BEIJING: As one of the engines driving China’s economic growth, Jiangsu Province holds great significance in constructing a Chinese path to modernization. The important features of Chinese modernization goals are widely and vividly reflected in Jiangsu.
In 2014, 2017 and 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected Jiangsu three times and drew a grand blueprint of a strong economy, affluent people, a beautiful environment and a highly civilized society for the province.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi has conducted in-depth inspections in Jiangsu’s Zhenjiang, Nanjing, Xuzhou, Nantong and other places, and devoted a lot of efforts to the economic and social development of Jiangsu, a hot land of reform and opening-up. China has been comprehensively pursuing modernization. It has coordinated material and cultural-ethical progress, promoted economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development, and adhered to a new development philosophy that highlights innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and sharing.
Jiangsu has always been at the forefront of modernization construction. In the past decade, Jiangsu continued advancing its construction and laid a solid foundation for striving to write a new chapter in the construction of modernization.
While inspecting Jiangsu in 2014, Xi said innovation-driven development must rely on realizing the sustainable and healthy growth of China’s economy, adding that it is necessary to further promote the close integration of technology and the economy and increase the contribution of scientific and technological progress to economic growth.
In 2022, Jiangsu’s GDP reached 12.28 trillion yuan ($1.77 trillion), a 2.8-percent increase over the previous year, and its economic output accounted for 10.2 percent of the country’s total.
Jiangsu’s foreign investment in actual use reached $30.5 billion in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 5.7 percent, ranking first in the country. The province approved an additional 35 regional headquarters and functional institutions of multi-national corporations, bringing the total to 366.
As the key to economic transformation and development is to apply the new development philosophy and follow a development path featuring increased productivity, prosperous life and a sound ecological environment, Jiangsu improves the modernization level of ecological and environmental governance and realizes the positive interaction between high-level protection and high-quality development.
The annual average concentration of PM2.5 in Jiangsu continued to fall in 2021, recording drops for eight consecutive years. The water quality of Taihu Lake has been the best in the past 10 years, and the water quality of the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River is reaching an excellent level. By implementing a 10-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River, Jiangsu has made solid progress in ecological conservation and promoted the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item