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Green growth heralded by Chinese cities
GDP thrown out in favour of more sensitive measures.
Small Chinese cities steer away from GDP as measure of success.
More than 70 Chinese smaller cities and counties have dropped gross domestic product as a performance guide for government officials, in an effort to shift the focus to environmental protection and reducing poverty.
The move, which follows a directive issued by top leaders last year, is a sign of China switching metrics to encourage a better quality of life.
Adherence to GDP has linked it to local officials’ promotion and contributed to environmental degradation and urban sprawl as officials encouraged heavy industry and bulldozed agricultural land to build housing developments.
The directive was outlined in a landmark economic reform blueprint released late last year at a key Communist party meeting.
"Using GDP as the main assessment method has caused a lot of problems, like unequal income distribution"
It is unclear whether the change will be taken up by larger, richer cities, where powerful patronage networks have developed between government officials and traditional industries that have become rich on the old growth model.
This may well be a herald to other countries to look at more sensitive measures of growth.
The issue may also be a key feature of tourism planning replacing Tourism Satellite Accounts with metrics that fully reflect tourism benefits and debenefits.
Valere Tjolle
@ValereTjolle [email protected]
Valere
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