Jilin: 70 years on

Editor’s Note: Starting in May, the State Council Information Office has been organizing news conferences for each province, autonomous region and municipality to give briefings about their social and economic development since the founding of New China 70 years ago.

During the Jilin session held August 6 in Beijing, Bayin Chaolu, secretary of the CPC Jilin Provincial Committee, and Jing Junhai, deputy secretary of CPC Jilin Provincial Committee and governor of Jilin, talked about the province’s development with reporters.

Jilin province is one of the country’s traditional industrial bases, a commodity grain base and an important border province. Great changes have taken place in Jilin province over the 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Economic growth

In 2018, Jilin’s GDP totaled 1.51 trillion yuan ($213.93 billion) and the per capita GDP was 55,611 yuan, 168 times and 363 times higher than in the initial period of the founding of New China. Fiscal revenue reached 124 billion yuan, increasing 346 times. The industrial structure of three main industries has changed into 7.7:42.5:49.8 from 55.5:27.4:17.1, also realizing a historic leap.

Emerging industries

The province has seen rapid growth in emerging industries such as equipment manufacturing, precision manufacturing, fine chemicals, new energy, new materials, aerospace information, and biomedicines. Cross-border e-commerce has maintained a growth rate of more than 30 percent for many years.

Private economy

The reform of State-owned enterprises in the province has been further deepened, with the private sector now accounting for 52.3 percent of its economy.

Jilin has established economic and trade relations with 186 countries and regions. More than 50 of the world’s top 500 companies, including Volkswagen of Germany, Toyota of Japan and Pohang of South Korea, have invested in and built factories in Jilin.

Opening-up

Jilin has enacted more than 100 policies and measures to expand the opening-up of foreign businesses. At present, the overall customs clearance time of imports in the province has been shortened by 54.2 percent, and that of exports has been cut by 69.2 percent.

People’s livelihoods

The number of people living in poverty fell from 700,000 to 78,000 since the implement of poverty alleviation, and the incidence of poverty dropped from 4.9 percent to 0.5 percent. The average life expectancy reached 78.2 years, 1.5 years higher than the national average. People’s consumption has also been upgraded, with 3.82 million private cars owned in urban and rural areas. There are also highways extending in all directions, and the annual passenger throughput of Longjia Airport in Changchun has reached 12.96 million person-times.

Characteristic tourism

Jilin has launched nearly 40 boutique tourism routes. In the first half of this year, the province received 120 million tourists and achieved 223.2 billion yuan in tourism revenue, up by 14 percent and 16 percent. In the snow season of 2018-19, the number of tourists and the total revenue reached 84.32 million person-times and 169.8 billion yuan, increasing by 16.1 percent and 19.4 percent.