More than 80 percent of Shenzhen citizens are satisfied with the city's environment, according to a blue paper published by the city's institute of social sciences Monday (May 10).

The blue paper details the city's development, providing statistics and analysis for the year 2003.

The city began publishing a blue paper on its comprehensive development last year.

The paper addresses various issues involving economic and social development and has been welcomed as an investment guide. It is a joint effort by more than 60 renowned experts.

Environment

The paper says 30 percent of the 5,507 surveyed are very satisfied with the environment and more than 58 percent are satisfied with the city's environment.

Low Gini Coefficient

Shenzhen Gini Coefficient for 2003 was 0.32, indicating reasonable income equality in the city.

The Gini Coefficient remained below 0.3 from 1995 to 2002, and last year's slight increase marked reasonable income equality, the paper said.

According to the World Bank, a Gini Coefficient between 0.3 to 0.4 indicates comparatively reasonable income equality.

The Gini Coefficient was developed by the Italian statistician Corrado Gini. It is a measure of income equality in a society. The Gini Coefficient is a figure between 0 and 1, where 0 means perfect equality (everyone has the same income)and 1 means perfect inequality (one person has all the income and everyone else earns nothing).

Anti-corruption

The city's anti-corruption department investigated 168 cases of corruption involving seven leaders at bureau level. More than 190 million yuan (US$22.9 million) was saved by exposing corruption. The blue paper shows that more than 77 percent of citizens are satisfied with the government's anti-corruption work.

Car consumption

There were 23 cars for every 100 families in the city in 2003, up from 19 per hundred the previous year. Experts said Shenzhen's economy was not overheated as the city's fixed assets investment had increased by only 34.8 percent in 2003. But the figure was 71.3 percent in Shanghai and 67.8 percent in Suzhou.

Talents shortage

The city's attraction for graduates declined to No. 4 after Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, down from No. 1 a few years ago. There was a shortage of high-quality talents in information technology, bio-technology and environmental protection, the paper said.

Editor: Catherine