Beijing, China / TimesNewswire / February 28, 2023 – 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.
Jiangsu under the new development pattern
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.
Overall, Jiangsu’s prominent economic strength is leading China’s economy striding forward in the new era, along with the high-quality development becoming a distinctive feature.
China on the path to common prosperity
Chinese modernization is the modernization of over 1.4 billion people – a figure greater than the combined population of all developed countries in the world today.
While illustrating Chinese modernization at the opening of a study session at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee on February 7, Xi said it is the modernization of a huge population and common prosperity for all.
Xi’s remarks signaled the country’s commitment to taking the people’s aspirations, both at home and abroad, for a better life as the modernization’s ultimate goal.
China has eliminated absolute poverty and realized its first centenary goal — building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
Figures speak. China’s total economic volume exceeded 120 trillion yuan in 2022, a new leap forward after breaking through 100 trillion yuan and 110 trillion yuan in 2020 and 2021.
The country’s average GDP growth rate has been 6.6 percent over the past decade, and the total number of employed people in urban areas has increased from 370 million to 480 million, with an average annual increase of more than 13 million.
As a major engine driving the world’s economic growth, China’s economy is full of resilience and vitality, and has attracted worldwide attention.
China’s contribution to global economic growth averaged 38.6 percent between 2013 and 2021, higher than the contributions of all Group of Seven countries combined.
In 2021, China’s GDP accounted for 18.5 percent of the world’s total economic output, an increase of 7.2 percentage points from 10 years ago. Meanwhile, the total trade volume in goods and services was $6.9 trillion, an increase of 56.8 percent from 10 years ago.
As Xi stressed, advancing Chinese modernization is a systematic endeavor, and it is also an exploratory undertaking.
“The cause of promoting Chinese modernization, which is an unprecedented and pioneering venture, will inevitably encounter all kinds of risks, challenges, difficulties and even dangerous storms, some of which we can foresee and others we cannot,” Xi said. “Let us harness our indomitable fighting spirit to open new horizons for our cause.”
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