Provincial economy grows in tandem with neighbors’ innovation, success
Age-old ties to nearby trading partners share benefits of nation’s development with eastern China, reports.
iangxi province, in eastern China, has continuously held commerce activities in Hong Kong for 16 years. Under the leadership of Governor Liu Qi, this year’s Jiangxi-Hong Kong economic and trade cooperation conference is held in Hong Kong from June 7 to 9.
Lu Xinshe, the province’s Party chief and its former governor, once attended a ceremony in 2013 to present the flag to Hong Kong media’s Dong jiang River Trip, boosting interactions and understanding be tween Jiangxi and Hong Kong.
Jiangxi has always enjoyed a strong relationship with Hong Kong. Hong Kong has played a crucial role in Jiangxi’s modernization, according to an official.
Jiangxi’s high-quality agricultural and subsidiary products and the source of the Dong jiang River, located in Ganzhou city of Jiangxi, have become the new bond of the province and Hong Kong, helping Hong Kong residents to enjoy Jiangxi’s water and high-quality ecological ingredients every day.
Dong jiang River is one of the four major sources of the Pearl River. China began a major water supply project from Dong jiang River to Shenzhen, a city near Hong Kong, in 1963 and extended it to Hong Kong in 1965.
After several years of renovations, the project could provide up to 2.4 billion cubit meters of water to the region, and 1.1 billion cubic meters to Hong Kong, annually.
Ecological civilization
President Xi Jinping has called for increased efforts to construct an “ecological civilization”. More should be done to institutionalize and regulate environmental issues to speed up green, renewable and low-carbon growth.
Echoing Xi, Jiangxi has developed ecological industries, carried for ward ecological culture and strengthened the local environment — advantages that together make the province greener according to Lu.
The government has improved the air, water and soil quality to make a better, more livable rural environment.
Jiangxi contributed a lot to the protection of the Dong jiang River’s source, boosting the protection and restoration of the ecosystem such as mountains, forests, farmland and lakes.
In 2016, Jiangxi was listed as a model province of Chinese ecological civilization construction because of its healthy environment.
Industrial strength
Jiangxi is also well-known as a hub of the Chinese aerospace industry.
China’s first homegrown large passenger plane, the C919, made its debut flight at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in early May. One-fourth of the plane was made in Jiangxi, and Yaohu Lake Airport — located in the high-technology development zone of Jiangxi’s capital, Nanchang — will be one of the flight-test centers of the C919.
The famous AVIC Changhe Aircraft Industry Corporation, a subsidiary company of AVIC Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, an aircraft manufacturer subordinate to the Aviation Industry Corporation and China Helicopter Research and Development Institute are all located in Jiangxi.
Together, these companies are the sole suppliers of the C919’s forebody, rear fuselage, leading edge slat and trailing flap, forming more than a quarter of the entire completed aircraft.
Ten provincial science and technology projects and 20 innovative industrialization projects are now in operation, making new breakthroughs in information communication, new energy, advanced materials and intelligent manufacturing.
Global industry
The Jiangxi-Beijing Economic Cooperation Forum and Major Projects Signing Ceremony was held in Beijing on March 1.
A total of 68 cooperative projects were signed during the event, with a total investment of 100 billion yuan ($14.7 billion) in technologi- cal innovation, financial services, cultural tourism, business logistics and education.
The provincial Party chief Lu said that Jiangxi welcomes Beijing’s enterprises to visit, observe, study and invest.
“The government will create an effective, fair and transparent business environment and provide thoughtful service to support companies developing in Jiangxi to achieve mutual benefits,” Lu added.
From April 20 to 23, Lu visited Pakistan on invitation, which helped to bring about opportunities for cooperation between Jiangxi and Punjab, the most populous province in Pakistan.
Zhongmei Engineering Group and Zhengbang Group in Jiangxi province signed nine cooperative agreements with Pakistan, valued at $1.4 billion.
Lu said that Jiangxi will continue to focus on design and build industrial platforms to encourage more powerful enterprises to invest in Pakistan.
The province also participated in the Belt and Road Initiative by deepening cooperation with countries and regions along the routes in infrastructure, resource development, manufacturing, agriculture and tourism through projects like the China-Kazakhstan Ganjiang River Industrial Pa r k a n d t h e H u a m e i G r o u p Malaysia Agricultural and Industrial Park.
Cooperating with Fujian province, Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and Wuhan, Hubei province, to gather resources of nodes along the Silk Road on land, the government plans to build Ganzhou and other cities into important stops connecting the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21 st Century Maritime Silk Road, and launch a railway-sea multimodal transportation network.
To strengthen regional cooperation, Jiangxi integrates the Yangtze River and Pearl River delta regions with the Fujian triangle area, and promotes interregional cooperation be tween Ji a n g x i a n d n e a r b y c i t i e s a n d provinces.
Economic growth
Jiangxi’s gross domestic product in 2016 reached 1.8 trillion yuan, increasing 9 percent yearon-year. G eneral financial re venue reached 314.3 billion yuan.
In t h e n o r t h o f Ji a n g x i , t h e government has approved the construction of the Ganjiang New District, uniting some districts of Nanchang and Jiujiang city.
The strategy has significantly facilitated the strategic position and function of Jiangxi in the middle of the Yangtze River,
Lu Xinshe, Jiangxi Party chief Jiangxi’s GDP in 2016
according to officials.
To promote the construction of the Rule L ake core area in Ganjiang New District, Jiangxi is focusing on landmark projects such as a transmodal transportation junction.
The province has given a priority to promoting camera modules and Italy- China industrial park and platforms to enter the new district, cultivating some featured industries and building regional functional headquarter.
The government has supported Nanchang as a new economic pilot by promoting construction of the Optic Valley, Green Valley and Wisdom Sci-tech Park, three major new industrial parks in the province.
They will also promote the opening-up and the development of the area along the Jiujiang River by strengthening environmental protection, developing and utilizing resources along banks, building a shipping center to benefit the province and surrounding areas and strengthening the driving forces behind leading areas.
In the south of Jiangxi, the construction of Ganzhou new energ y automobile technolog y city, China rare-metal valley, and the electronic information industry belt are fastened with the help of policies, which also promote the projects of Dongfeng Motor and China National Machiner y Industr y Corporation, making Ganzhou the provincial sub-central city.
In addition, the government is establishing an electronic information industrial cluster through the establishment of major proje c t s s u c h a s t h e Fu z h o u We s t Coast Logistic Park, the Jitai Corridor in Ji’an city and the Ji’an electronic information industry base.
They plan to begin the construction of the Nanchang-Jingdezhen-Huangshan Railway, continue construction of NanchangGanzhou High Speed Railway and five more projects, to complete the Jiujiang-Jingdezhen-Quzhou High-Speed Railway and WuhanJiujiang High-Speed Railway.
Jiangxi expects gross domestic product to increase 8.5 percent. Fiscal revenue is projected to increase by 5 percent and added value of large-scale industries, 8.8 percent.
To achieve the goal, Jiangxi is promoting 980 large and medium-sized projects and plans to investe a total of 1.4 trillion yuan, through annual investments of 360 billion yuan.
Contact the writer at zhuanti@ chinadaily.com.cn