Shaanxi sees stable economic growth in 2018

Northwest China's Shaanxi province maintained steady and sound economic growth in 2018, according to the government work report released by Liu Guozhong, governor of the province, at the second session of the 13th Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress in Xi'an Jan 27.

In 2018, the province's GDP was 2.44 trillion yuan ($354.6 billion), increasing by 8.3 percent year-on-year. Among them, the added value of the primary industry sector was 183.02 billion yuan, increasing by 3.2 percent year-on-year; the added value of the secondary industry sector was 1.22 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.7 percent; and the tertiary industry sector climbed 1.05 trillion yuan, up 8.8 percent year-on-year. The GDP of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were 7.5 percent, 49.7 percent and 42.8 percent respectively. The province's per capita GDP was 63,477 yuan, an increase of 7.5 percent year-on-year.

Shaanxi has sped up the development of characteristic modern agriculture, and 11 provincial agricultural industrial parks were set up in the province in 2018. The total grain output saw an increase of 2.7 percent, and characteristic industries such as tea, fruit, animal husbandry and facility agriculture flourished. The added value of agriculture reached 138.08 billion yuan, up 3.1 percent year-on-year.

The total industrial added value for the whole year was 963.5 billion yuan, increasing by 9 percent year-on-year, of which the industrial added value of enterprises above designated size increased by 9.2 percent.

Modern service industries such as finance and logistics enjoyed rapid development in 2018, and Xi'an, Baoji and Yan'an were among the 127 cities to host national logistic hubs run by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport. The added value of the service industry grew by 8.8 percent.

Six new pillar industries - modern chemicals, automobiles, aerospace and high-end equipment manufacturing, new-generation information technology, new materials, and modern medicine - also developed rapidly. The production of new energy vehicles and industrial robots saw increases of 70 percent and 36.9 percent. The added value of strategic emerging industries increased by 10.4 percent, while the added value of the high-tech industry (manufacturing) increased by 14.2 percent year-on-year. Shaanxi also pushed forward the construction of four national demonstration zones for mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and incubated more than 14,000 enterprises and teams.

Supported by the central government, Shaanxi has actively engaged in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and set up the Xi'an Cross-Border E-Commerce International Cooperation Demonstration Zone to promote China's northwestern region to the world, as well as promote reform and opening-up and the transformation of foreign trade. The China Railway Express (Xi'an), also known as the China-Europe freight train, made 1,235 trips in 2018, ranking first in the country. The province's total foreign trade value hit 351.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 29.3 percent, of which exports totaled 207.9 billion yuan, and imports 143.5 billion yuan, growing by 25.3 percent and 35.4 percent.

Shaanxi's fixed asset investment grew by 10.2 percent year-on-year. Investment in primary industry witnessed a year-on-year increase of 45.2 percent, and in the secondary and tertiary industries, it rose by 5.5 percent and 9.8 percent.

At the same time, Shaanxi gave impetus to the integrated development of culture and tourism, and received 630 million visitors in 2018, up 20.5 percent year-on-year, which generated tourism revenue of 599.46 billion yuan, a yearly increase of 24.5 percent.

Shaanxi also devoted efforts to accelerating coordinated regional development, launched a development plan for the Guanzhong Plain urban cluster, and started construction of Xi'an as a national central city. The northern parts of Shaanxi province have forged ahead steadily with the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and the economic growth of Yan'an and Yulin has hit a new high in recent years, while the southern parts of the province have accelerated the development of a green circular economy.

The Blue Sky Protection Campaign made significant achievements. The average concentration of PM 2.5 in the province dropped by 10.5 percent in 2018, and the number of days with heavy air pollution decreased by 20.7 percent. Shaanxi completed an afforestation project of more than 7.49 million mu (499,333 hectares), and the area under desertification control was 70,700 hectares.