Xinhua News Agency:

General Secretary Xi Jinping noted at a symposium on further energizing the central region in the new era that the central region should be better linked with the nation's other major development strategies to help the region better integrate into and support the country's new development pattern. What are Shanxi's considerations and plans in this regard? Thank you. 

Jin Xiangjun:

Thank you for your question. As a province in central China, Shanxi, based on its advantages, has built necessary mechanisms, established platforms and promoted cooperation, striving to accelerate high-quality development in serving major national development strategies. 

We remain committed to our roles and shoulder our missions bravely. We have earnestly implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's requirements proposed at the symposium on further energizing the central region in the new era, taken solid steps to balance grain production and sales and ensure high-quality energy supply, and actively built advanced manufacturing bases in the central region. Shanxi has a rich manufacturing base, such as in ultra-thin stainless steel and Taiyuan Heavy Machinery which I introduced just now. While Shanxi is widely recognized for its energy and coal industries, its manufacturing industry, especially its equipment manufacturing industry, and the "new trio" (electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products), holds comparative advantages, and enjoys a wealth of raw material and resource endowments. Meanwhile, we have accelerated the improvement of Taiyuan's status as a comprehensive transportation hub city. 

The Yellow River flows for 965 kilometers through Shanxi, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the river's total length. We have earnestly implemented ecological conservation and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, which is also a major national strategy. We are focused on ecological conservation and consolidating poverty relief achievements in counties along the river, coordinating pollution control with eco-economic construction to protect the Mother River and deliver greater benefits to the people. 

We will seize opportunities and integrate and align ourselves with national development strategies. By capitalizing on major opportunities including promoting the development of China's strategic hinterland and strengthening industrial backup , we will do a good job in aligning plans and policies with projects to achieve integrated and interconnected development with the country's regional strategies. 

To the east, we will do our best to integrate with the major strategy of the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, focus on cooperation in fields of clean energy, sci-tech innovation, agricultural products, culture and tourism to build Shanxi into an important support base for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and a strategic hinterland for interconnected development. Last year, Shanxi supplied 88.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, accounting for 56% of the province's exported electricity. Shanxi provided more than 1.5 billion cubic meters of water to replenish water ecosystems of the Yongding River. Tourists from Beijing make 13 million trips to Shanxi every year. After the opening of the Xiong'an-Xinzhou High-speed Railway, the direct train from Taiyuan to Beijing will be shortened to one and a half hours, significantly reducing the time by nearly half. It can be expected that Shanxi's exchanges with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will become increasingly close in the future.

To the south, we will focus on strengthening exchanges and cooperation with the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze Economic Belt, especially copying and promoting experiences and practices of the construction of free trade areas and opening-up as well as introducing more advanced productive factors. Since last year, we have built major platforms for opening-up, such as the "Shanxi Night." The "Shanxi Night" was held at the 2023 Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin and at the 6th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai. It was also held last month at the Canton Fair in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Through these promotion platforms, clear results have been achieved in culture and tourism promotion as well as economic and trade exchanges and cooperation. 

We will give full play to our advantages to deepen cooperation. Shanxi has advantages in energy and resources, raw materials, primary products as well as culture and tourism resources, and its comprehensive factor costs are relatively low. It has 71 industrial development zones with a planned area of 2,900 square kilometers. Relying on these advantages, we will make good use of the system of supply chain chiefs, and distinctive and specialized towns and development zones, make explorations into jointly building high-tech parks, industrial relocation demonstration zones and industrial "enclaves" to better absorb relocated strategic emerging industries in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the eastern region and the application of sci-tech achievements to realize mutually beneficial development. 

That is all from me. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank our friends from the media for your concern and interest in Shanxi, and also sincerely invite you to visit Shanxi, learn about Shanxi and promote Shanxi. We are willing to join hands with you to help create a better future. Thank you. 

Chen Wenjun:

Thank you to Mr. Jin and the three vice governors, and thank you to friends from the media. That concludes today's press conference. Goodbye.

Translated and edited by Zhang Rui, Li Xiao, Mi Xingang, Wang Yiming, Wang Qian, Xu Xiaoxuan, Liu Sitong, Zhang Tingting, Ma Yujia, Qin Qi, Yan Bin, Yuan Fang, Wang Ziteng, Cui Can, Wang Wei, Yang Xi, Ma Yujia, Li Huiru, Zhang Junmian, Liu Caiyi, Rochelle Beiersdorfer, David Ball, and Jay Birbeck. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.