Shaanxi Sets Sights on diverse future

Lou Qinjian, Party chief of Shaanxi province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China’s Shaanxi province is divided into two by the Qinling Mountains, with the southern part belonging to the Yangtze River basin and the northern part to the Yellow River basin.

Lou Qinjian, governor of Shaanxi, said the province, with a population of nearly 38 million, has a rich history and abundant energy and natural resources.

The capital Xi’an, which lies on the Guanzhong Plain, served as the capital for 13 ancient Chinese dynasties over a period of about 1,100 years.

North Shaanxi houses the tomb of the Yellow Emperor, considered the founder of the Chinese civilization and ancestor of all Chinese people, and Yan’an, the center of China’s Communist Revolution.

The province has a vast amount of coal, oil, natural gas and salt reserves. It leads the nation in oil and gas production and ranks third in raw coal output.

Over the past five years, its GDP has grown at an annual average rate of 11 percent, reaching 1.82 trillion yuan ($276.45 billion), in 2015, ranking 15th nationwide.

The rapid economic development can partly be attributed to improvements in the regional transportation infrastructure. There are 17 national highways passing through Shaanxi and almost 5,000 kilometers in high-speed rail lines to create access to the province’s major cities.

The province also has China’s eighth-largest airport and largest air traffic hub in Northwest China. Last year, Xi’an Xianyang International Airport received 32.8 million passengers. It currently handles 36 direct international flights to Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Moscow and Helsinki.

Shaanxi has, in recent years, upgraded and expanded its energy and chemical industries by establishing a group of advanced projects, such as a program to produce olefin from coal.

Yanchang Petroleum Group and Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group have become Global Fortune 500 companies and a chemical deep processing project in Yulin, with investment support from China National Coal Group through an agreement signed with the provincial government, is the company’s only profitable project in China.

The province is also quickly approving electronic information industry projects.

“Shaanxi is the origin of the TD-SCDMA technology, one of three internationally recognized 3G standards,” Lou said.

In 2012, Samsung Electronics invested $10 billion to set up the world’s most advanced flash memory chip project in Xi’an. The project generated output value of 17 billion yuan last year and has attracted nearly 100 upstream and downstream Chinese and foreign firms to set up branches.

Huawei and ZTE have also built their largest communication R&D centers in Xi’an.

The province’s new-energy auto and aerospace industries have also grown rapidly.

The province ranked second nationwide in the sale of electric vehicles last year and has China’s largest aerospace high-tech industrial base.

“In the coming years, we will highlight some national key aerospace projects such as large planes, manned space flights, lunar exploration and satellite navigation and promote the development of maintenance, passenger transport and logistics in the sector,” Lou said.

The province will also construct the world’s biggest turboprop regional aircraft research and production base, he added.

Shaanxi puts about 80 percent of its total fiscal expenditure and financial resources into projects to improve people’s livelihoods. It has made achievements in the resettlement of residents who are either living in poor conditions or are living in an area that is prone to a natural disaster. During the past five years, more than 1.74 million people in Shaanxi have been resettled.

He said Shaanxi is also an important region of biodiversity in China, with a well-protected ecological environment.

“The province is home to many rare animals including the giant panda, golden monkey, crested ibis and takin, all of which are mainly found in the Qinling Mountains,” Lou said.

The number of crested ibis, an endangered bird species, has increased from seven to more than 2,000 in recent years. Their habitat have also expanded from the Qinling range to border areas among the Guanzhong Plain and the Northern Shaanxi Plateau.

The province’s beautiful natural landscapes and rich history has made it one of the hottest tourist destinations in China. From 2011 to 2015, Shaanxi received 1.4 billion Chinese and overseas tourists and generated over 1 trillion yuan in tourist revenue.

As a national innovation pilot, Shaanxi has strong educational and human resources.

It has about 100 colleges and universities, over 1,000 scientific research institutes, some 1.5 million college students and 64 academicians from the China Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Lou said the province will introduce 13 years of free education during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, giving children in Shaanxi free education for 13 years — one year of preschool, six years of primary school and six years of junior and senior high school.

The province has also recently hosted an increasing number of trade fairs and foreign events.

Last year, for example, a forum for the heads of customs administrations and a tourism ministerial meeting related to the Belt and Road Initiative were held in Xi’an, which was the starting point for the ancient Silk Road that linked China with Central Asia and Europe.

This year, the province hosted the Silk Road International Exposition, or the 20th Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East and West China in May.

The event attracted some 105,000 businessmen and 6,200 companies from China and countries along the route.

Contact the writer at haonan@chinadaily.com.cn