BEIJING: The latest vision set out by President Xi Jinping on revitalizing China’s northeastern region has pointed the way for the area to become a pillar of national strategies and better respond to challenges including population outflows, according to analysts.
Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, outlined the vision for the region’s revitalization while convening a symposium in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, on Thursday. He listened to briefings at the symposium from the Party chiefs of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, as well as from Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Xi presided over a similar symposium in Shenyang, Liaoning province, five years ago. He also chaired a high-level meeting last year in Shenyang on the revitalization of the northeastern region, one of China’s grain production bases and a traditional manufacturing powerhouse that has undergone economic slowdown and seen an outflow of population. Noting that northeastern China boasts rich resources, solid industrial foundations, favorable geological locations and significant development potential, Xi said that the region now faces great new opportunities.
It is important for the region to promote industrial innovation via scientific and technological innovation and accelerate the modernization of its distinctive industrial system, Xi said.
Advancing the Chinese path to modernization will also require the region to step up its role as a strategic pillar, he said. In striving for the full revitalization of northeastern China, the real economy is the foundation, sci-tech innovation is the key and industrial upgrading is the direction, he added. Xi also called on the region to accelerate the digital, online and smart transformation of the traditional manufacturing sector and proactively develop emerging sectors such as new energy, new materials, advanced manufacturing and electronics. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
