Thriving black soil
Heilongjiang strives for revitalization through tech progress
Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province is aiming to make greater efforts to achieve comprehensive revitalization during the 14th FiveYear Plan period (2021-25), the province’s Party secretary Zhang Qingwei said earlier this year.
The province has set goals for 10 new breakthroughs — including industrial development, agricultural modernization and opening-up — it expects to make during the period, he said.
“Heilongjiang will strive to make new breakthroughs in the development of a new industrial system,” he said. “It expects to see the proportion of industry in the provincial GDP rise to 30 percent, and a new industrial structure with balanced development should basically be formed by 2025.”
The province will increase investment in science and technology research and development and focus on core technologies in major fields, with an aim to increase the number of new high-tech enterprises to 5,000 within five years.
“Because we have spent years engaging in market competition with foreign brands, we have deeply felt the power of scientific and technological innovation,” said Leng Youbin, chairman of Feihe Dairy. “We have created a national dairy brand relying on scientific and technological innovation.”
Based in Heilongjiang’s Qiqihar city, Feihe was among the earliest dairy brands in China and has become a domestic leader in infant and toddler formula production.
“Feihe has seen an 18 percent market share in China in recent years,” he said. “Success comes from long-term research on Chinese breast milk, the innovation of infant and toddler formula and the continuous improvement of our production process.”
From 2016 to 2019, Feihe’s investment in research and development had increased over elevenfold, and the company participated in many major national and provincial science and technology projects.
Since 2007, Feihe has invested around 5 billion yuan ($776 million) constructing eight modern farms in Heilongjiang, each with the capability of raising 10,000 cows.
“The superior natural environment in Heilongjiang guarantees Feihe and other food enterprises can develop high-quality products,” he said. “Furthermore, the local government has also continuously increased support for companies’ scientific and technological innovation in recent years with efforts such as issuing a series of policies to encourage enterprises to actively conduct independent innovation.”
During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), there were a total of 500 scientific and technological innovation bases in the province, 70 percent of which were established in enterprises.
Since 2018, the province has recognized and registered 10,618 technology contracts, with a turnover of 58.8 billion yuan.
Heilongjiang is also striving to make new breakthroughs in agricultural modernization, according to Zhang.
Known as China’s grain barn, Heilongjiang boasts the country’s largest plantations of rice, corn and soybeans.
The province produced over 75 million metric tons of grain last year, accounting for 11 percent of the nation’s total.
“The seed industry is the core of agriculture, and Heilongjiang has developed a series of high-quality grain seeds,” said Wang Jinhui, deputy director of the Agriculture and Forestry Committee of the Heilongjiang Provincial People’s Congress. “During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, we mainly focused on three tasks and have made remarkable headway.”
With the application of advanced technology, the province has strengthened independent seed research and development.
It is China’s top breeder of conventional japonica rice, soybean and potato seeds.
All the soybean, rice and wheat planted in the province are independently developed varieties.
With a planting area of 23 million hectares, the annual output of grain seed in the province has reached over 1.4 million tons.
The province has established 16 national-level high-quality seed breeding bases, and there are 430 grain seed enterprises across the province.
“In the 14th Five-Year Plan period, we will continue to strengthen the development of seed breeding research platforms and the application of new breeding techniques, and we will look to draw more seed industry talent,” he said. “Furthermore, we will intensify innovation in agricultural science and technology and make breakthroughs in key agricultural technologies, setting a national example in scientific farming.”
“We will build a modern industrial system and promote the development of agricultural industry chain fusion,” he said. “By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, we expect to see an investment of 650 billion yuan in agricultural projects.”
The province will establish the largescale industrial cluster of deeply processed agricultural produce such as highquality rice and realize the optimization of the agricultural industry, driving the development of the rural economy and promoting the farmers’ incomes.
Party Secretary Zhang also mentioned that the province “is striving to make new breakthroughs in deepening reform and opening-up”.
“We should identify the position and comparative advantage of shaping the new development structure, speed up institutional innovation and create a market-oriented, law-based and international business environment,” he said. “We will deepen our integration into the Belt and Road Initiative, promote all-around opening-up and cooperation with Russia, and strive to build an important window for China’s opening-up to the north.”
Zhang Zhixiang, chairman of Jianlong Group, a Beijing-based heavy industry enterprise, said: “Looking back on the layout and development of Jianlong Group in Heilongjiang’s steel industry over the years, we have benefited from the province’s efforts to optimize its business environment.”
In 2003, the group invested in the construction of Heilongjiang Jianlong Iron and Steel Co in Shuangyashan city after the central government made the decision to revitalize the aging industrial bases in Northeast China.
So far, the group has invested 32 billion yuan in Heilongjiang. It has achieved 269.8 billion yuan in sales revenue and has paid 6.7 billion yuan in taxes, effectively promoting the transformation and upgrading of long-established industrial enterprises.
In 2019, the government issued the Regulations of Heilongjiang Province on Optimizing the Business Environment, marking a more law-based construction of the local business environment.
“Policies, including improving services and simplifying the process of administrative review and approval, have greatly increased the convenience of government services and have solved many problems that have hampered the development of enterprises,” Zhang Zhixiang said. “Jianlong Group will strive to achieve the goal to reach steel output of more than 10 million tons and sales revenue of more than 100 billion yuan by 2023.”
Zhang Qingwei, the provincial Party chief, said: “We will adhere to the system concept while fully implementing the provincial 14th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development. The province will strive to achieve a new victory in the province’s modern construction and see new breakthroughs in innovation-driven development, ecological civilization construction, regional coordinated development between urban and rural areas and social civilization. It will also aim for improvement in people’s livelihoods and social governance.”