The outcome is a conversion of agricultural land in excess of what was initially planned as a survey of the area of agricultural land taken up for non-agricultural development in Sihui r
Trang 15 Land Use Conversion in Sihui:
A Case Study
Figure 5.1 Sihui People’s Square and Government Buildings
Previous chapters have examined the general political and fiscal institutions that structure local governments’ behaviour in supplying land for conversion To account for local variations in the extent of land use conversion, this chapter and the next present a case study of Sihui with a focus on the determinants of land use
conversion at the county level as well as the township level
As we shall see in this chapter, Sihui’s geographical landscape consists of a
relatively small area of flat terrain in comparison to the area of hilly and mountainous land within its territory The difficulty of developing land with accessibility and
infrastructure on mountainous terrain has been compounded by Sihui’s long-term fiscal deficit Yet the need to improve Sihui’s fiscal solvency has also compelled local officials to exploit the land resources under their jurisdiction, which resulted in the concentration of land use conversion and construction land in a few towns and the city district located on flat plain Riding on Pearl River Delta’s industrial relocation
Trang 2beginning from late 1990s and encouraged by the top-down emphasis on
industrialization, career-maximizing officials have flouted land use quotas in order to meet their goals The outcome is a conversion of agricultural land in excess of what was initially planned as a survey of the area of agricultural land taken up for non-agricultural development in Sihui reveals discrepancies when verified against the
county’s land use plan (tudi liyong zongti guihua).1
Sihui’s Geography and Land Use Distribution
A county-level city of Zhaoqing, Sihui, whose name derived from the confluence of four rivers in its territory, is situated on the northwestern fringe of the Pearl River Delta.2 As of 2005, the city had a population of 430,058, of which agricultural
population made up 67 percent and non-agricultural population 33 percent.3 An overwhelming 89 percent of Sihui’s 121,299 hectares of land is agricultural whereas construction land and unused land take up 7.9 percent and 3.2 percent respectively.4
This, however, does not mean that Sihui has an abundant supply of developable agricultural land for conversion to non-agricultural purposes Its geographical
landscape, which has a distinct impact on the way the city has evolved, imposes severe limitations on the availability of agricultural land for conversion
Sihui is dominated by mountainous and hilly terrain The northwestern region,
including the towns of Weizheng, Jianglin, Huangtian and Shigou, is mountainous
1 The land use plan is important because the approval for converting land to non-agricultural use, granted annually in batches by the next higher level of government, is tied to the approval for a locality’s land use plan The amount of arable land to be conserved and converted has to strictly adhere to that determined in the land use plan at various administrative levels According to Chapter 5, Article 44 of the Land Administration Law: “Within the limits of the scale of land for construction in cities, villages or towns confirmed by the overall land use plan, where agricultural land is to be converted to land for construction to execute the aforementioned plan, approval is to be granted in batches in accordance with the annual land use plan, by the organ that originally approved the overall land use plan.” See also Keng, “China's Land Disposition System,” pp 344.
2 Liu Weikeng, “Lingnan shezhi zuizao de liu xian zhiyi – Sihui” (“Sihui – one of the six counties set up
the earliest in Lingnan’s history”), Lingnan wenshi (Lingnan Cultural History), No 3 (2006), pp 12-14
Sihui was administratively reclassified as a county-level city in November 1993 Refer to “Sihui shi fazhan gaikuang” (“The general development of Sihui city”), Sihui government website,
http://www.gdsihui.gov.cn, accessed 20 June 2007.
3 See Zhaoqing tongji nianjian 2006 (Zhaoqing Statistical Yearbook 2006), Wang Ronghua et al (eds),
(Zhongguo tushu chubanshe), pp 89
4 Sihuishi guotu ziyuanju (Sihui city Land Resources Bureau), “Sihuishi tudi liyong zongti guihua tiaozheng shuoming” (“Explanation of adjustments in Sihui city’s land use master plan”), April 2005.
Trang 3while the towns in central Sihui – Xiamao and Jianggu – are situated on hilly terrain Only southeastern Sihui is an alluvial plain through which the River Sui runs.
Figure 5.2 Map of Sihui
Sources: Available at http://photo.lvren.cn/big_image_2/23169.html; http://www.shatangoj.cn/node/183, accessed 12 May 2008.
Trang 4A large part of Sihui’s land for construction falls within the southeastern territory In
1996, most of Sihui’s land for construction was concentrated around the lower
reaches of River Sui, where the towns of Dongcheng, Chengzhong and Zhenshan and Dasha took up 39.2 percent of the county’s total land for construction Moreover, Dongcheng, Chengzhong and Zhenshan alone accounted for 82 percent of the entire county’s land for urban use Fifty-seven percent of stand-alone mining and industrial sites was also clustered in the southeastern town of Dasha, the rest being distributed mostly in the Chengzhong and Dongcheng region The transportation system was most developed in the central and southeastern towns of Dasha, Jingkou, Jianggu, Shigou, Longfu, Chengzhong and Dongcheng, Zhenshan, occupying more than 55 percent of Sihui’s total land for transportation (refer to Appendix A for a breakdown of the land use distribution in each town).5
According to Sihui’s land use plan, over the period of 1996-2010, agricultural land and unused land in the entire county shrink by 92 hectares and 609 hectares
respectively while land for construction expands by 700 hectares mainly in the towns
of Dasha, Xinjiang, Huangtian, Zhenshan, Chengzhong, Dongcheng (see Table 5.1) The period also witnesses the loss of 171 hectares of arable land.6 Most of the land for residential, industrial and mining sites is devoted to village settlements and for use in the central city district of Dongcheng, Chengzhong and Zhenshan over the period.7 By 2010, only 2,065 hectares of land shall be devoted to industrial and mining sites in the whole of Sihui, increasing by around 570 hectares from 1996.8
5 Sihuishi guotu ziyuanju (Sihui city Land Resources Bureau), “Sihuishi tudi liyong zongti guihua, 1996-2010” (Sihui city’s land use master plan, 1996-2010).
6 That said, there is no guarantee that the quality of arable land does not suffer in the process since local governments are prone to using land of inferior quality and in remote locations for replacement Without further information, it is impossible to gauge the actual loss in cultivated land area
7 “City district” in the context of Sihui refers to the areas of Dongcheng, Chengzhong and Zhenshan.
8 Sihuishi guotu ziyuanju, “Sihuishi tudi liyong zongti guihua, 1996-2010.”
Trang 5Sihui’s land use plan also indicates that the distribution of different categories of land does not change significantly from 1996 to 2010 By 2010, Dongcheng, Chengzhong, Zhenshan and Dasha still account for 39.4 percent of the entire city’s land for
construction and 44 percent of the city’s land for residential, industrial and mining sites In the most developed city district, construction land as a proportion of Sihui’s total construction land only increases from 22.6 percent in 1996 to 24.5 percent in
2010 while agricultural land area is reduced slightly from 8.89 percent to 8.65
percent Roads are still concentrated in the same central and southeastern areas, accounting for around 57.2 percent of the total land area taken up by roads.9
Table 5.1 Land Use in Sihui (hectares)
between 1996 and 2010
Land for agriculture 107988.13 107862.39 107896.11 -92.02
Land for construction 9419.69 9567.97 10120.67 +700.98
Residential, industrial & mining 6647.08 6766.10 7158.35 +511.27
Industrial Relocation from Eastern Pearl River Delta
Industrial restructuring and relocation from the more developed parts of Guangdong since late 1999 had boosted the demand for construction land in Sihui The recent spate of industrialization in Sihui has to be seen in context of uneven development in the Pearl River Delta.10 Its western wing, which comprises of five prefectural-level
9 Refer to Appendix A.
10 Gu Chaolin, Shen Jianfa, Wong Kwan-yiu and Zhen Feng, “Regional Polarization under the
Socialist-Market System since 1978: A Case Study of Guangdong Province in South China,” Environment and
Planning A, Vol 33, No 1 (2001), pp 97-119.
Trang 6cities including Zhaoqing, has registered a slower growth than its eastern wing Although 62 percent of the total population in the Pearl River Delta resided in the western wing, which takes up half of its total area, it produced only 31.6 percent of the region’s GDP in 2002 A development bottleneck, however, had set in with
shortages in cheap land and labour in the eastern Pear River Delta, leading investors
to turn to the western cities for less expensive land and labour.11
Situated in the western Pearl River Delta, Zhaoqing is still a largely agricultural prefecture-level city with a cultivated land area of 132,439 hectares, in contrast to other highly industrialized prefectures, such as Dongguan, Foshan, Shantou, and so
on.12 The prefecture’s location in the mountainous region and the underdevelopment
of roads had foiled its government’s attempts to draw investments through offering affordable land and other factors of production in the mid 1990s.13 With
improvements in its basic infrastructure over the years and China’s plan to construct
a bridge linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau by the end of 2009, the
developmental potential of the western Pearl River Delta looks to be greatly
enhanced in this decade.14
In 2004, the Guangdong provincial government announced its decision to make Zhaoqing the destination for foreign capital and the relocation of industries within the Pearl River Delta.15 Pearl River Delta’s industrial adjustment began in late 1990s as
11 Yeung Yue-man, “An Emerging Development Focus from the Pearl River Delta West to Western
Guangdong: A Research Report,” Eurasian Geography and Economics, Vol 47, No 2 (2006), pp
245-46.
12 Guangdong tongji nianjian 2005, pp 287; Zhaoqing tongji nianjian 2006 , pp 389 Zhaoqing’s
composition of GDP by industry type is similar to that of Maoming, Meizhou, Shanwei, Heyuan,
Yangjiang, Qingyuan and Yunfu, and is therefore exemplary of a typical agricultural prefecture on the
road to industrialization and urbanization See Guangdong tongji nianjian 2005, pp 84
13 Luo Xiaotian, “Xiujian huangjin lu, lutong caitong” (“Building the road to prosperity”), Zhujiang jingji (Zhujiang’s Economy), No 10 (1996), pp 17-18; Xing Yi, “Zhaoshang yinzi xintiandi” (“New terrain in drawing businesses and investments”), Zhujiang jingji (Zhujiang’s Economy), No 10 (1996), pp 19-20.
14 Yeung, “An Emerging Development Focus,” pp 246; Chen Jianxing, “Fagaiwei: lizheng mingnian niandiqian kaijian gangzhu’ao daqiao” (“The Committee of Development and Reform: Aiming to build the
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge before the end of next year”), Xinhua meiri dianxun (Xinhua Daily
News), 12 November 2008, pp 007.
15 Deng Honghua, “Fanzhu sanjiao fazhan zhanlüe zhong de ‘Zhaoqing xianxiang’,” (“The ‘Zhaoqing
phenomenon’ in the strategic development of the Pan Pearl River Delta”),Taisheng (Voice of Taiwan),
Trang 7traditional labour-intensive industries such as textiles, food and beverage, leather, plastic and toy manufacturing, moved out of the region to make way for new
industries.16 The diffusion and relocation of industries from nearby Foshan,
Guangzhou and Dongguan where land is in severe shortage has contributed to the setting up of development zones in Sihui In 1999, five industrial zones – in the towns
of Dongcheng, Chengzhong, Xinjiang, Longfu, and Nanjiang – were set up in Sihui to
“seize the historic opportunity of the Pearl River Delta’s industrial adjustment.”17 In November 2000, the first talk between business and government representatives from the Pearl River Delta River and those from Guangdong’s mountainous region took place, during which over 600 deals for cooperation and industrial relocation were sealed.18
The pace of industrial relocation quickened in 2001 when the Guangdong provincial government embarked on a plan to adjust and upgrade its industrial structure.19 One
of the strategies was to encourage the relocation of certain industries in the Pearl River Delta to the less developed eastern, western and mountainous regions of the province to solve problem of labour shortage, land saturation and others Some of these industries are heavy pollution industries, such as biochemical, pharmaceutical, metal processing and so on This is a deliberate strategy as one of the main reasons for structural adjustment is the pressure of environmental degradation on the
development in the Pearl River Delta From 2005, for instance, Shenzhen and
Dongguan had established environmental protection policies to eliminate heavy
No (2004), pp 64-65; Liang Ganghua, “Zhusanjiao chanye jiasu xiang zhoubian ‘shanzhuang zhuanyi’”
(“Pearl River Delta industries accelerating their transfer to surrounding regions”), Zhonghua xinwenbao (Chinese News), 27 December 2007, pp K01.
16 Wang Xianqing, “Zhusanjiao chanye zhuanyi : di’erci langchao xia de jueze” (“Industrial relocation in
the Pearl River Delta: making a choice under the second wave”), Zhujiang jingji (Pearl River Delta
Economy), No Z1 (1997), pp 22-25.
17 Sihui nianjian 2000, pp 95.
18 Huang Jian, “Shoujie Zhusanjiao yu shanqu jinghe qiatanhui chengguo fengshuo” (“The first talk on
economic cooperation between Pearl River Delta and the mountainous region bears fruit”), Guangdong
kejibao (Guangdong Science News), 30 November 2000, pp 001.
19 Yuefuban document no 15 (2005), “Guangdongsheng renmin zhengfu bangongting guanyu yinfa Guangdongsheng gongye chanye jiegou tiaozheng shishi fang’an [xiudingban] de tongzhi” (“A notice from the Guangdong provincial people’s government office regarding the promulgation of the measures for industrial restructuring in Guangdong [revised version]”).
Trang 8pollution industries and those using backwards and low productivity technology Some of these industries will be relocated to industrial parks in the mountainous regions to “centralize pollution control.”20
One such industrial zone is the Zhaoqing Municipal Asia Metal Recycling and
Processing Zone located in Longfu town of Sihui, which has been set up with the approval of the provincial environmental protection bureau and the Guangdong government As its name indicates, it targets metal processing industries seeking relocation In 2008, at a meeting with potential investors in Shunde of Foshan, Sihui signed agreements with 60 enterprises, of which 30 are metal processing industries,
19 relocating from the Pearl River Delta.21
The local government’s decision to supply more land for industrial development in Sihui had been encouraged by the top-down emphasis on industrialization In a bid to spur Sihui’s industrialization drive, local officials had adopted several measures, such
as using land to incentivize investments and using land proceeds to furnish monetary benefits for cadres who bring in investments
Top-down Emphasis on Industrialization
The industrialization of less developed regions had been exhorted by government leaders of Guangdong Guangdong provincial level leaders had repeatedly urged Zhaoqing to quicken the pace of industrialization and urbanization.22 Its governor, for
20 Wang Pang, “Zhusanjiao chanye dazhuanyi zhimian ‘huanjing menkan’,” (“Industrial Relocation in
Pearl River Delta confronts ‘environmental threshold’”), Zhongguo xinxibao (China Information News),
21 June 2006, pp 002.
21 “Woshi chengwei chengjie Zhusanjiao hexinqu jinshu jiagong chanye de ‘wadi’” (“Sihui becomes the
‘collection point’ in receiving metal processing industries from the Pearl River Delta”), Sihui dianshitai
(Sihui TV Station), 23 April 2008, available at http://www.gdsihui.gov.cn, accessed 14 May 2008.
22 Huang Huahua, “Ruiyi chuangxin, jiakuai fazhan” (“Innovation to speed up development”),
Guangdong jingji (Guangdong Economy), No 11 (2004), pp 6-9; Wang Chuilin, Zheng Jun and Yue
Zong, “Guangdong shanqu yao dali tuijin gongyehua jincheng” (“Guangdong’s mountainous region
should push for industrialization”), Minying jingji bao (Minying Economic News), 20 May 2005; Pan
Chaoyang, “Yong ‘fanzhusanjiao’ zhanlue tuijin Sihui shi (xian) yu jingji fazhan” (“Promote the economic
development of the Sihui region with a ‘pan Pearl River Delta’ strategy”), Xiandai xiangzhen (Modern
Town and Township), No 3 (2005), pp 41-43.
Trang 9instance, had called for a path of “new” and “hi-tech” industrial development for
Zhaoqing He lamented that the prefecture’s GDP was “only 50 over billion yuan,”23
prioritized industrialization over agriculture and stressed the importance of attracting foreign investments to Zhaoqing:
I had been to Dawang, Zhaoqing’s new and hi-technology development zone Initially an agricultural farm, Dawang was transformed into a new and hi-tech development zone This is the right path to go because Dawang’s
development would be hampered had it chosen to promote agriculture In these two years, Dawang had attracted over 100 items and doubled its financial strength through drawing investments and businesses I hope
Zhaoqing can also create innovative ways of doing so, actively bring in
international consortiums as well as private enterprises within and outside of Guangdong 24
At the prefecture level, Zhaoqing aims to ride on the development of the Pearl River Delta region and galvanize the industrialization of counties and cities along River Sui including Sihui, Guangning and Huaiji to realize the goal of a “River Sui Industrial Corridor.” The growth of development zones was encouraged by Zhaoqing
government to attract industries in the Pearl River Delta region seeking to relocate.25
This development strategy was quickly adopted and echoed by Sihui’s local leaders
In May 2005, Sihui’s mayor and Party secretary took the lead to promote the city to investors in Shenzhen, bringing 32 enterprises to the county-city; Sihui’s Xiamao town government also led a team to Foshan in 2006 to draw investors to the town’s Longwan Ceramic Industrial Zone.26 In an interview with the press, the city’s Party
23 The governor was mistaken As of 2005, Zhaoqing’s GDP was 45 billion yuan, lower than what he thought Refer to Zhaoqing tongji nianjian 2006, pp 389.
24 Huang Huahua, “Ruiyi chuangxin,” pp 7.
25 “’Wucheng yiti’ daidong jingji kuaisu fazhan” (“‘Five zones in one’ to promote fast economic
development”), Zhongguo xinxi bao (China Information News), 25 November 2002, pp T00; Liu
Shidong, “Dali fazhan nongcun jingji, tuidong Zhaoqing shixian kuayueshi fazhan” (“Strengthen village
economic development to promote Zhaoqing’s growth beyond boundaries”), Guangdong jingji
(Guangdong Economy), No 2 (2004), pp 112-14.
26 Xiao Lihuai and Ye Lanying, “Sihui zai Shen zhaoshang miaozhun chaoyiyuan xiangmu” (“Sihui’s
efforts to draw investments in Shenzhen aim for items beyong 100 million yuan”), Shenzhen shangbao (Shenzhen Business News), 31 May 2005; “Xiamaozhen zai Foshan juxing Longwan taocicheng
zhaoshang tuijiehui” (“Xiamao town promotes Longwan Ceramic Zone in Foshan”), 12 January 2006,
Zhaoqing nongye xinxi wang (Zhaoqing Agricultural News Web), http://www.gdzqagri.gov.cn, accessed
15 October 2005.
Trang 10secretary urged the development of industrial zones and clearing of land to make room for industries in the Pearl River Delta region seeking relocation:
To better accommodate the relocation of industries and make full use of Sihui’s potential as the “nationwide top hundred small and medium cities with the best investment potential” in 2006 Sihui should ride on the brand name
of the [city’s] Provincial-Level Non-State Scientific Technology Zone to
spearhead the construction of industrial zones in the whole city, and spare no effort in building 120 square kilometres of an industrial cluster zone While going all out to resolve the land bottleneck in drawing investments and
actively seeking higher quota of non-agricultural land from the upper levels,
we must clear up idle land, free up existing land stock for more efficient use of land.27
The Party secretary’s words highlight the tension between land and industrialization
in Sihui Going by Sihui’s land use plan, the proposed 120 square kilometres (12,000 hectares) of industrial cluster zone has already exceeded the city’s designated area
of total construction land in 2010, which is 101.2 square kilometres (10,120 hectares)
in all for industrial, residential, mining, water conservancy and transport purposes (See Table 5.1).28 Yet land use quotas in Sihui have been cast aside by local cadres
in response to the top-down emphasis on industrialization
The drawing of industries and the setting up of development zones in Sihui gained pace from the early 2000s After the Fuxi Industrial Zone was set up in 2001, other towns in Sihui quickly followed suit to set up Xinjiang, Dongcheng, Chengzhong, Zhenshan, Longfu and Fulong industrial zones Smaller zones also sprung up in other towns and villages.29 As of 2002, Sihui city reportedly had 16 development zones with a total area exceeding 20 square kilometres (2,000 hectares).30 This land area had already surpassed the 15.58 square kilometres (1,558 hectares) allocated
to industrial and mining sites in 2000 based on Sihui’s land use plan.31
27 Liang Zhiqiang, “Dazao chengjie chanye zhuanye de qiaotoubao” (“Creating a bridgehead to
accommodate industrial relocation”), Nanfang ribao (Southern Post), 25 September 2007, pp A12.
28 Sihuishi guotu ziyuanju, “Sihuishi tudi liyong zongti guihua tiaozheng shuoming.”
29 Sihui nianjian 2002, pp 117, 198, 203-204, 208, 213, 215-216, 218, 220.
30 Gao Jiao, “Sihui shi gongye yuanqu jianshe de diaocha fenxi” (“A research and analysis on the
construction of industrial zones in Sihui city”), Tongji yu yuce (Statistics and Projection), No 4 (2002),
pp 53-55.
31 Sihuishi guotu ziyuanju, “Sihuishi tudi liyong zongti guihua, 1996-2010.”
Trang 11During the 2003 moratorium on the approval for development zones, Sihui was ordered by the State Council’s Office to scrap seven industrial zones in Xiamao, Longfu, Longwan, Jianggu, Didou, Jingkou and Dongcheng.32 Despite the central government’s measures and regulations to cut down the number of development zones, political leaders in Sihui continued to openly push for the construction of zones and claimed that the city’s progress in this aspect was still “far from meeting the upper level’s standards.”33 As a result, more development zones continued to spring up in Sihui in the past few years From 2000 to 2005, Sihui’s gross industrial
output value more than doubled from 2.3 billion yuan to 4.8 billion yuan.34
Table 5.2 lists the industrial zones undertaken by different levels of government in Sihui over the years.35 Of the existing zones in 2007, the planned area of five of Sihui’s most prominent zones – Fuxi Industrial Zone, Nanjiang Industrial Zone, Longwan Ceramic Industrial Zone, Xinjiang Hi-Tech Scientific Development Zone
and Zhaoqing Municipal Asia Metal Recycling and Processing Zone – is 44,950 mu
or 2,997 hectares, 932 hectares more than the quota of 2,065 hectares laid down in the county’s land use plan (See Table 5.1).36
32 Guoban faming dian document no 30 (2003); Guangdong guotu ziyuan nianjian 2004, pp 468.
33 “Shiweishi zhengfu yaoqiu jiakuai yuanqu jianshe” (“Shiwei city government urges the speeding up of
development zone construction”), Zhaoqing nongye xinxi wang (Zhaoqing Agricultural News Web),
http://www,gdzqagri.gov.cn, accessed 28 Jan 2005.
34 Zhaoqing tongji nianjian 2006, pp 229; Sihui nianjian 2001, pp 520.
35 Some zones may be defunct.
36 Sihuishi guotu ziyuanju, “Sihuishi tudi liyong zongti guihua tiaozheng shuoming.”
Trang 12Table 5.2 Development Zones in Sihui
Sources: Fieldwork in Sihui, 2007; Sihui government website, http://www.gdsihui.gov.cn, accessed on
various dates.
Using Land to Draw Investments and Businesses
The conversion of land to non-agricultural use has prevailed as a result of various
measures to promote industrialization, namely preferential treatment for investors
and other monetary incentives for cadres successful in drawing investments
Back in 2004, Sihui had already implemented temporary preferential measures to
attract investors to the city’s then 11 development zones Fifty-year land use rights
were conveyed at no more than 60,000 yuan per mu of land, inclusive of initial
development costs incurred for fixing up electricity and water, the construction of
Area
(mu)
Xinjiang Hi-Tech Scientific Development
Zone Metal processing, electronics, new energy Dongcheng 12,000Zhaoqing Municipal Asia Metal Recycling
and Processing Zone
Metal recycling and processing Longfu 5,000 Fuxi Industrial Zone Hi-technology, garment, electronics,
food-processing
Dasha 10,000 France Industries Auxiliary Zone Garment, household appliances,
furniture and stationery
Korea Locomotive Industrial Zone Locomotive, automobile parts Dasha 2,000 Mafang Industrial Zone Chemical industry, metal processing Dasha 3,000 Gangmei Industrial Zone Metal products, art and craft Dasha 600
-Nanjiang Industrial Zone Metal manufacturing, electronics,
bioengineering, garment production and processing
7,950
Longwan Ceramic Industrial Zone Copper, ceramic construction
Xiamao Industrial Zone Recycling, aluminium, chemical Xiamao 500
-Chengzhong Industrial Zone Leather products Chengzhong 1,000+ Huijun Ecological Hi-Tech Metal
Processing Base
Sihui Household Appliances Zone Household Appliances Jingkou 10,000 Jingkou Industrial Zone Medical equipment, electronics Jingkou 10,000
-Tianhai Lake Tourist Resort Zone Hotel, entertainment and real estate Jingkou 9,000 Jingdaxing Paper Products Processing
Base
Sihui Zhenhui Park Resort with a golf course, five-star
hotel and commercial housing
Dongcheng 4,300 Shiling Industrial Zone Metal processing, garment Didou -
Trang 13-roads as well as the administrative charges for the land use certificate Land was also offered for rent at the lowest stipulated price in each industrial zone There was
even a further “discount” for investments exceeding 50 million yuan or projects with a
short construction period Various administrative charges, such as various license fees, the construction enterprise management fee, urban basic infrastructure fee, construction safety supervision and quality control fee were also waived.37
In 2007, new measures were drawn up by Sihui’s government Industries and
enterprises labelled as “high technology” may pay 50 percent of the land conveyance fee as initial sum and the balance by instalment over the next three years.38 On top of the waiver of various administrative fees, enterprises that contribute tax amounting to
five million yuan and above in a year are entitled to a cash reward of 50,000 yuan In addition, there is a “progressive award” of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan for every million
yuan of tax increment using the sum of tax paid in 2006 as the base amount.39
As from 2007, the Sihui government has allocated ten percent of the net income from land conveyance as cash rewards for drawing businesses and investments of above
10 million yuan to the county-level city every year The money is paid to a specialized
account managed and dispensed by the county’s finance bureau Individuals are
entitled to a lump sum of up to 15,000 yuan while a danwei is rewarded with 5,000
yuan for every one million US dollars of foreign capital it secures Additional 20
percent monetary reward is given to those who manage to fulfil 60 percent of the year’s investment quota by June and a further 30 percent is awarded for the full attainment of the quota by September.40 These bonuses or monetary rewards vary by
37 “Sihuishi guli yuanqu gongye fazhan zanxing banfa” (“Tentative measures to promote industrial zone development in Sihui city’”).
38 “Sihuishi gongye xiangmu touzi youhui banfa” (“Preferential measures for the investment of industrial items in Sihui city”).
39 Sifu document no.4 (2007), “Yinfa ‘2007 nian Sihuishi nashui dahu jiangli banfa” (“Promulgation of
‘Measures to reward major tax payers in Sihui city in 2007”).
40 Sifu document no 5 (2007), “Sihuishi zhaoshang yinzi jiangli zanxing banfa” (“Sihui city’s tentative measures for rewarding the attraction of business and investment”); Siban document no 14 (2007),
“Guanyu xiafa 2007 nian xishou waizi gongzuo jiangli banfa de tongzhi” (“Regarding the notice on the
Trang 14sector and the amount of tax or investment contributed by the particular business (see Table 5.3) Towns and street offices that bring in new enterprises are further rewarded when the tax revenues collected from enterprises exceed the requirement set by the county government
Table 5.3 Monetary Rewards for Attracting Businesses and Investment to Sihui
Category A Industry
Cash reward based on the amount of value-added tax (VAT) and enterprise income tax contributed by the enterprise to local revenue in the first year:
1) A cash reward of 50,000 yuan for a tax contribution of one million yuan and above
2) A cash reward of 80,000 yuan for a tax contribution of three million yuan and above
3) A cash reward of 150,000 yuan for a tax contribution of five million yuan and above
Category B Agriculture
Cash reward based on the amount of initial investment by the enterprise:
1) A cash reward of 30,000 yuan for an investment of 30 million yuan and above
2) A cash reward of 50,000 yuan for an investment of 50 million yuan and above
3) A cash reward of 80,000 yuan for an investment of 100 million yuan and above
Category C Trade and Commerce, Tourism
Cash reward based on the amount of VAT and enterprise income tax contributed by the enterprise to local revenue in the first year:
1) A cash reward of 50,000 yuan for a tax contribution of one million yuan and above
2) A cash reward of 80,000 yuan for a tax contribution of three million yuan and above
3) A cash reward of 150,000 yuan for a tax contribution of five million yuan and above
Source: Sifu document no 5 (2007), “Sihuishi zhaoshang yinzi jiangli zanxing banfa.”
These incentives appear to be highly effective In 2007, the GDP growth of Sihui hit
18 percent, surpassing that of other counties in Zhaoqing.41 Sihui’s revenue was
reportedly the highest in Zhaoqing in the same year, hitting 436.72 million yuan and
recording a growth of 38 percent from the previous year Tax revenue made up 62.3 percent of its total revenue, and the revenue growth was attributed to the promotion
of industrialization as ten out of 15 enterprises contributing over ten million yuan in
tax revenue each year were industrial enterprises.42 For instance, a ceramic plant
taking up 1,000 mu of land in a development zone in Xiamao town had paid 110 million yuan for rights to the use of land alone, investing a total sum of 600 million
measures for rewarding the bringing in of foreign capital in 2007”).
41 “Woshi qunian jingji fazhan liangdian shanxian, GDP zengfu ju Zhaoqingshi diyi” (“Highlight in Sihui city’s economic development last year; GDP growth is top in Zhaoqing city”), 25 January 2008,
Zhaoqing nongye xinxi wang (Zhaoqing Agricultural News Web), http://www.gdzqagri.gov.cn, accessed
21 April 2008.
42 “Woshi shishi chuangshui jihua jie shuoguo” (“Our city’s implementation of the tax increment plan bears fruits”), 1 January 2008, Sihui government website, www.gdsihui.gov.cn, accessed 14 May 2008.