8 | Monday, May 25, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY TWO SESSIONS Strength within: Central Region Editor's Note: With this year’s two sessions underway — the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference — China Daily toured China to gather a series of stories focusing on the achievements and blueprints in various regions. They show how different regions find their own special strengths to achieve sustained economic development and integrated growth. Shanxi Leaping ahead with Promoting the rise of the Henan central region is an important strategic decision made by high­tech advances CENTRAL REGION the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Green growth is also factored into regional planning Anhui It is a crucial step toward completing the process of By HOU LIQIANG Time line ship has attached increasingly greater Hubei [email protected] importance to the term. building a moderately While presiding over a work symposium prosperous society in all When people think of regions in China March 2004 on the rise of the central region in May last Jiangxi Hunan respects and realizing leading the development of high­end tech­ The goal of “the rise year, President Xi Jinping called for efforts nologies, the country’s developed coastal of central region” to enhance the comprehensive strength socialist modernization.” areas such as Guangdong province and first appears in the and competitiveness of the country’s cen­ Shanghai are usually the first places that Government Work tral region and to make new advances in President Xi Jinping at a work will come to mind. Report delivered by the rise of the region. Permanent residents symposium held in Nanchang, However, if they visit the Anhui Innova­ then premier Wen He made an eight­point instruction on Unit: million capital of Jiangxi province, tion Center in Hefei, they will be surprised Jiabao. the development of the region, which con­ to see that Anhui has leaped forward in sisted of facilitating high­quality growth in 2019 372.46 on May 21 last year terms of technological innovation and is April 2006 the manufacturing industry, enhancing 2018 371.11 even spearheading advancement in some The Central Commit­ innovation capability in key fields, improv­ 2017 369 sectors, as the country steps up efforts to tee of the Commu­ ing the business environment, undertaking 2016 367.09 promote the rise of the central region. nist Party of China the planning and transfer of emerging 2015 364.89 Scientific projects like the Steady High and the State Coun­ industries, expanding high­level opening­ Magnetic Field Facility and products such cil make public a up, sticking to green development, improv­ as the nuclear fusion device “artificial min­ detailed guideline on ing people’s livelihoods, and optimizing isun”, quantum chips and unmanned early promoting develop­ policies and institutions. warning aircraft are among more than ment of the central As the region forges ahead in its rise, 1,100 cutting­edge technology exhibits at region. green development has been integrated the center. into the governing strategies of local gov­ Rather than being brought in from other April 2007 ernments, even in areas that have just parts of the country, all of them were devel­ An office is estab­ been lifted out of poverty and require oped in the inland province. Late last lished in the National industrial development to boost their month, Anhui managed to have all of its 31 Development and economies. less developed county­level areas — almost Reform Commission “As long as a project has environmental one­third of its total county count — taken to promote the cen­ hazards, we will say no to it without even Population off the national poverty list. tral region. holding any discussions,” said Jiang Chun­ Urban Rural “As Anhui made an all­out effort to make sheng, county head of Yuexi in Anhui. breakthroughs in key technologies in September 2009 Jiang said the county will not even give Unit: million Unit: million recent years, the province has made a large A State Council exec­ the green light to wind power generation 206.35 2018 164.76 number of original technical innovations utive meeting presid­ projects — generally regarded as environ­ 200.35 2017 168.65 and is a pioneer in research on quantum ed over by then mentally friendly — because the construc­ 193.7 2016 173.39 science, artificial intelligence and hyper­ premier Wen Jiabao tion of roads will be needed in such 186.96 2015 177.93 sonic technology in the country,” said Li adopts a plan to pro­ projects. 180.56 2014 182.06 Jinbin, Party chief of Anhui. mote development of As discovered in one project more than a Last year, the number of high­tech enter­ the central region, decade ago, new road construction to move prises in the province increased by 1,200 setting goals of windmills and other facilities may cause and value added in high­tech industry building the region damage to vegetation in many mountain­ increased by 18.8 percent. The average into a national grain ous areas. ownership of invention patents in the prov­ production base, an “Investment from a single wind power ince has also reached 11.7 patents per energy raw material generation project can be more than 1 bil­ 10,000 people, according to the Anhui pro­ base, a modern lion yuan, or even 2 billion yuan. But we vincial government. equipment manufac­ suffered damage to our ecological system in The province has especially stood out turing and high­tech the previous project, so we will never bring for its efforts in developing the chip indus­ industrial base, and in such a project again,” he said. try as the country endeavors to be self­reli­ an integrated trans­ Xia Mingfu, county head of Xinxian in ant on key technologies and lessen its portation hub. Henan province, also said ecological pro­ dependence on microprocessors from tection is the top concern of the county gov­ Provincial GDP (2019) Unit: billion yuan overseas. December 2016 ernment when it seeks investment. On May 8, ChangXin Memory Technolo­ A State Council exec­ With forest coverage rates of more than gies entered a new phase with an invest­ utive meeting presid­ 5,425.92 3,975.212 4,582.831 3,711.4 1,702.668 2,475.75 76 percent, both Xinxian and Yuexi man­ ment of 33.3 billion yuan ($4.69 billion) ed over by Premier Li aged to be taken off the national list of pov­ and broke ground for construction in Hefei, Keqiang approves an erty­stricken areas in 2018. Henan Hunan Hubei Anhui Shanxi Jiangxi Anhui’s provincial capital. Founded in the upgraded 2016­25 Industrial projects brought into the city in 2016, the company specializes in plan. The meeting counties should be in line with their green Average per capita GDP Fiscal revenue dynamic random access memory chips and details major tasks of development path. “First of all, they cannot Total GDP will amass a total investment of 220 billion the plan including be in conflict with ecological protection. Unit: yuan Unit: billion yuan Unit: billion yuan yuan. guiding the transfer of Nor can they be energy intensive,” Xia said. “The chip industry is a high­tech indus­ industries from more The Xinxian county government has 58,117 2019 2018 1,256.94 try. It’s also an industry with high barriers developed coastal recently declined a steel project that was to entry,” said Zhu Yiming, the company’s regions to inland cen­ expected to bring in fiscal revenue of 80 to chairman. “Only when we have the core tral regions. 100 million yuan. technologies can we reduce reliance on for­ “We insist on carrying out ecological 53,689 2018 2017 1,121.938 eign products.” May 21, 2019 assessment for any development project. If 21,873.780 ChangXin was one of the earliest inte­ President Xi Jinping they fail the assessment, we would rather 2019 grated circuit companies to invest in Hefei. presides over a work not take it,” he said. “The city has now formed an integrated cir­ symposium on the The county has also been stepping up 47,553 2017 2016 1,019.8 cuit industry cluster, which includes 253 rise of the central efforts to make full use of its superior eco­ companies,” said Zhu Shengli, director of region and delivers a logical environment while protecting it. the Hefei development and reform com­ speech in Jiangxi’s Aside from establishing a center to mission. provincial capital help promote local agricultural products 43,353 2016 2015 1,008.871 The province is just a microcosm of efforts Nanchang. He calls on the internet, the county government from local governments in the central region. for efforts to has introduced a guideline to help pro­ 20,097.308 Along with five other provinces including enhance the com­ mote the development of agriculture 2018 Hubei and Jiangxi, Anhui is focused on pro­ petitiveness of the with local characteristics. 40,029 2015 2014 947.108 moting high­quality green development as country’s central Loan guarantees and subsidized loans the country rolls out an ambitious plan on region and to make are offered to farmers to facilitate the Value added in Value added in the rise of the central region. new advances on its development of agritourism and local primary industries secondary industries Unveiled in 2016 by the State Council, rise. produce including camellia oil and tea. the plan outlined building the region as an “Xinxian’s green resources are gifts from Unit: billion yuan 17,648.661 Unit: billion yuan important and advanced national manu­ nature.