It would seem that, in Guangdong at least, salary growth won’t match GDP growth. Not good news considering all the talk of inflation, and I don’t see why this phenomenon would be limited to Guangdong. This is from Nanfang Daily:
居民收入为何涨不过GDP？市发改委主任潘建国：这是体制问题
Why won’t residents’ incomes rise higher than GDP? Chairman of the Municipal Reform and Development Commission Pan Jianguo: This is a systemic problem
市发改委主任潘建国解释这是体制问题，广州正在建立工资正常增长机制
Chairman of the Municipal Reform and Development Director explains that it’s a systemic problem, Guangzhou is establishing a system for regular increases in salaries.
2008广州两会
2008 Guangzhou “Two Conferences”
“在今年的经济和社会发展预期目标中，为什么居民收入的增速低于GDP的增速？”在昨天的人大分组讨论中，频频有代表向广州市发改委主任潘建国发问。潘建国解释，广州在三年前就注意到了分配格局不合理的问题，目前广州财政局已经在研究公务员的工资正常增长体制。
“Among this year’s expected objectives for economic and social development, why is the speed of increase for residents’ income lower than that of GDP?” representatives in yesterday’s People’s Congress group discussions repeatedly asked Guangzhou Municipal Reform and Development Commission Director Pan Jianguo. Pan Jianguo explained, three years ago Guangzhou noticed the problem of the unreasonable pattern of distribution, and currently Guangzhou Department of Finance is already researching a system for regular increases of civil servants’ salaries.
城乡收入差距可能扩大
Urban-rural income gap likely to grow
在昨天的人大分组讨论中，广州市发改委主任潘建国也是荔湾区代表团的第一组成员，因此代表们在审议计划报告时十分活跃。
In yesterday’s People’s Congress group discussions, Guangzhou Municipal Reform and Development Commission Director Pan Jianguo was also the first member of the Liwan District delegation, and so the representatives were fully active in their deliberation of the planning report.
王跃林代表首先发问：“潘主任，在今年的经济和社会发展预期目标中，为什么居民人均收入的增速低于GDP的增速？城市居民人均可支配收入10％的增速会不会太低了？”
Representative Wang Yuelin first asked: “Director Pan, among this year’s expected objectives for economic and social development, why is the rate of increase of residents’ per capita income lower than that of GDP? Won’t the 10% increase in city residents’ disposable incomes be too low?”
统计显示，去年广州市城市居民人均可支配收入增长13.2％，农村居民人均纯收入增长10.6％，分别低于GDP增速1.3个和3.9个百分点，城乡居民收入差距由上年的2.55：1变为2.61：1。
Statistics show that last year per capita disposable income of Guangzhou urban residents grew by 13.2% while rural residents’ per capita disposable income grew by 10.6%, the difference being 1.3 and 3.9 percentage points lower than GDP growth, the gap between urban and rural residents income changing from last year’s 2.55:1 to 2.61:1.
容小梨代表也提出，今年城市居民人均可支配收入的预期目标是增长10％，而农村居民人均纯收入的预期目标是增长9％，这势必造成城乡收入差距进一步扩大，发改委在这些指标上的制定，是不是应该对农村居民有所倾斜。
Representative Rong Xiaoli also pointed out, this year’s expected goal for increase in per capita disposable incomes for urban residents is 10%, while the expected goal for increase in rural residents’ net income is 9%, and this is bound to cause the urban-rural income gap to widen further. In drawing up these targets, shouldn’t the Reform and Development Commission lean towards the rural residents somewhat?
正在研究公务员工资增长体制
Currently invesitgating a system for regular increases in civil servants’ salaries
潘建国承认，目前广州的GDP、财政收入和城乡居民收入的增长速度的确存在不匹配的现象。“从经济学的角度来说，这三者之间应该有一个合适的比例，但现在 从国家到省市，这三个数字的增长都不相匹配。比如近五年来，广州的GDP年均增长14.5％，财政收入年均增长17.6％，但城市居民收入的增速为 10.9％，农村居民收入的增速更是只有8.1％，城乡收入差距还呈现拉大的趋势。”
Pan Jianguo acknowledged that the current growth in Guangzhou’s GDP and fiscal revenue, and and urban and rural residents’ incomes are quite distinct phenomena. “From the point of view of economics, these three should all be in suitable proportion, but now, from the national down to the provincial and municipal levels, the rates of increase of these three figures all fail to match. For example, over the last 5 years, Guangzhou’s GDP per annum has grown by 14.5%, fiscal revenue has grown by 17.6% per annum, but urban residents’ income growth has been 10.9% and rural residents’ income growth has been a mere 8.1%, and the gap between urban and rural incomes still seems to be increasing.
潘建国认为，这主要是现在的初次分配和再分配存在体制上和实际操作上的不合理，广州在三年前就已经注意到了这个问题，但这是体制上的问题，也是全国性的问题，并非地方的行政手段可以解决的。而发改委在制定预期目标的时候，也要考虑到这些客观存在的因素。
Pan Jianguo believes what is important is that the currently existing system for primary suballocation and reallocation and actual operation are unreasonable. Guangzhou already noticed this problem three years ago, but this systemic problem is also a problem at the national level, and can’t be solved by local methods. And when the Development and Reform Commission was drawing up the expected goals, it also had to consider these objective factors.
[note: what the hell is this about: 这主要是现在的初次分配和再分配存在体制上和实际操作上的不合理????]
“十七大的报告明确了要改革收入分配制度，现在从中央到地方都在努力调整分配格局。”潘建国说，“今年广州市政府工作报告中，就提出要着力改善收入分配关系，加快建立健全包括公务员、事业单位和各类企业职工在内的工资正常增长机制，提高企业职工最低工资标准。”
“The 17th National people’s Congress very clearly reported that the income distribution system needs to be reformed, and now everybody from the central government to the regions is working hard to revise the distribution system.” Pan Jianguo said, “This year’s Guangzhou Municipal Government Work Report raises the need to work hard to improve income distribution relations, accelerate the establishment of a system of regular salary increases including civil servants and workers of public institutions and every kind of enterprise, and raise the minimum wage for company employees.”
潘建国还透露，目前广州也在逐步采取一些措施，比如市财政局已经在研究公务员的工资正常增长体制，但改革的效应不可能马上显现出来，这需要一定的时间。
Pan Jianguo also revealed that at present Guangzhou is progressively carrying out measures, for example, the Municipal Bureau of Finance is already investigating a system for regular salary increases for civil servants, but the effects of reform would not be immediately apparent, this would take some time.
This is followed up with a table setting out increases in urban residents’ per capita disposable income, rural residents’ per capita net income, GDP and fiscal revenue for 2007 with their projections for 2008.
And really, please, if you spot any mistakes are find any way I could improve my translation, tell me. So long as your criticism is constructive and helpful, I will be happy and grateful. This is done as a language learning exercise, after all.
Oh, and like all language learning exercises, this is x-posted to my much-neglected Chinese study blog.
