Money raised by the Zhuhai government to run the city in 2020 exceeded 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) for the first time -- ranking fifth in Guangdong Province -- the Zhuhai Finance Bureau announced Jan 12.

Revenue for the General Public Budget alone totaled 37.91 billion yuan ($5.85 billion) last year, the only double-digit growth in the province at 10.1 percent. This compares to a rise of 5.4 percent to 33.1 billion yuan ($4.9 billion) of the prior year. Zhuhai's budget growth rate has been in first place in Guangdong since last August.

After the pandemic outbreak, Zhuhai financial authorities allocated 4.5 billion yuan ($695 million) to ease the burden on COVID-19 patients, supply anti-epidemic materials, and help enterprises resume production. Local tax revenue has been growing since June.

Construction of local major projects, such as the Jitimen Grand Bridge shown here, advanced smoothly with municipal financial support [Photo courtesy WeChat account: zhuhaifabu] 

To shore up the economy, city taxes and fees were lowered by 10.87 billion yuan ($1.68 billion) from January to November. And, State-owned assets and resources were used to support major projects. In addition to a record-breaking new bond of 11.33 billion yuan ($1.75 billion), the Finance Bureau procured 1.21 billion yuan ($187 million) in special anti-epidemic national debt and 127 million yuan ($20 million) in extraordinary transfer funds.

Last year, Zhuhai earmarked 10.17 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) for government invested projects, a year-on-year increase of 81 percent. Construction of the Xianghai Bridge, Jinqin and Xingye express roads, Zhuhai (Jinwan) Airport expansion, and Airport Urban Rail Transit thus proceeded smoothly.

City authorities cut by more than 60 percent non-key and non-rigid expenditures on overseas business trips, training, and conferences in 2020. Spending on new government vehicles and use, other overseas travel, and official receptions of municipal administrative institutions dropped 17.4 percent from 2019.

General Public Budget expenditures, however, grew by 11.6 percent to 68.69 billion yuan ($10.6 billion) in 2020. Of that, 47.04 billion yuan ($7.26 billion) was for local livelihood items including education, social insurance, employment, and health -- up 7.9 percent from the previous year.