General Economy

Gross domestic product (GDP)

GDP for 2005 was 192.814 billion yuan, up 11.7% from the previous year.The annual per capita GDP reached 7,341 yuan.

GDP ratio (primary, secondary and tertiary industries)

The primary industry yielded a value added of 30 billion yuan, up 5.8% from the previous year; the secondary industry, 83.655 billion yuan, up 12.9%; the tertiary industry, 79.159 billion yuan, up 12.8%. The GDP ratio of the three sectors is 15.6: 43.4: 41.0.

Revenue and expenditure

Provincial revenue was 25.456 billion yuan, an increase of 18.12% over the previous year.

Consumer price index (CPI)

CPI was 1.7% up from the previous year.

Investment in fixed assets

Fixed asset investment was valued at 87.453 billion yuan, up by 15.68% from the previous year.

Major Industries

Agriculture

The output of grains totaled 8.369 million tons, an increase of 3.86% from 2004.

Industry

The industrial added value totaled 68.58 billion yuan, an increase of 15.3%.

Construction

Its added value was 15.075 billion yuan.

Transportation

Freight carried by various means of transport for the year totaled 85.51 billion ton-kilometers, up by 14.57% from the previous year. Passengers carried by various means of transport numbered 28.831 billion person-kilometers, an increase of 7.43%.

Postal services

The annual turnover of postal operations totaled 717 million yuan, 8.64% up from the previous year.

Telecommunications services

The annual turnover of telecommunications services totaled 13.06 billion yuan, up by 28.86%. At the year-end, the number of fixed line subscribers reached 5.48 million, an increase of 14.83%, and the number of mobile phone subscribers reached 4.08 million, an increase of 504,300.

Retail

The annual turnover from retail sales reached 63.28 billion yuan, an increase of 12.87% from the previous year.

Tourism

Revenue from domestic tourism totaled 5.768 billion yuan, up by 11.74% from the 2004 figure. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism totaled US$59 million, up by 34.2%.

Continued Effects of Market Reform

Imports & exports

The annual value of imports and exports totaled US$2.633 billion, an increase of 49.36% from the previous year. Of the figure US$1.091 billion were from exports and US$1.542 billion were from imports. These two figures are respectively 9.50% and 101% up from 2004.

Economic and technological cooperation

Overseas project and labor contracts signed during the year were valued at US$96 million, up 141% from the previous year. Business turnover for the year totaled US$58 million, up by 46.52% from the previous year.

Foreign investment

The foreign direct investment which was materialized during the year stood at US$20 million, down by 42.26% from 2004.

Social Undertakings

Science and technology

A state-level engineering research center was set up during the year. A total of 1,877 technological contracts were signed, they were valued at 1.72 billion yuan. The two figures were respectively 14.03% and 43.81% up from 2004.

Education

The number of students enrolled in institutes of higher learning, and postgraduate schools during the year stood at 71,600 and 6,100 respectively.

Culture

By the end of 2005, the province had a total of 76 arts performance organizations, 100 cultural and arts centers, 92 public libraries, 69 museums, 5 radio stations and 12 television stations. The number of Cable TV program subscribers reached 1.73 million, up by 5.81% from 2004.

Public health

At the end of the year, there were 11,855 public health institutions, including 103 epidemic prevention and treatment centers (or stations), staffed with a work force of 82,680 people and equipped with 59,935 beds.

Sports

The athletes from the province won 39 prizes.

Welfare and aid

Welfare units across the province are equipped with 7,991 beds and put up 4,716 homeless and vagrant people during the year. 1,670 urban community service facilities were set up. Public donations totaled 8.04 million yuan.

Population, Employment, Social Security and Living Standards

Population

The year 2005 saw a birth rate of 12.59‰, and a death rate of 6.57‰ in the province. The natural growth rate of the population stood at 6.02‰. At the end of the year, the total population with permanent residence stood at 25.944 million.

Employment

A total of 13,100 laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises got re-employed during the year. By the end of the year, 13.914 million of the province's population with permanent residence were employed.

Registered unemployment rate

The registered urban unemployment rate was 3.26%, down by 0.14 percentage points from the previous year.

Social security

In 2005, insurance plans for unemployment and medical treatment covered a population of 1.60 million and 1.766 million respectively. About 680,400 residents received minimum living allowances from the government, an increase of 11.54% from 2004.

Residents' income

The disposable income of urban residents was 8,087 yuan per capita, up by 9.63% from 2004. Rural residents' per capita net income was 1,980 yuan, up 6.9%.

Geography and Natural Conditions

Elevation extremes

1,000-3,000 meters.

Natural resources

Land
Gansu features a land area of 455,000 sq km, including 4.54 million ha of cultivated land at the end of 2004. In 2004, some 4,500 ha of wasteland were reclaimed, and about 153,800 hectares of farmland were converted for forestry and pasture.

Minerals
Nearly 3,000 deposits of 145 kinds of minerals have been found and the reserves of 94 kinds of minerals have been ascertained, including nickel, cobalt, platinum family elements, selenium, casting clay, finishing serpentine, and five other minerals whose reserves are the largest in the country. Gansu has special advantages in tapping 15 kinds of minerals such as nickel, zinc, cobalt, platinum, iridium, copper, stibium, barite, and baudisserite.

Energy
The water resources in Gansu are mainly distributed in nine river systems in the Yellow, Yangtze, and inland river drainage basins with an annual discharge of 61.4 billion cubic meters and a combined hydropower potential of 17.24 million kw. Gansu places ninth among China's provinces and autonomous regions in terms of hydropower potential. To date, 29 hydropower stations have been constructed in the province with an installed generating capacity of 30 million kw and an annual output of 23.565 billion kwh. The Liujiaxia, Yanguoxia, and Bapanxia hydropower stations on the upper reaches of the Yellow River and the Bikou Hydropower Station on the Bailong River have a total installed capacity of 2.125 million kw. The proved reserves of coal are 8.92 billion tons, and those of petroleum, between 600 and 700 million tons. There is also a considerable potential for the development of wind and solar energies.

Animals and plants
There are 659 species of wild animals, including the giant panda, snub-nosed monkey, antelope, snow leopard, deer, fawn, musk deer, bactrian (two-humped) camel, and 24 other first-class rare animals under state protection, and 441 species of birds in Gansu Province. There are over 4,000 species of wild plants including 951 species of medical value. Among the plants of medical value, 450 species, such as angelica root, rhubarb, hairy asiabell root, licorice root, fritillary bulb, mariajuana, the bark of eucommia, glossy ganoderma, and Chinese caterpillar fungus, have been developed. Gansu holds second place among China's provinces and autonomous regions in the variety of medicinal herbs.

By the end of 2005, the province had established 54 nature reserves.