中国70多县市取消官员GDP考核

More than 70 Chinese smaller cities and counties have dropped gross domestic product as a performance metric for government officials, in a bid to shift the focus to environmental protection and reducing poverty.

超过70个中国较小县（市）不再把国内生产总值(GDP)作为考核政府官员的一项标准，以便将主要精力转向环境保护及减少贫困。

The move, which follows a directive issued by top leaders last year, is among the first concrete signs of China switching its blind pursuit of economic growth at all costs in favour of more quality of life measures, such as protecting the environment and reducing poverty.

中国最高领导层去年发布相关指令后，这一举措是首批迹象之一，显示中国正在转变不惜代价盲目追求经济增长的发展模式，转而更注重保护环境和减少贫困等民生指标。

Analysts say that adherence to GDP as a performance metric – thus linking it to local officials’ promotion – has contributed to environmental degradation and urban sprawl as officials encouraged heavy industry and bulldozed agricultural land for new housing developments.

分析师表示，将地方官员的政绩和晋升与GDP捆绑，导致官员们大力发展重工业，同时为了盖新楼而推平农业用地，从而加剧中国的环境退化和城市蔓延。

“Using GDP as the main assessment method has caused a lot of problems, like unequal income distribution, problems with the social welfare system, and environmental costs,” said Xie Yaxuan, head of macroeconomic analysis at China Merchants Securities in Shenzhen.

深圳招商证券(China Merchants Securities)宏观经济分析主管谢亚轩(Xie Yaxuan)表示：“把GDP作为主要考核方法造成了许多问题，比如收入分配不公、社会福利制度问题、以及环境方面的代价。”

Hebei province, a steelmaking province north of Beijing, and Ningxia, a poor ethnic minority region in the southwest, have all cancelled GDP-based assessment for poor counties and cities, the official Xinhua news has reported in recent months.

官方的新华社近月报道，环绕北京的炼钢大省河北省和西北贫穷的少数民族地区宁夏都取消了对贫困县（市）的GDP考核。

Evaluation will instead be based on raising living standards for poor residents and reducing the number of people living in poverty.

相反，对干部的评估将把提高贫困人口生活水平和减少贫困人口数量作为主要指标。

“We need to look at obvious achievements as well as hidden achievements,” President Xi Jinping told party leaders in June. “We can no longer simply use GDP growth rates to decide who the (party) heroes are.”

今年6月，中国国家主席习近平曾向党内领导人表示：“既看显绩又看潜绩，把民生改善、社会进步、生态效益等指标和实绩作为重要考核内容，再也不能简单以国内生产总值增长率来论英雄了。”

The directive was outlined in a landmark economic reform blueprint released late last year at a key Communist party meeting.

去年末，至关重要的中共十八届三中全会发布了一份里程碑式的改革蓝图，其中提到这一指令。

Fujian province, the coastal province that is a centre of export processing and light manufacturing, announced earlier this month that it would replace GDP with metrics on agricultural development and environmental protection for 34 agriculturally and ecologically important counties.

这个月早些时候，沿海的出口加工业和轻工制造业中心福建省宣布，取消对34个农业和生态重要的县（市）的GDP考核，代之以农业优先和生态保护优先的绩效考评。

It is unclear whether the lessened importance of GDP will spread to larger, richer cities, where powerful patronage networks have developed between government officials and traditional industries that have grown rich on the old growth model.

目前还不清楚这种降低GDP重要性的做法是否会推广到规模更大、更富有的城市。在这些城市里，通过旧的增长模式致富的传统产业与政府官员之间建立了强大的利益网络。

Officials in these cities have built successful careers from on GDP-based evaluation, making it difficult to adjust their policy focus.

这些城市的官员正是通过基于GDP的政绩考核打造成功仕途的，这使得他们很难调整政策焦点。

Zhang Gaoli, who was appointed to China’s elite seven-member Politburo Standing Committee in late 2012, made a name for himself in part by propelling GDP growth in the megacity of Tianjin, south of Beijing.

在一定程度上，在2012年末成为中国最核心的中共中央政治局七名常委之一的张高丽，就是因为推动超大城市天津的GDP增长而成名的。

After Mr Zhang became party secretary in late 2007, Tianjin’s GDP growth averaged 16.1 per cent from 2008 to 2012, up a full percentage point from the previous five-year period, even as China’s overall annual GDP growth slowed sharply to 8.8 per cent in the same period, down from 11.9 per cent in the previous five-year period.

2007年底张高丽担任天津市委书记之后，2008年到2012年间天津市GDP增长率平均达到16.1%，比此前五年高了整整一个百分点。而在同一时期内，中国总体的GDP年增长率从此前五年的11.9%急剧放缓至8.8%。

Mr Zhang boosted growth with massive building projects like the Yujiapu Financial District, a warren of skyscrapers conceived as China’s answer to Manhattan. But today many of the buildings sit virtually empty and growth in Tianjin has slowed this year.

张高丽提升GDP增长率的方法是上马像于家堡金融区这样的大规模建设项目。这个摩天大楼林立的地方被构想成中国版曼哈顿。然而今天那里的许多建筑几乎空置，而天津市今年的增长也已放缓。

Policy loopholes could also hamper efforts to transform China’s growth model. Coal-rich Shanxi province, in central China, has removed GDP growth from the list of assessments but added per-capita GDP. This change could have little impact, as China’s population growth is slow.

政策漏洞也可能妨碍中国转变增长模式的努力。中国中部盛产煤炭的山西省从政绩考核的清单上取消了GDP增速这一项，但增添了人均GDP的指标。由于中国人口增长缓慢，这一调整不会有什么实际影响。