Green growth is also factored into regional planning
An employee works on an assembly line at LCFC (Hefei) Electronics Technology on March 5, 2020. (ZHOU MU / XINHUA)
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.
When people think of regions in China leading the development of high-end technologies, the country's developed coastal areas such as Guangdong province and Shanghai are usually the first places that will come to mind.
However, if they visit the Anhui Innovation Center in Hefei, they will be surprised to see that Anhui has leaped forward in terms of technological innovation and is even spearheading advancement in some sectors, as the country steps up efforts to promote the rise of the central region.
Scientific projects like the Steady High Magnetic Field Facility and products such as the nuclear fusion device "artificial minisun", quantum chips and unmanned early warning aircraft are among more than 1,100 cutting-edge technology exhibits at the center.
Rather than being brought in from other parts of the country, all of them were developed in the inland province. Late last month, Anhui managed to have all of its 31 less developed county-level areas－almost one-third of its total county count－taken off the national poverty list.
"As Anhui made an all-out effort to make breakthroughs in key technologies in recent years, the province has made a large number of original technical innovations and is a pioneer in research on quantum science, artificial intelligence and hypersonic technology in the country," said Li Jinbin, Party chief of Anhui.
Last year, the number of high-tech enterprises in the province increased by 1,200 and value added in high-tech industry increased by 18.8 percent. The average ownership of invention patents in the province has also reached 11.7 patents per 10,000 people, according to the Anhui provincial government.
The province has especially stood out for its efforts in developing the chip industry as the country endeavors to be self-reliant on key technologies and lessen its dependence on microprocessors from overseas.
On May 8, ChangXin Memory Technologies entered a new phase with an investment of 33.3 billion yuan (US$4.69 billion) and broke ground for construction in Hefei, Anhui's provincial capital. Founded in the city in 2016, the company specializes in dynamic random access memory chips and will amass a total investment of 220 billion yuan.
"The chip industry is a high-tech industry. It's also an industry with high barriers to entry," said Zhu Yiming, the company's chairman. "Only when we have the core technologies can we reduce reliance on foreign products."
ChangXin was one of the earliest integrated circuit companies to invest in Hefei. "The city has now formed an integrated circuit industry cluster, which includes 253 companies," said Zhu Shengli, director of the Hefei development and reform commission.
The province is just a microcosm of efforts from local governments in the central region. Along with five other provinces including Hubei and Jiangxi, Anhui is focused on promoting high-quality green development as the country rolls out an ambitious plan on the rise of the central region.
Unveiled in 2016 by the State Council, the plan outlined building the region as an important and advanced national manufacturing center, and also a model region in ecological conservation from 2016 to 2025.
Jiangxi has also made great achievements in transforming its industrial sector and promoting high-tech development.
Investment in the technical transformation of the province's industrial sector increased by 45.6 percent last year.
Meanwhile, value added in high-tech industries covered 36.1 percent of the total generated by large industrial enterprises, up by 2.3 percentage points year-on-year.
When Jiangxi's governor Yi Lianhong delivered the work report of the provincial government in January, he said the province also saw value added in emerging sectors of strategic importance increase by 4.1 percentage points to 21.2 percent of the total for large industrial enterprises.
"The province has made marked progress in high-quality development," he said.
Since the term "rise of the central region" first appeared in the Government Work Report delivered by then premier Wen Jiabao in 2004, the country's central leadership has attached increasingly greater importance to the term.
While presiding over a work symposium on the rise of the central region in May last year, President Xi Jinping called for efforts to enhance the comprehensive strength and competitiveness of the country's central region and to make new advances in the rise of the region.
He made an eight-point instruction on the development of the region, which consisted of facilitating high-quality growth in the manufacturing industry, enhancing innovation capability in key fields, improving the business environment, undertaking the planning and transfer of emerging industries, expanding high-level opening-up, sticking to green development, improving people's livelihoods, and optimizing policies and institutions.
As the region forges ahead in its rise, green development has been integrated into the governing strategies of local governments, even in areas that have just been lifted out of poverty and require industrial development to boost their economies.
"As long as a project has environmental hazards, we will say no to it without even holding any discussions," said Jiang Chunsheng, county head of Yuexi in Anhui.
Jiang said the county will not even give the green light to wind power generation projects－generally regarded as environmentally friendly－because the construction of roads will be needed in such projects.
As discovered in one project more than a decade ago, new road construction to move windmills and other facilities may cause damage to vegetation in many mountainous areas.
"Investment from a single wind power generation project can be more than 1 billion yuan, or even 2 billion yuan. But we suffered damage to our ecological system in the previous project, so we will never bring in such a project again," he said.
Xia Mingfu, county head of Xinxian in Henan province, also said ecological protection is the top concern of the county government when it seeks investment.
With forest coverage rates of more than 76 percent, both Xinxian and Yuexi managed to be taken off the national list of poverty-stricken areas in 2018.
Industrial projects brought into the counties should be in line with their green development path. "First of all, they cannot be in conflict with ecological protection. Nor can they be energy intensive," Xia said.
The Xinxian county government has recently declined a steel project that was expected to bring in fiscal revenue of 80 to 100 million yuan.
"We insist on carrying out ecological assessment for any development project. If they fail the assessment, we would rather not take it," he said.
The county has also been stepping up efforts to make full use of its superior ecological environment while protecting it.
Aside from establishing a center to help promote local agricultural products on the internet, the county government has introduced a guideline to help promote the development of agriculture with local characteristics.
Loan guarantees and subsidized loans are offered to farmers to facilitate the development of agritourism and local produce including camellia oil and tea.
"Xinxian's green resources are gifts from nature. We have a responsibility to protect them as we use them," Xia said.
"Though we may fail to bring in some industrial projects because of environmental concerns, I believe we will ultimately benefit from this green development path."
Time line
March 2004
The goal of "the rise of central region" first appears in the Government Work Report delivered by then premier Wen Jiabao.
April 2006
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council make public a detailed guideline on promoting development of the central region.
April 2007
An office is established in the National Development and Reform Commission to promote the central region.
September 2009
A State Council executive meeting presided over by then premier Wen Jiabao adopts a plan to promote development of the central region, setting goals of building the region into a national grain production base, an energy raw material base, a modern equipment manufacturing and high-tech industrial base, and an integrated transportation hub.
December 2016
A State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang approves an upgraded 2016-25 plan. The meeting details major tasks of the plan including guiding the transfer of industries from more developed coastal regions to inland central regions.
May 21, 2019
President Xi Jinping presides over a work symposium on the rise of the central region and delivers a speech in Jiangxi's provincial capital Nanchang. He calls for efforts to enhance the competitiveness of the country's central region and to make new advances on its rise.
Zhu Lixin in Hefei contributed to the story.
