese mainland.

In 2017 Shenzhen’s public bus fleet had become all electric, and by the end of 2018, Shenzhen had made its taxis all electric.

Liantang Checkpoint opened in August last year.

Environmental protection

Shenzhen spent 150 billion yuan on water treatment during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. By the end of 2019, Shenzhen had made remarkable progress in water treatment by cleaning up 159 blackened, noxious rivers. It built a 6,275-kilometer sewage pipeline network.

Shenzhen’s average PM2.5 kept declining in the last five years and was included in a national pilot plan to build a zero-waste city.

A consequence of the great efforts in protecting the ecological environment, rare animals such as black-faced spoonbills and Chinese white dolphins have been spotted in the city.

Shenzhen also vigorously promoted energy utilization efficiency and emission reduction. The energy consumption per unit of its GDP was about a third of the national average and half of the average of Guangdong Province.

Sci-tech innovation

Shenzhen has realized full 5G coverage with a total of 46,472 base stations having been installed as of the end of last November, becoming the first city in the world with full 5G coverage.

A group of projects in fields including life science and information science have been established at the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park.

Pengcheng Laboratory became a key platform for Shenzhen’s original innovation. By 2019, 18 academicians joined the lab to carry out more than 20 scientific research projects.

As of the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Shenzhen had built a number of major scientific and technological infrastructures such as the National Supercomputing Center, Daya Bay Neutrino Laboratory, National GeneBank, 12 basic research institutions, 11 Nobel Prize laboratories, and 46 provincial-level new research and development institutions. The total number of various innovation carriers reached 2,642, and the number of PCT international patent applications has remained in the first position among cities in the country for 17 consecutive years.

The number of national high-tech enterprises exceeded 18,500 in 2020, ranking the second in the country.

(Wang Jingli)