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Gansu galloping ahead with economic breakthroughs

China Daily Updated: 2022-03-11

Province invests in social care, alleviation of poverty, education, agriculture and ecology

An aerial view of Lanzhou Beilin Museum, a tourist attraction that collects and displays calligraphy and cultures of the Yellow River and the Silk Road. [Photo/China Daily]

With constant efforts to promote high-quality development, Northwest China's Gansu province achieved economic growth breakthroughs in 2021.

Official data show that Gansu's GDP reached 1.02 trillion yuan ($161.47 billion) and the general public budget revenue exceeded 100 billion yuan last year, representing historic achievements in the province's social and economic development.

Gansu has fulfilled its social economic tasks and realized a good start to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), according to local officials.

In 2021, the added value from enterprises with an annual operating revenue of at least 20 million yuan increased by 8.9 percent and fixed-asset investment increased by 11.1 percent. The per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents reached 36,190 yuan and 11,400 yuan respectively. Meanwhile, the total grain output reached 12.32 million metric tons, an increase of 2.43 percent, outperforming the established target.

Last year, the expenditure on people's livelihoods reached 320.61 billion yuan, accounting for 80 percent of the total general public budget, as part of the efforts to improve people's well-being. The province created 332,500 job opportunities and held vocational training for more than 1 million people. It helped 5.28 million laborers acquire jobs in downtown areas, with 1.99 million of them escaping poverty.

The minimum living standard cost of urban and rural residents reached 7,476 yuan and 4,788 yuan per capita respectively. The province constructed a total of 100 service centers for elder care and revamped 2,126 communities, benefiting 177,000 households.

The Maqu Wetland at Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture demonstrates a sound ecological protection effort. [Photo/China Daily]

In terms of education, the province conducted projects to improve 2,886 schools in charge of nine-year compulsory education, benefiting 1.56 million students. It has also built two vocational education colleges.

Focused on driving development by industries, Gansu has accelerated the establishment of a modern industrial system which also helps energize traditional sectors.

Last year, Gansu added 142 new high-tech businesses and designated 234 companies as high-tech innovative ones at provincial level. It had 12 companies listed as national "little giants"-companies that focus on a market niche and master key technologies with a strong innovation capacity and a big market share-by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The province's investment in high-tech manufacturing increased by 39.7 percent.

Moreover, the province deployed the 5G network across its major cities and counties. Social consumption progressed due to the burgeoning development of e-commerce, live commerce and non-contact deliveries. Last year, the amount of online sales increased by 24.8 percent.

With an aim of coordinating the development of urban and rural areas, Gansu has enhanced attention on the rural vitalization and development of new urbanization.

In order to consolidate and expand the achievements made in poverty alleviation, the province helped turn 2,259 workshops used for battling poverty into factories to create more job opportunities in rural areas last year.

Herders move horses at the foot of the Qilian Mountains in Northwest China's Gansu province. [Photo/China Daily]

In the wake of the rural vitalization, the province launched a three-year action plan in 2021, aiming to produce more competitive agriculture. Last year, Gansu welcomed 139 agricultural giants and had six demonstration parks of rural industrial integration development rated at national level. It also launched 61 provincial-level modern agricultural industrial parks.

Located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River in Northwest China, Gansu has been giving ecological and environmental protection priority. The province has signed cooperation agreements with Shaanxi and Qinghai provinces and the Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions-which are all along the Yellow River to improve the river environment.

Last year, the government found a total of 4,723 problems in its environmental protection actions, and had 96.8 percent of them fixed. It built 229,000 hectares of forests and completed treatment to more than 141,000 hectares of arid land and 274,000 hectares of grassland.

In response to the goals of peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060, Gansu established related mechanisms. Last year, a total of 19 local electric companies entered the national carbon trading market.

In addition, the province has taken an active role in establishing a new development pattern. Efforts have been made in fields including business environment improvement and financial support for the small and medium-sized enterprises, aiming to achieve a higher level of opening-up, according to the provincial government.