China’s Ten Years China Story ｜ Xinjiang： The construction of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt is full of vitality
Xinhua News Agency, Urumqi, October 4th Title: Xinjiang: The construction of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt is full of vitality.
Xinhua news agency reporter
Xinjiang, located in the hinterland of Asia, has been an important hub connecting East and West on the Silk Road since ancient times. From the ancient land passage to the increasingly dense three-dimensional transportation network, with the deepening of China’s high-level opening up, the development of the western region, and the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", Xinjiang has changed from a relatively closed inland to the forefront of opening up, and efforts are being made to promote the construction of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt.
On September 20th, at the 7th China-Asia-Europe Expo, visitors learned about the "Tour Xinjiang" platform at the booth of China Unicom. Xinhua News Agency reporter Ding Lei photo
High-quality development boosts enriching the people and prospering Xinjiang.
Autumn is crisp, and it is another harvest season. At the foot of Tianshan Mountain, the 7th China-Asia-Europe Expo held by combining online and offline has achieved fruitful results. During the Expo from September 19th to 22nd, a total of 448 cooperative projects were signed, with the contracted amount exceeding 1 trillion yuan, the highest in previous expositions.
Jiashi County, Xinjiang, located at the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain and the western edge of Taklimakan Desert, was once an important post station of the Silk Road. In the past, due to the serious salinization of land and the scarcity of cultivated land, many local residents fell into poverty. Nowadays, Jiashi County, after getting rid of poverty, has vigorously promoted rural revitalization with its thriving melon and fruit industry.
At this Expo, Jiashi Xinmei and other products exhibited in Jiashi County were favored by the market and signed an order of 280 million yuan. According to the person in charge of the local exhibitors, Jiashi County has harvested more than 150,000 tons of new plum this year, which has been sold out. This alone has driven the per capita income of 400,000 farmers in the county to exceed 5,000 yuan. At present, relying on online and offline stores and other sales methods, Jiashi Xinmei sells well all over the country and is exported to Southeast Asia and North America.
Jiashi Xinmei’s entry into the international market is the epitome of Xinjiang’s unique geographical advantages and the transformation of natural resources into economic advantages and development advantages.
In the past 10 years, Xinjiang has persisted in enriching the people and rejuvenating Xinjiang, closely followed people’s livelihood and promoted high-quality development, and built a large number of infrastructure and major industrial projects that have a bearing on the overall situation and long-term development. Modern agriculture, represented by grain, cotton, fruit and livestock, has entered a stage of high-efficiency and high-quality development.
At present, the operating mileage of Xinjiang railway reaches 8768 kilometers, and if the railway is opened for operation, the world’s first desert railway ring line will be connected. The total mileage of highways has reached 217,300 kilometers, and all prefectures and cities have entered the era of expressways. The total number of civil airports has reached 24, ranking first in the country. The increasingly dense three-dimensional traffic network helps Xinjiang develop rapidly.
June 12, Xinjiang Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone. Xinhua News Agency reporter Ding Lei photo
Create a hot spot for investment and development
Urumqi International Land Port Area, Kashgar Economic Development Zone, Horgos Economic Development Zone … … In recent years, the state has successively set up 13 categories of 55 national key open platforms and industrial development platforms in Xinjiang, and endowed them with a series of policies and measures. With the continuous release of policy dividends, Xinjiang has become an important undertaking area for industrial westward advancement and a hot spot for people from all walks of life to invest and start businesses.
Sany Northwest Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., which settled down in Urumqi International Land Port Area, is the sixth industrial base of Sany Group Co., Ltd. in China. Zhenzhong Liu, general manager of Sany Northwest Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. said that with the continuous promotion of the "Belt and Road Initiative", Sany Group has opened a major channel for construction machinery marketing, service and logistics along the Silk Road Economic Belt, connecting the central and western parts of China to Central Asia and Europe.
Yu Chengzhong, chairman of Xinjiang Horgos Jinyi International Trade (Group) Co., Ltd., started as a fruit and vegetable import and export trade at Horgos Port in the 1990s, and now his business scope has been expanding to cross-border e-commerce, catering, cinemas and sightseeing agriculture. He witnessed the rapid development of Horgos Port from "channel economy" to "industrial economy" and "port economy".
"In 2010, the central government decided to set up an economic development zone in Horgos. In 2014, Horgos was established. In 2018, the sixth generation of Horgos was officially opened. At the same time, the state and the autonomous region give enterprise income tax ‘ Five exemptions and five reductions ’ Policies create favorable conditions for promoting investment attraction and attracting industrial agglomeration. " He said that looking back on the company’s growth in recent years, it is all riding the east wind of national policies.
Kashgar Economic Development Zone was established with the approval of the central government in 2010, and it is the fulcrum of southern Xinjiang in the construction of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt. As of July this year, there are 4,559 market players, initially forming industrial clusters including electronic assembly and processing, textiles and clothing, modern logistics, trade logistics, etc., and solving more than 42,000 jobs.
Ma Haitao, deputy director of the Administrative Committee of Kashgar Economic Development Zone, said that the import and export of cross-border e-commerce has become a new bright spot in the foreign trade development of Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone. In February this year, the State Council approved Kashgar as the first cross-border electronic commerce comprehensive experimental zone in southern Xinjiang, which not only provided policy dividends for cross-border e-commerce companies settled in Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone, but also ushered in new opportunities for Kashgar’s export-oriented economic development.
"By giving full play to our policy advantages, we will strive to achieve the goal of cross-border e-commerce with 20 million votes and a value of 600 million yuan this year." Ma Haitao said.
On January 11, employees of Xinjiang Meixu Textile Co., Ltd. were busy in the workshop in Mo Yuxian, Xinjiang. Xinhua News Agency reporter Ding Lei photo
Regional cooperation ushers in new opportunities for development
Mao Hui, deputy director of the Development and Reform Commission of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said that in recent years, with the construction of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt as the engine, Xinjiang has actively integrated its regional opening strategy into the overall layout of the country’s opening to the west, actively carried out foreign exchanges and cooperation, and achieved remarkable results. The "circle of friends" of Eurasian cooperation has been continuously expanded.
Up to now, Xinjiang has signed 21 cooperation agreements with 25 countries and international organizations, established economic and trade relations with 176 countries and regions and concluded 45 pairs of international sister cities. Foreign investment has covered more than 60 countries and regions, and four overseas economic and trade cooperation parks have been built.
In July this year, business representatives from 13 countries in China visited Xinjiang. They said that Xinjiang has outstanding geographical advantages and great development potential in building the "Belt and Road", and they look forward to more pragmatic cooperation with Xinjiang, actively promoting the host country to strengthen cooperation with Xinjiang, China in various fields, and promoting mutually beneficial and win-win development.
At the summit forum on the development of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt in 2022 held during the 7th China-Asia-Europe Expo, Lin Yifu, president of Peking University New jiegou Research Institute, believed that under the new development pattern, Xinjiang would make full use of its natural resources, labor endowment advantages and the location advantages of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt, and would certainly be able to seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, usher in economic take-off and make contributions to the further economic development of Xinjiang and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. (Reporter: Ding Jiangang, Deng Yushan, Pan Ying, Zhou Shengbin)
Producer: Zhao Danping and Li Zhiang
Coordinator: Li Kai, Hou Dongtao, Qin Dajun and Xia Xiaopeng.
Produced by Xinhua News Agency’s International Communication Integration Platform