Shanxi Party chief says central authorities guiding progress

The Shanxi Party chief Lin Wu attributed the remarkable achievements in socioeconomic development that the northern province has made over the past decade to its earnest application of instructions from central authorities and its pragmatic adaptation of those instructions to the actual conditions of the province.

On Wednesday morning at a news conference examining Shanxi's development since 2012, held in the provincial capital Taiyuan, Lin spoke of the three visits to the province in June 2017, May 2020 and January this year as milestones that inspired them all to work hard in the pursuit of high-quality development.

Xi urged to explore a new development path characterized by advanced industry, good returns, quality and sustainability, the province has left no stone unturned in pushing the envelope of growth.

The last decade has marked a major turning point in the province's development, as its coal-based economy is still a key driver and accounting for 29.2 percent of national coal production last year.

Shanxi's gross domestic product went up by 9.1 percent last year, making it the third-fastest of all provincial-level regions, despite the grave impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 2 percent of the growth was coal related, with the rest coming from the green, efficient and innovative economic drivers the province has gone all out to cultivate.

Shanxi has been able to attract 365 high-tech enterprises, start three national research platforms and encourage 1,400 researchers and professionals to settle there by making improvements to its business environment and government services.

The provincial economy grew by 5.2 percent in the first half of the year, more than double the national average of 2.5 percent, which not only benefits residents but also lays the foundations for bidding farewell to its former dependency on easy money from resources.

The quality of its air and water has improved significantly with an average of 266,000 hectares of forest planted each year since 2012, and Shanxi produces 34.46 percent of its electricity from wind, solar energy and other non-fossil sources. These changes were key in attracting 39.9 million tourists to the province's numerous and well-protected historical sites last year, at a time when national tourism was hit hard by the outbreaks of COVID - 19.

In the past 10 years, Shanxi's GDP has gone from 1.17 trillion yuan to 2.26 trillion yuan, and the average disposable income has gone from 20,232 yuan to 37,433 yuan for urban residents and from 7,064 yuan to 15,308 yuan for rural residents. There are some 3.29 million rural residents who have been lifted out of poverty.

Shanxi civil servants have learned a lot from the province's previous systematic landslide of corruption and become more capable and more devoted to their duties. A clean and honest government is an important part of the transformation of Shanxi to ensure that people are first in the province. Lin said that the people are united and ready to make new breakthroughs in the development of their province, despite the scars left by the old growth model.