SW CHINA MAYOR DISCUSSES IMPACT OF EARTHQUAKE RECONSTRUCTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000320 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/CM E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EIND ELTN EWWT ENRG SENV PGOV CH SUBJECT: SW CHINA MAYOR DISCUSSES IMPACT OF EARTHQUAKE RECONSTRUCTION AND INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT; "GREENING" OF PARTY CADRES AND ECONOMY; CITIZEN PETITIONS REF: CHENGDU 310 CHENGDU 00000320 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) This cable contains sensitive but unclassified information - not for distribution on the Internet. ¶2. (SBU) Summary: Leshan Mayor Jiang Fuyi told Consul General December 8 that demand for construction materials for earthquake reconstruction boosted the city's GDP to seventh place among Sichuan cities. Jiang said that fixed asset investment, including highway and river projects, will better integrate Leshan with Chengdu to the north, and a port city on the Yangtze River to the south. Environmental protection is increasingly heavily weighted in officials' annual, point-based personnel evaluations. To green itself, the city has been closing down smaller cement factories and coal mines. Leshan plans to build a nuclear power plant. Jiang also said that he personally meets every Wednesday with petitioners who come to express grievances. End Summary. Earthquake Reconstruction and Fixed Asset Investment Key to Rapid Growth -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Mayor Jiang told CG December 8 that Leshan had the seventh highest GDP of any city in Sichuan, an accomplishment that he credited to demand for the city's products to rebuild areas damaged during the May 2008 earthquake. The city is an important center for the production of construction materials, Jiang explained. Leshan's GDP, which also includes the tourist city of Emeishan, reached about 8.1 billion USD last year and may increase about 15% to more than 9 billion USD in 2009. Jiang predicted more moderate growth after earthquake rebuilding ends. ¶4. (SBU) Large fixed asset investment was another important factor contributing to Leshan's rapid economic growth. Jiang noted that Leshan was investing 150 billion RMB (about 22 billion USD) over an unspecified time-frame to improve transportation infrastructure including the Leshan-Yibin Expressway, the Min River (Minjiang) navigation and power development project (reftel),the Leshan-Chengdu-Mianyang Expressway, a rail line to Guizhou, and a highway to Ya'an. (Note: Total fixed asset investment in Leshan reached 3.7 billion USD in 2008, a 25 percent annual increase, according to the 2009 Sichuan Statistical Yearbook. End Note.) Environmental Protection Factored into New Cadre Evaluation System; Party/Management Education Required for Senior Officials -------------- -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Leadership at all levels of the Party and government need to treat environmental protection as a serious issue, said Jiang. Success in environmental protection was a relatively new and increasingly heavily weighted factor in the point system used nationwide in annual, year-end evaluations of senior party cadres, Jiang noted. A few years ago, environmental protection was not included in the point system at all, he explained. Jiang said that senior officials are required every five years to take a half-year-long educational course at the Central or Provincial Party School. National-level policies -- including those related to environmental protection -- are taught at the Party schools. China also runs administrative schools that train government officials in various management topics. These shorter term courses, according to Jiang, typically last from one week to one month. Looking Forward to a Greener Future: Closure of Cement Plants, Coal Mines; Water and Waste Treatment; Nuclear Power Plant -------------- -------------- CHENGDU 00000320 002.2 OF 002 ¶6. (SBU) Leshan seeks to become a more environmentally friendly city in part by improving manufacturing efficiency. The mayor noted that 30 small cement plants -- big producers of green-house gases -- were closed this year. The city also ordered the closure of small coal mines producing less than 50,000 tons of coal annually. Leshan has also added waste water treatment facilities. The city of Leshan has three treatment plants, and each county under the city's jurisdiction has one plant. Leshan has also built an unspecified number of garbage processing facilities. (Note: Official statistics often broadly define Leshan as including four districts, six counties, and the city of Emeishan. End Note.) ¶7. (SBU) In response to CG's question, the mayor confirmed local press reports that said Leshan officials planned to build a nuclear power plant in the greater city area. Jiang noted that the city had suitable locations near a river where the power plant could be constructed, but a "final decision" to move forward with a nuclear plant had not yet been made. A press report that originally appeared in Chengdu's "Huaxi Dushibao" newspaper said that Leshan had signed in July 2009 a framework agreement with China National Nuclear Corporation for the planned construction a five gigawatt nuclear power plant for an estimated 12 billion USD. (Note: Leshan already has at least one nuclear reactor, although it is not a commercial power plant. The Leshan Nuclear Power Institute of China currently operates a 125 megawatt High-Flux Engineering Test Reactor (HFETR) in Leshan's Jiajiang County. In 2007, this reactor was converted from using highly-enriched uranium fuel to using low-enriched uranium, according to a report from the World Nuclear Association. End Note.) Mayor Listens to Petitioners, Addresses Reasonable Requests -------------- -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Jiang said that governments from the community level all the way up to the national level had offices charged with managing the civil petition system, a system under which citizens can directly address grievances to government officials. The mayor said that he personally met every Wednesday with petitioners to hear their grievances, although he conceded that on any given week there were generally only a couple of petitioners. He said that even when petitioners raised issues that were not legal matters, he would still try to find a way to address them, if the requests were reasonable. He did not provide any examples of requests. BROWN