Anning sets lofty goals

Gardenlike area in Yunnan province aims for high-quality growth and GDP rise

Anning in Kunming, Yunnan province, has strived to build itself into a happy and livable gardenlike city with high-quality economic and social development, local officials said. The city also aims to achieve a GDP of more than 90 billion yuan ($13.93 billion) by 2025.

This year, Anning will introduce key projects in industries such as petrochemicals, steel, and phosphate salt chemicals.

Yang Yanni, deputy director of Anning's development and reform bureau, said that in the face of the downward pressure on the economy and the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak last year, Anning worked hard to stabilize its economy.

In 2020, the city's GDP reached 56.2 billion yuan and the industrial output value above designated size totaled 91.64 billion yuan. The per capita disposable income of urban residents was 47,875 yuan, a year-onyear increase of 3.5 percent, and the per capita disposable income of rural residents recorded 21,041 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.5 percent.

Ding Hong, deputy director of Anning's bureau of industry, science and technology information, said the city is an important base for petrochemicals, steel and phosphate chemicals in Yunnan.

It has formed 18 industrial sectors including chemical raw materials, metal products, general equipment manufacturing, new building materials, electric power and heat, Ding said.

In 2017, Anning was included on the list of National Civilized Cities, which is selected by the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress. Anning's selection was the first of its kind in Yunnan province. In 2020, Anning again passed the commission's test and maintained its national civilized city status.

By 2025, the total agricultural output value of the city is expected to reach 4.5 billion yuan and the per capita disposable income of rural residents will total 33,500 yuan, with an average annual growth rate of over 9 percent.

Anning will be built into a pilot zone for rural revitalization in Yunnan, and a demonstration area for modern agriculture across the country.

The local government said that the construction of a "modern industrial city" should be at the forefront of Anning's priorities. The city will create one 100-billion-yuan industrial cluster and five 10-billion-yuan industrial clusters in the next five years.

Focusing on ecological civilization, new urbanization and social governance, Anning will build itself into a model city for green development, happiness and modern social governance, with an excellent air quality rate of 99 percent.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), Anning reached a total of 145.3 billion yuan in fixed asset investment, with 31.5 billion yuan completed in 2020.

Last year, the city's total output of grains, vegetables, and fruits reached 32,000 metric tons, 230,400 tons, and 44,500 tons, thanks to a number of plateau characteristic agricultural brands such as Anning Red Pear, Bajie Rose and Lubiao Grape.

The total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery achieved 3.65 billion yuan, an average annual increase of 5.6 percent. A number of ecological green corridors, such as the slow-travel system of Ninghu Park and the Tanglangchuan Riverside Greenway, have been completed.

The upgrading and transformation of Baihua Park and Donghu Park have been finished, and the People's Square project has started construction.

Anning's hot spring cliff stone carving group was selected as the eighth group of national key cultural relics protection units.

The renovation of the Nanyuan Garden was completed, and the restoration and reconstruction of the Wu Temple and the protection of the Tai Chi Academy were also initiated.

Rural roads totaling 129 kilometers of have been upgraded and reconstructed, while 320 kilometers of water networks have been upgraded.