Partying to welcome Spring Festival

Round-the-city expressway completed

The east section of the round-the-city expressway was completed and put to use a couple of days ago. It forms a complete ring expressway with the west section.

Kids learning paper-cutting

Kids learning paper-cutting

Kids with Huayan Community of Jiangdong were learning paper cutting from artisans a couple of days ago. They enjoyed the art a lot.

Harvest of late oranges

The harvest season of new variety of late oranges on a farm in Ninghai attracts lots of city visitors

Rise of advanced manufacturing industry in Ningbo

German engineers are busying working in a workshop of PACOMA (China) Hydraulic Technology GmbH in Ningbo

Wandi Village, a National Wenming Village

Wandi Village, of Yinzhou District, was recently honored as a National Wenming Village.

Cultural Month in Tengtou Village

Cultural Month in Tengtou Village

Tengtou Village in Fenghua recently started the Cultural Month program, in celebrating the coming New Yea

Ge Mingxia, Gong Xueming honored as "Pride of Zhejiang"

On the evening of Dec. 22, under the interview of the famous TV anchor Bai Yansong, the award ceremony of “The Pride of Zhejiang-the most influential people in 2011” was held at the Zhejiang TV Station. Ge Mingxia and Gong Xueming from Ningbo won this title.
At the ceremony, Ge Mingxia was the third one to be announce as a figure of the year. Bai Yansong asked her “from your colleagues we know you are always as happy as attending a marriage ceremony everyday, do you really have so many happy things?” “Each of my students is an angel, so I am sure to feel happy to stay with angels.” Her reply won warm applause.
Gong Xueming was the fourth to be announced. After Bai Yansong’s interview, a few minutes was left for Gong to publicize his newly-founded “Lan-Tian-Xia Ai-Xin Studio” (or Charity Studio Under Blue Sky). Gong affectionately said “let’s join together to help the children who are deprived of schooling for poverty.” Bai Yansong also added “Gong and his wife opened a charity car wash center, so the more you go there to have your cars cleaned, the more money they will earn to help more children.”
The 49-year-old Ge Mingxia is a senior teacher of Ninghai Yuelong Middle School. She developed an “Affectionate Teaching Method”. The 40-year-old Gong Xueming has a car wash center in Hushan Street, Cixi City. In the past 15 years, he has helped more than 100 poor students and helped more than 5600 students find their sponsors in Ningbo. So he is called “matchmaker of student aiding”.
The selection of “The Pride of Zhejiang” was initiated by Zhejiang provincial publicity department and sponsored by the Radio and Television Group of Zhejiang, undertaken by Qianjiang Channel and jointly organized by more than 30 media agencies. Last night, the selection committee publicized the result based on public votes and experts’ evaluation. 10 out of 40 candidates were honored as “The Pride of Zhejiang”.
It is learned that the selection was started in 2005. In the past 7 years, 9 people from Ningbo have been honored as “The Pride of Zhejiang”. Among them, Wang Yanqin, a communist cadre, has been devoted himself to caring about the disabled. Lin Ping has donated part of her liver to save an eight-year old girl.
Besides, Chen Jun, the first stem cells donator in the Zhejiang Press, blood donators for injuries in the 7•23 Wenzhou Fatal Crash and other six individuals and groups were awarded as “The Pride of Zhejiang”.

Comprehensive Energy Management Platform of Ningbo put into operation

The Comprehensive Energy Management Platform of Ningbo was put into operation on December 22. The platform will gather data of energy consumption of various industries for the service of energy-saving management of the city.

At present the first phase functionality of the platform has been in service. 450 enterprises whose annual energy consumption is above 3,000 tons of standard coal are monitored by the platform. Liu Qi, Vice Secretary of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Ningbo, and Yu Hongyi, Member of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee and Vice Mayor of Ningbo, attended the opening ceremony.

In the 12th Five-year-plan Period, Ningbo has the hard task of energy saving and emission reduction. To further promote the comprehensive management of the energy consumption, Ningbo in the last year started the preparation for the construction of this platform. Zhejiang Yungang Data Company is the undertaker of the designing, building and operating of the platform. At present, the first phase of the platform has passed the acceptance check by the National Development and Reform Commission and other government departments.

The platform has three functions: government administration, management of enterprises and public services.

It is reported that the city will speed up the construction of the second phase of the platform and start the public service function in all the counties, cities and districts. The city expects to have the sub administrative platforms of energy data built in at least half of the departments related to energy administration and in 2013 to have all the industries of the city covered by the platform

Ningbo realized complete coverage of medical insurance in urban areas

According to Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Labor and Social Security, in 2011 Ningbo realized complete coverage of medical insurance for urban citizens, with the number of medical insurance participants in urban areas amounting to 583,700.

It is learned that to extend the medical insurance coverage for urban citizens is one of the serving-the-people projects of Ningbo municipal government. This year, Ningbo further raised the insurance payment ratio for hospitalized patients and patients of special diseases. This benefit for the medical insurance participants made the payment settlement more convenient and encouraged more people to participate in the medical insurance.

Statistics show that in 2011 the coverage of the medical insurance programs of old residents, people without fixed employment and children in early childhood reached 98.06% and the coverage of the students reached 97.13%. “So far, the social medical insurance system has basically covered all urban residents,” said a person from Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Labor and Social Security.

Of the medical insurance participants of urban citizens, over 10,000 are people living on basic minimum living allowance, and the severely disable people. Thanks to the policy of the whole premium paid by the government, the poverty-stricken people whole are prone to diseases are covered by the urban residents medical insurance system.

Besides, the participants of college students of the medical insurance have increased by about 10%. This year 139,700 college students participated in medical insurance, with the participation rate amounting to 97.62%

Ningbo Trade Union helping poverty-stricken workers

For the New Year and the Spring Festival, the trade unions of various levels of Ningbo will raise funds of 25 million yuan to help the 30,000 families of poverty-stricken local workers and migrant workers. The other day, at the meeting celebrating the 20th anniversary of the “helping the poor” program, Ningbo Trade Union started the program for the coming festivals. It is reported that the program will have the following activities:

presenting newspapers, aiding the workers of special jobs, helping the workers of serious diseases, aiding the students of poor families, inviting poor people to festival dinners, and giving free trip for migrant workers going home.

From December 23 to the eve of the Spring Festival, Zhejiang Trade Union and Ningbo General Trade Union will organize visits to enterprises and workers in difficulty. According to the plan, 10 teams will be dispatched to visit small and minor enterprises in difficulty, the poverty-stricken workers, the model workers and various people in need. Consolation money and gifts will be given to all the workers in poverty.

From January 12 to 13, Ningbo General Trade Union and Ningbo Branch of ICBC will carry out the program of “free air trip for migrant workers to go home”, and 400 model migrant workers from Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou will be given free air trip for their home towns

Achievements Ningbo government has made this year

In the first year of the 12th Five-Year-Plan Period, Ningbo has made achievements in all aspects that concern the livelihood of the people like employment, social security, medical care, education, culture, food and drug and social management. At the press conference by Ningbo Municipal Government held on the 20th this month, Ren Jiancheng, Deputy Director of Ningbo Municipal Development and Reform Commission, announced that this year the city has enhanced the livelihood of the people, improved the public services, and optimized the mechanism.

Today, Ningbo has 8 full-employment counties (cities and districts). The city has increased 142,000 jobs, 56,000 urban unemployed residents have got reemployed, the registered unemployment rate in cities is bellow 3.33%, and the number of “zero-employed families” remains zero. By September this year, the city has increased 74,000 businesses.

The city has accelerated the municipal-level integrated social insurance, timely increased the social security standard, and further widened the insurance coverage.

This year, Ningbo released the Middle and Long Term Plan for the Development of Education. It has take active measures to solve the problems of pre-school education. It has extended the schooling aiding program to students from pre-schooling to postgraduate programs. It has popularized the free of charge physic examination among all students including the children of migrant workers.

In the implement of the food safety strategy, the city has improved the mechanism of information transparency for food safety, timely releasing information concerning food safety. It has taken special actions to crack down the production of bogus medicines and standardized the medicine market order

For Janet Wang -Until today the donation is 278084.58

Nov.30~DEC.4 diary of janet wang

12月5日 白血病孩子黄佳宁的病房日记
我现在在输红细胞，化疗后我贫血很厉害，手指和嘴唇都是苍白的，头也晕乎乎的。今天查血白细胞和血小板都上去了一点，昨晚体温上去一点又自己退下来了，今天一直都正常。大概白细胞升到两千多我就可以回家休息一段时间，我盼望骨髓把好的细胞造得快一点，医院里我一天都不想多呆。

December 5
I am lack of RBC after chemotherapy. I have pale fingers and lips and I feel dizzy. They transfused me more RBC and it works. My temperature got up and down last night but it becomes normal today. I could rest at home once the WBC reaches 2000. I want to leave hospital A.S.A.P so I wish my marrow could speed up producing some good cells.

12月6日 白血病孩子黄佳宁的病房日记
这两天白细胞可能在长吧，我的体温正常了，今天医生把我的药水也减了好几瓶。上午有好几个病友都邀请我跟他们聊天，他们都说我是开心果，生了这种病还每天笑容满面

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Garbage converted into new energy

On the afternoon of December 11, a worker from Yinzhou Landfill Power Plant project was collecting marsh gas. The project, the first of its kind in Ningbo, is located in Dongqiao County of Yinzhou District.

First snow came in Siming Mountain

First snow came in Ningbo Siming Mountain

On the morning of December 9, some tourists are appreciating the first snow of this winter in the National Forest Park of Siming Mountain are

Seniors organized to visit Xiangjiangkou Area

Some 20 seniors with Baisha Sub-District were organized to visit the Sanjiangkou area to enjoy the beautiful views a couple of days ago

Certificates of Origin help exempt 10 million USD

According to the inspection and quarantine department of Cixi, during the first 11 months 120 companies have obtained the certificates of the origin, which bring about an exemption of 10 million USD for Cixi exporting businesses

Yoyo competition

Yoyo competition

Over 200 yoyo ball players joined in a yoyo contest recently held in Zhenming Primary School of Ningbo

Foreign volunteers teaching English in a community

A foreign teacher of Ningbo University is teaching English in a neighborhood community in Jiangbei District.

Ningbo Chamber of Commerce in Chongqing founded

US-Ningbo Economic and Trade Cooperation Seminar held

I/E Volume:10 Times Growth in 10 Years

Over the past ten years, the trade scale of imports and exports in Ningbo increased over 10 times since China's WTO accession. The dependency rate of foreign trade has increased from 56.2% to 110%, the actual use of foreign capital amounts to 80% of the total and the foreign direct investment increases from 10 million US dollars to 1.2 billion US dollars. In a short period of ten years, Ningbo has realized a leapfrog development with container throuput rising from 1.21 million TEU to over 13 million TEU. These were the statistics released at the Ningbo WTO Affair Consultation Center held a couple of days ago.
There are over 100 foreign trade enterprises with respective output value exceeding 100 million US dollars in Ningbo.
Ningbo made great effort to promote an open economy by taking full advantage of port logistics and private economy. The total volume of imports and exports increased from 8.89 billion US dollars in 2001 to 97 billion US dollars this year. Now Ningbo has basically formed the export commodity structure relying mainly on electrical products supplemented by textile, clothing and light industrial products as well as the import commodity structure relying mainly on resource products and raw materials.
The number of foreign trade businesses has increased from over 1,000 to over 11,000, making direct trade contacts with over 220 countries and regions in the world. In terms of the ranking of imports and exports, Ningbo has risen to the 9th from the 14th last year among 36 provinces, cities, autonomous regions and cities separately designated in the state economic plan.
The foreign direct investment has increased from 10 million US dollars to 1.1 billion US dollars. The registered foreign-funded enterprises in Ningbo reach 5,772, with registered capital totaling 25.56 billion US dollars and actual capital contribution totaling 23.81 billion US dollars. At present, 34 enterprises of the world top 500 have founded 75 subsidiaries in Ningbo including IBM, ITOCHU, SAMSUNG, etc.
The capability of Ningbo companies to invest abroad was enhanced constantly, from single labor export to oversea takeover, research, exploration, etc. Last year, 36 of the 100 top Ningbo companies had oversea returns, with 5.157 US dollars oversea assets and 30,000 employees overseas

Cross-Bank Deposit Business for Foreign Currency Initiated in Ningbo

Standard Chartered Released SMEs' Confidence Index in Ningbo

On December 7, the Standard Chartered released the SMEs' Confidence Index in Ningbo, which reflect the operating environment, the operations, investment orientation and financing needs of SMEs. It shows that the index for Chinese SMEs stands at 47.37, with the operation confidence index at 59.79 and the macro confidence index at 33.13. 
This was the first time that an overseas bank released the index for Chinese SMEs.
The indexes released yesterday showed that SMEs in China take a prudent attitude toward the economic operations of China and the confidence towards financing tends to be weak. But comparatively speaking, the operation confidence is stronger, indicating that most businesses are having stable production and sales.

Yinzhou exempted 40 mln yuan of administrative charges for small businesses

The Ministry of Finance and State Development and Reform Commission jointly issued a notice recently that 22 administrative charges on small businesses will be exempted from Jan 1, 2012 to Dec 31, 2014. Starting from yesterday, five of the 22 charges won’t be charged in Yinzhou and 16 have been exempted since July, 2008.
Since July 1st, 2008, Yinzhou has taken the lead in exempting 166 administrative charges through “exemption, financial subsidy and tax rebates”, which have saved 39.93 million Yuan for the small enterprises in the past 11 months.
Yinzhou has never levied five items of the 22 administrative charges. And since July 1st,2008 Yinzhou has exempted all the administrative charges besides the one charged by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade for certificates of goods origin, which will also be exempted from Jan 1st, 2012 on.

Phase II Project of Ningbo Software Park to Be Inaugurated soon

It was learned on Dec. 4 that the Phase II Project of Ningbo Software Industrial Park has been well under preparation and the construction is to be started by the end of this year.
Ningbo Software Industrial Park, located in the core area of Ningbo National Hi-tech Development Zone, was officially put into operation in October 2007. The floor area of the Phase I Project is 34,000 square meters. At present, the Park has introduced several service agencies such as Ningbo Software Service Guide, Software Testing Center, Information Safety Testing Center and gathered many influential software and information technology service outsourcing enterprises at home and abroad, among which Kingdee Software has become the largest supplier and service provider of business management software in Ningbo and Zhoushan. It will be the home of over 300 enterprises by the end of 2011. The Phase II Project will further improve the overall function of software and service outsourcing park and better cater to needs of the settled businesses.

According to Executive Opinion on Accelerating Software and Service Outsourcing Development (Provisional) issued by the Management Committee of Ningbo National High-tech Development Zone, from 2010, a special fund of 10 million CNY will be invested in software industry on a yearly basis for three years in a row. The revenue of software service outsourcing industry in Ningbo National High-tech Development Zone is expected to reach 10 billion CNY by the end of 2015.

Cultural Products making strides in "Going Global"

It was learned form the training class concerning cultural trade organized by the Ministry of Commerce in Ningbo, cultural product exports in Ningbo last year accounted for 3.34% of the export volume of the city, with a growth rate doubling the national average. During the first 10 months, it reached $380 mln, up 15.3% over the same time last year.
Some leading cultural enterprises like Soundking and Hailun have increased their export volume. After the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, Ningbo Soundking Group spent 70 mln Yuan on acquiring three other world-renowned audio brands (Studiomaster, Cardac, Carlsbro), which made it better known around the world. Recently, a group of 36 Europeans in purchase of super stereo musical instruments visited the Soundking Group and immediately signed intention agreements worth 10 mln Yuan. Another representative, Ningbo Hailun Musical Instrument Manufacturing co., Ltd., is known as the National Pilot Base for Cultural Industry, with its pianos exported to the EU, the US and the Asia-Pacific region. Building international sales networks has become a new alternative for Ningbo cultural enterprises. For example, Ningbo Kaku Cartoon Making Co., Ltd invested 2 mln HK dollars on establishing Maiquan & Keke International Cultural Media Co., Ltd in Hong Kong in October, mainly to promote its animations and derivatives, and to deal with orders from Japan, South Korea and other countries. Moreover, Zhejiang Xuanyi Internet Technology Co., Ltd, in collaboration with Chinese subsidiaries of game companies from Japan, America, etc, has brought its independently developed online game "The Revival of Empires" to the international market.

Other cultural enterprises such as Guangbo and Deli have also set up dozens of sales networks across the globe, especially in the European and US markets. Guangbo Group alone has founded 3 marketing companies in America, Dubai and Hong Kong respectively, and signed contracts with over 20 subsidiaries in Belgium, Italy, etc., exporting over 5,000 kinds of cultural products with a turnover of $90 mln per annum. 
It's shown by China's Customs Statistics that cultural products in Ningbo are mainly exported to the US and European market. During the first 10 months, a total of 140 mln dollars of Ningbo cultural products were exported to the US , up 20.4%, and 95.759 mln dollars to the EU, up 5.5%, among which visual artwork ranks in the first place (worth 300 mln dollars) ,with printing work the second ( worth 54.861 mln dollars).

In the next few years, as the NCDP (Ningbo Cultural Development Plan initiated during the 12th Five-Year Plan) puts it, we will give full support to the export of cultural products and services with Ningbo characteristics, attach great importance to international sales network construction. Driven by incentive policies, cultural products in Ningbo will go global at a rate never seen before

78 Logistics Enterprises Entering NALP

Since its opening in 2008, Ningbo Airport Logistics Park (NALP) has so far housed 78 logistics enterprises, which turned over a total of 6.8 billion Yuan per year.

Located in Wangchun Industrial Park, NALP is an important part of the seven logistics parks constructed in accordance with ''Ningbo Modern Logistics Planning". It aims to become a key airport logistics base in the Yangtze River Delta and a key comprehensive logistics base in Zhejiang Province, with aviation logistics as its locomotive and bonded logistics as its backup.

Since the beginning of this year, NALP has seen a good momentum of rapid development, with a turnover of 5.52 billion Yuan from January to October, overtaking that of the three preceding years by 4.3 times

Ningbo Overtakes Shanghai in Through Transport Volume

Recently, it's learned that the trough transport volume in Ningbo port this year reaches 43,868 TEUs, 81.5% higher than the same time last year, making Ningbo Port overtake Shanghai Port and rank second only to Lianyungang. Furthermore, it is estimated to reach 47,000 by the end of this year, 27 times as many as the year before last.
(Note: through transport means carrying containers directly to the port by train)

Privately-run Vocational Education Summit Forum Held in Ningbo

Nowadays it is a common phenomenon in China that on one hand it is diffcult for college grads to get employed and on the other it is hard for companies to employ enough people. To address such a problem, the third national summit forum for the privately-run vocational education was held in Xikou, Ningbo, on December 2nd. Professors from more than 50 vocational schools attended the forum in an effort to find out ways to develop vocational education. Experts from college and educational institutions of Japan, Germany and Korea also attended the forum.
The forum, first held in Zhejiang, China, was sponsored by the Ningbo Dahongying University, which is one of the three vocational colleges that have the qualifications for undergraduate education.
The attendees discussed on how vocational schools cooperate with enterprises, how public-run vocational schools and privately-run ones cooperate with each other and how vocational schools cooperate with their foreign counterparts. They agreed that it is necessary for privately-run vocational colleges to seek multi-cooperation and opening-up.

Food Expo had 64,000 visitors

According to statistics from the organization committee, 64,000 people, businesspeople included, came to the Food Expo on December 3. The number of visitors increased considerably when compared with the first day.
The Expo opened at 9 am. Among the exhibition halls, the Famous Brand Hall, the China Hall, the Zhejiang Hall and Ningbo Hall were the most popular ones. In the Brand Hall, people could buy famous wines from all over the world. In the Zhoushan Hall and Ningbo hall, aquatic products especially tuna sold very well. In Ningbo Hall which was supported by the Agricultural Production Co-operatives, agricultural and sideline products of various kinds sold very well.
Another attraction for Ningbo people was that they could taste various kinds of delicious foods in the Expo, including the snacks from South Korea and Japan, Xinjiang mutton barbecue, Taiwan snacks and Huzhou steamed dumplings.
According to the organizer, 16,000 tickets of the Food Expo were sold on December 3, nearly 10,000 tickets more than the previous day. The sales of the tickets would last until 2 pm and all halls would be closed at 4 pm

Ningbo Artists Awarded in the National Youth Art Exhibition

In the fourth national youth art exhibition, Wang Xiongwei, an artist from the Sha-Menghai Calligraphy Institution won the award for excellence with his The Water of the Chilly River, outstripping its 20,000 rivals. Wang was awarded in Beijing on December 3rd.
The national youth art exhibition is a national comprehensive exhibition jointly sponsored by All-China Youth Federation, China Literature Federation and China Art Association to discover talented youth artists.
Apart from Wang, this year there have been other 18 people from the Institution whose works have been exhibited and awarded in the municipal, provincial and national art exhibitions.

NFTZ becomes an important functional zone

By means of intelligentized system of supply, purchase and distribution and by vigorously expanding sources of supplying core high value-added materials, Ningbo International Trade Ocean Shipping Supply CO., LTD has occupied 50% of Ningbo ocean shipping supply market. At present, it has become the only domestic supplier of the France Bourbon and ranked into the top-three list of service providers in ocean shipping.
The NFTZ has gathered many shipping service corporations like Ningbo International Trade Ocean Shipping Supply CO., LTD. The Zone is striving to improve the shipping service environment and trying to attract the leading shipping companies to invest there through deepening the shipping resources concentration and custom clearance service. Besides, NFTZ is exploring the high value-added modern shipping services and aiming to strengthen its comprehensive service ability.
The industry agglomeration of shipping logistics service is a prerequisite for Ningbo’s transformation from a transport port to a trade and logistics port. Relying on Ningbo Port Custom  Clearance Center, NFTZ has gathered 72 shipping service enterprises such as COSCO International Freight Co., Ltd., China Shipping Container Liners Co., Ltd., Ningbo Taiping International Trade Transportation Co., Ltd. and China United Tally Co., Ltd. These enterprises cover customs declaration, inspection declaration freight forwarders, shipping agency, tally and harbor engineering, and their services reach the whole Yangtze River Delta. From January to August this year, its agency value has topped 4 billion CNY and there emerged some shipping services enterprises each with annual revenue of over ten million CNY.
In NFTZ, the ship trading service business is in the ascendant. The Ningbo Ship Trading Co., Ltd in NFTZ is the first batch of seven ship sales and purchase service institutions which accord with Provisions on the Administration of Ship Sales and Purchase. This company has introduced modern transaction mode and can provide lots of services, such as information publishing, ship management, ship evaluation, ship brokerage, auction of ship and transaction and clearing. This year it has sold 59 ships with a volume of trade reaching 540 million CNY.
At present, NFTZ is vigorously exploring ship financial leasing and other high-end business for the purpose of building the pilot zone of modern ship service industry. “We will fully give play our prominent advantages of political function, industrial agglomeration and encouraging exploration to forge NFTZ into an important zone of marine economy and international giant port. ” said Ma Zhaoxiang, director of the Administrative Committee of NFTZ

Want a robot playmate?

Want a robot playmate?

In the first session of Innovation and Creativity Fair held in Ningbo Vocational Education Centre on December 12, the exhibits recommended by different classes delighted the spectators’ eyes

Widened Jiefang Bridge partly open to traffic

Widened Jiefang Bridge partly open to traffic

On the afternoon of December 12, the newly-built section of the Jiefang Bridge widening project and the widening section of Jiefang Road were open to traffic. All the vehicles from Jiangbei District to Haishu District will be required to pass through the new bridge, while vehicles from the opposite direction will remain to pass through the old road.

East section of around-city freeway to be open to traffic

On December 14, the east section of Ningbo around-city freeway was completed and passed acceptance check. It means that the whole project has been completed and it will be open to traffic from the later part of this month.

The 44-kilometer-long east section of Ningbo around-city freeway starts from the north interchange of Jiangshan of the Ningbo-Taizhou-Wenzhou Freeway, passes Yunlong, Dongqian Lake, Wuxiang, Haosifang, Linjiang, Shahe and Jiulong Lake, and then stops at Yanjia Bridge to meet the starting point of the west section of the around-city freeway.

The east section directly connects the Ningbo-Taizhou-Wenzhou Freeway, Xiangshan Port Bridge and its connecting line, Chuanshan Traffic-dispersing Freeway and Zhoushan Land-island Freeway, and functions as the core of the freeway network of the south bank of Hangzhou Bay.

After its completion and opening, the east section will connect with the west section to form the "freeway ring", which will be the core and pivot of the road traffic system in Ningbo and the second largest traffic hub in Zhejiang Province. The freeway plays an important role in constructing the modern comprehensive traffic system, promoting the urban space development, improving the urban space structure, relieving the urban traffic pressure, and promoting the integration and modernization of the economy in Yangtze River Delta

First jade cultural museum to be opened

News came from the related cultural department of Haishu District on December 14, a specialized museum themed on jade, that is, Yongxing Hall Jade Cultural Museum, has completed its fitting up and started its interior exhibition preparations. As the first jade cultural museum and the first private museum in Haishu District, it will officially open its door to visitors in December 27.

It is said that Mao Xuejun, the founder of the museum, is a native of Fenghua County. He has showed great interest in jade since his childhood, and he later on got a doctor’s degree from the archaeology department of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and is now the vice-chairman of the Chinese Jade Culture Professional Committee. Over 600 pieces of precious ancient jade wares, works of modern and contemporary masters and valuable Hetian jade carvings will be exhibited in the museum. Besides, at the opening of the museum, the 5th national jade treasures exhibition in Ningbo will be held. The museum will also serve as the jade culture working base for Chinese Culture and Information Association

Comprehensive competitiveness of industries in Ningbo continues to improve

It is estimated that by eliminating the backward production capacity, Ningbo will reduce the yearly consumption of electricity by one billion KWH. Thanks to the policy of cultivating strategic emerging industries, the proportion of the eight strategic emerging industries occupied one-fifth of the total industrial output in the first three quarters of this year. All such achievements, mentioned by Zhang Shifang, Deputy Director of the Municipal Development and Reform Commission and Director of the Municipal Industrial Upgrading Office, in his speech delivered in the press conference on December 14, demonstrated that at the first year of the 12th Five-year Plan Ningbo accelerated its industrial upgrading and its comprehensive competitiveness of industries enhanced continually.

The port industry stepped onto a new stage by sticking to the revolving-oriented development. With the promotion of the extension project of Geely Automobile in Chunxiao Town of Beilun District and the 10 billion-yuan project in Wanhua Industrial Park of Daxie Development Zone, the port industry in Ningbo has further increased in aggregation and improved in comprehensive competitiveness. In the first ten months of this year, the developing rate of port industry took the lead among all the industries in Ningbo, with an increase of 34.4% in petroleum processing industry, 45.8% in chemical raw materials and products, and 40.2% in chemical fiber industry, much higher than the average growth rate.

The transformation of the traditional industries accelerated significantly by sticking to transforming and upgrading. In the past year, Ningbo has increased its efforts in technological reform and elimination of backward production capacity, strengthened the innovation of core technology and techniques and attached great importance to improving industrial competitiveness. It is estimated that the elimination of the 376 enterprises in 17 industries may save one billion KWH of electricity and 530,000 ton of standard coal. 13 enterprises in Ningbo rank among the 2011 top 500 manufacturers in China, taking up one-fifth of those selected in the whole province.

Cultivation of the emerging industries began to achieve initial success by sticking to planning ahead. In the first three quarters, the eight strategic emerging industries (such as new energy industry) realized an output value of 166.38 billion yuan, increasing its proportion in the total industry output value by 19.1%. A batch of demonstration projects have been moving forward in order, and a case in point is the construction of the Ningbo base project of China South Locomotive with an investment of 3 billion yuan, which will boast of an output of 150 rail transit vehicles.

The development energy of modern services industry was improved by sticking to the high-end orientation. In the last year, Ningbo has quickened its construction of a batch of major projects in services industry. The development energy of modern services industry has greatly been improved with the added value for the first three quarters reaching 172.67 billion yuan, up by 9.3% over the same period last year. So far, there have been 315 technology service institutes included in the statistics in Ningbo. It is estimated that the turnover of bulk commodity may reach over 200 billion yuan as commodity trading and headquarter economy are still on the rise.

Strengthening the technological innovation is the key to industrial transformation and upgrading. This year, the budget for technological expense stands at 2.502 billion yuan, up by 13%. In the first ten months, the technological activity expenses of the above-scale industries reached 9.7 billion yuan, up by about 30%. In the first three quarters, the cumulative volume of invention patents in Ningbo reached 1218, up by 40% over the same period last year.

The essential factor support and mechanism innovation guaranteed the progress of industrial transformation and upgrading. This year, the municipal financial budget for accelerating industrial transformation and upgrading reached 2.23 billion yuan, taking up 14% of the available municipal financial resources. In the meanwhile, by actively reforming the means of financial support, the city has seen a better play of the financial lever effect and leading role