After the reception dinner, Chen Huai, Xiong Wenbin and others also went to the hotel to discuss matters with Yao Ronghua.

The Xinpu Refining and Chemical Project has been organizing preparations in the form of a feasibility study project, and it has been two and a half months.

In addition to the funding issue, the State Council has also realized that domestic economic investment is overheating, and the approval of large-scale industrial projects has begun to be tightened.

The approval authority for slightly larger-scale local refining and local steel projects is almost all taken from provinces and cities to the State Planning Commission. What's more, Xinpu Refining and Chemical intends to directly refine three million tons of crude oil, and there is no way to bypass the approval of the State Planning Commission.

Zhunan Refining and Chemical increased from 500,000 tons to 1 million tons, and the review procedures were added only after construction started. This time, the State Planning Commission did not crack down on it. After all, it was the internal planning and economic department that took care of Tian Jiageng and Xu Pei's face.

Chen Huai dared not take risks in the Xinpu refining and chemical project.

Xu Pei clearly opposes Xinpu's big refining now. There are many people in the Song Dynasty who want to see the good show here. If Xinpu's refining is first on the bus and then refilling the tickets, and if they can't get the approval document, they will start construction first. If they are treated as a first-hand man for the State Planning Commission, he will beg his grandfather and grandma to find a way.

Now we can only say that we can clear the relationship through various channels so that the preparations can continue to be promoted.

"By the way, according to ordinary officials, Meixi and Xinpu have achieved economic development achievements in recent years, which is already quite dazzling," Yao Ronghua asked with a smile. "Chen Huai, you have a more urgent mood to do things. If I hadn't been paying attention to this place and just reading the report, I would have thought that Xinpu and Meixi's investment was overheated and would have derailed. So the head office has reduced the loan scale here and carried out risk control, and I can't defend you..."

"..." Chen Huai pondered for a while and said, "All data have been released one after another. Donghua's GDP reached 40 billion in 1996, and it has more than doubled in three years. This speed is not unpleasant. But if you want to calculate the per capita, Donghua's per capita GDP will barely catch up with the national average of 5,800 yuan in 1996. In terms of the country, reform and opening up have been eighteen years, and the total economic volume has increased by nearly twenty times. Such achievements are great. However, even if the total economic volume, which has increased by nearly twenty times, is still only one-tenth of that of the United States and one-seventh of Japan..."

Chen Huai sighed lightly and said, "Mei Gang just issued a regulation that limits employees' overtime hours and controls employees to work 60 hours a week. I talked to foreign managers, and they found it incredible. Workers in London and Birmingham are all fighting for less working hours, and working 35 hours a week is too much. How can Chinese workers do this? What they don't understand is that Chinese people are really scared of poverty. Although some people think it is natural to open their mouths to feed, most people still understand in their hearts: What can they do if they don't work hard?"

"Are you scared of poverty?" Yao Ronghua heard this word from Chen Huai's mouth, and couldn't help but shake his head and smile. Thinking about it carefully, Chen Huai's childhood was not so lucky, but since his youth, it was definitely not related to this word.

***************************

After leaving the hotel, Chen Huai also said goodbye to Xiong Wenbin and returned to Xiapu with Chen Bing.

Although Chen Bing had left Xiapu to work long ago and his wife and children also went to work and study in the city, his hometown was in Xiapu, and his father, mother and brothers and sisters were in Xiapu, and he would occasionally go back to his hometown to stay for one or two nights.

On the car, Chen Huai talked to Chen Bing about the renovation and expansion of Jinghai Highway: "Only by replacing Jinghai Highway with high-grade highways can it be possible to accelerate the development of coastal industrial belts..."

The construction of the Yangtze River Expressway mentioned the concept of the Yangtze River Industrial Belt, focusing on the development and construction of Meixi New District and Xipizha Industrial Park.

For Donghua City, this is obviously a relatively thin horizontal line. The main economic development can only radiate to Tangzha District and Xicheng District, which lacks depth.

Chen Huai, Xiong Wenbin and others are now referring to the coastal industrial belt, hoping to take Xinpu Port as the leader, radiate along the Huaihai Bay to the north to Xinjin and Zaotang counties to strengthen the depth of Donghua's economic development.

However, to develop the industrial belt, a large amount of infrastructure needs to support it.

On the one hand, the industrial belt along the riverside is accelerating the construction of ports along the north bank of the Zhu River. At the same time, the Yangtze River Expressway and Meipu Highway have been completed, and the construction of the east extension line of Xudong Railway has also begun, which almost brought out the horizontal traffic framework of Donghua.

However, when it comes to vertical traffic, it is much weaker.

At present, only the coastal defense road in Xiapu County section is still built, and the road width is only 14 meters, which is far from enough to support the longitudinal transportation network.

Previously, Jinghai Highway was a main transportation road connecting the three counties of Zaotang, Xinjin and Xiapu, and was already a little overwhelmed at this time.

The investment scale of large deep-water seaports is even larger, and it is not something that the stove can bear at this time; the so-called coastal railway can only be planned for the long-term.

When Chen Huai mentioned that he wanted to build the Jinghai Highway, Chen Bing could only smile bitterly and said one word: "Money."

The Yangtze River Expressway cost less than ten kilometers, which cost 200 million yuan; the Meipu Highway cost 40 million yuan - the Jinghai Highway is about to be renovated to a high-grade highway, which is 90 kilometers, and it cannot be obtained without a billion yuan.

Du Jian, who was sitting in the passenger seat in the same car, turned around and said, "Xinjin County can't even get the money from the coastal defense road, so don't count on Jinghai Highway. By the way, Xinjin County will hold a county-level economic joint promotion meeting tomorrow. Can't Secretary Chen pass?"

"Old Chen, let's go together," Chen Huai said, "You should have received the invitation, right? Secretary Wang from Xinjin said he was a comrade-in-arms with you."

"A comrade-in-arms? When I was in Xiapu, I had two projects, which were snatched by Wang Yiping naked. He didn't expect that his comrade-in-arms would not be too ugly when he met. Now he remembered that my comrade-in-arms came, so he got out of here." Chen Bing was so angry when he mentioned his old grudges with Wang Yiping.

"Okay, okay, you, as the deputy mayor, cannot lack the votes for Xinjin," Chen Huai said with a smile. "Now Chen, Yu and others have piled up resources to Xicheng District, which has caused other districts and counties to complain. We are not attracted by the people at this time, so when will we stay?"

When Chen Huai mentioned this, Chen Bing couldn't help but sigh.

Compared with the economic growth rate, Donghua's fiscal revenue and expenditure growth rate is higher.

In addition to infrastructure investments from state-owned investment and financing platforms such as Meixi Development Group, City Hong Kong Investment Group, Beijing Investment Group, and Xinpu Development Group, the total fiscal expenditure in the three districts and seven counties in the city in 1996 reached 2 billion.

The total fiscal expenditure is 2 billion, but the distribution of 2 billion between districts and counties is extremely unbalanced.

Tangzha District has the highest fiscal expenditure, with the final expenditure reaching 500 million in addition to the investment of Meixi Development Group.

Xiapu County is preparing for Xinpu Development Group, with fiscal expenditure exceeding 300 million.

Tangzha District has high fiscal revenue. In addition to so many expenses, it also contributed an additional 200 million yuan to the municipal finance. Xiapu County implemented a large-scale contract contract, but did not contribute much to the municipal finance. The expenses were also self-inflated. It was a gap and did not allow the city to subsidize a penny.

The problem lies in Xicheng District. Xicheng District's fiscal revenue in 1996 was less than 200 million yuan, but its expenditure was as high as 400 million yuan, second only to Tangzha District. The gap was made up by the municipal finance.

In addition, through the Municipal Hong Kong Investment Group headed by Han Shouchun, the city's infrastructure investment in Xicheng District has reached 300 million.

Such a large amount of financial and infrastructure funds, coupled with the start of projects such as Baohe Shipyard, has made Xicheng District's development speed even surpassed Tangzha District in 1996, but how can other districts and counties convince?

However, the arm cannot twist the thigh, and the dominance of regional economic planning lies in the city. Chen Baoqi, Gao Tianhe and Yu Chengzhen proposed that the development of the riverside industrial belt is the core of Donghua's work. If other districts and counties want to develop, they must work harder themselves.

On the one hand, Chen Baoqi regards the development of Xicheng District as his personal political achievements project, and on the other hand, it also involves deep-seated factors such as economic competition between cities and counties, counties and counties.

Chen Bing was in charge of Xiapu and Wang Yiping was in charge of Xinjin. Although they were comrades-in-arms, they were not weak in robbing each other and were not weak in grabbing projects. Therefore, they accumulated a lot of old resentment, which was ultimately the result of county economic competition.

The economy is in charge of the three districts and seven counties, with finance and taxation as the top priority. The main indicators are at the bottom for two consecutive years during the assessment. The secretary and county magistrate may be replaced at any time.

Under such pressure, the county economy became cruel after the 1990s.

While this stimulates the rapid growth of county economy, the negative effects it brings are gradually becoming more obvious.

The phenomenon of fraud at the grassroots level increases, and sometimes they don’t even borrow money to fill in fiscal and tax figures; when attracting investment, they are even more muddy. No matter how much pollution is, no matter how harsh the production and safety environment are, the local area will be brought back.

Shen Huai naturally would not limit his attention to the competition between Xiapu and Xinjin and Zaotang counties. He and Xiong Wenbin proposed the concept of coastal belts, so naturally they would include Xinjin and Zaotang counties.

On a larger scale, the Huaihai Province's riverside economic belt should include cities and counties along the Zhujiang River such as Huaixi, Xucheng, Xinyi to Donghua, and the coastal economic belt should include the Huaihai Bay area north of Xinpu.

It’s just that it’s easy to come up with concepts, but it’s not easy to achieve results.

Construction of the Xiapu County section of the Haifang Highway started as scheduled after the New Year, but there was no movement in the Xinjin County section about 40 kilometers. The city said that the subsidy was 20 million yuan, but it was not enough to pay it out, and only agreed to pay the Xinjin County financial payment in 1997. In fact, Xinjin County completely raised 60 million yuan of road construction funds.

Xinjin County's total fiscal expenditure in 1996 was only 140 million yuan, and all township and counties had only 20 million yuan in road transportation infrastructure investment. How could it support 60 million yuan in coastal defense highway infrastructure investment?
Chapter completed!