A worker checks a battery for electric cars in a workshop in Beijing. The city will support the purchase of electric vehicles by building a network of charging stations within the Fifth Ring Road. [Photo/Xinhua]

Leading officials outline strategies for dealing with 'urban diseases'

Beijing's top officials presented a second-half road map for the city during a two-day meeting, with the goals of stabilizing economic growth and curing "urban diseases" that are caused by too many people and not enough resources.

Guo Jinlong, secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, said last Friday at the Conference on the Economic and Social Development of Beijing in the First Half that the city will further rely on investment and the creation of "hot consumption points" to sustain GDP growth in the year's second-half .

He said that property-driven growth slowed in the first half, contributing only 6 percent of GDP. The city will spend more on healthcare, retirement facilities and environmental protection, Guo said, and it aims to attract about 140 billion yuan ($22.4 billion) in private-sector capital for such projects.

The city also hopes for an increase in cross-border e-commerce.

Further, it will support the purchase of electric vehicles by building a network of charging stations within the Fifth Ring Road. The area within that highway is generally considered to be the heart of the urban area.

Beijing's GDP growth slowed to 7.2 percent in the first half, compared to 7.7 percent in the same period last yea, but activity continued to grow in the services sector, especially at the high end.

The information service, financial service and technology service sectors, which accounted for more than half of the city's first-half GDP growth, expanded 12.6 percent, 12.5 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively.

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