Guizhou now magnet for foreign investment

Provincial Party chief says data-based growth integrated with real economy

Mountainous Guizhou province has become a magnet for investment after recently eradicating some of the country's most entrenched poverty and embarking on a greener development path, its Party chief said on Thursday.

All the 9.23 million poor people in rural parts of the province in 2012 had shaken off that plight by the end of last year, with almost 2 million of them moved out of isolated mountain villages, Shen Yiqin, Guizhou's Party secretary, told a news conference in Beijing.

She said the province's GDP reached 1.78 trillion yuan ($276 billion) last year, placing it 20th out of 31 provincial-level regions, up from 26th nine years ago. Its per capita GDP climbed from last place to 25th over the same period.