Xi Jinping Calls for High-Quality Development in Guizhou

President Xi Jinping's Visit to Guizhou Province

President Xi Jinping visited Guizhou province on Monday and Tuesday, calling on the southwestern province to promote high-quality development and drive growth by further deepening reform and opening-up comprehensively. He emphasized the need for Guizhou to firm up confidence, work hard, and take steady steps to advance Chinese modernization.

Xi's visit, his third to Guizhou since 2012, included a stop at a Dong ethnic village in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture. He watched a performance of the grand song of the Dong ethnic group, visited a Dong culture exhibition center, and inspected a local base of special industry featuring weaving, dyeing, and embroidery.

Xi expressed his appreciation for the unique charm of the Dong culture, both traditional and stylish. He expressed hope that with the support of the Party and the government, the villagers will live better lives, further advance rural vitalization, and contribute to the progress of Chinese modernization.

At a work briefing by the provincial authorities, Xi urged Guizhou to be resolute and bold in exploration, underpin its real economy, strengthen innovation-driven growth, and ensure the transformation from old growth drivers to new ones. He also called on the province to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, actively develop strategic emerging industries, and enhance its digital economy and new energy sectors.

Xi stressed the importance of pursuing higher-quality economic growth while protecting the ecological environment and transforming ecological advantages into developmental advantages. He also emphasized the importance of a stable, fair, transparent, and predictable business environment, and the need for Guizhou to actively integrate itself into the building of a unified national market and proactively align itself with the development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Since the adoption of the Western Development Strategy, Guizhou's GDP has increased more than twentyfold and the total length of its highways exceeds 9,000 kilometers. The Belt and Road Initiative and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor have brought more opportunities for the inland province to open to the rest of the world. In the first 11 months of 2024, the total trade of goods in the province reached 68.62 billion yuan ($9.5 billion), representing a year-on-year increase of 10.2 percent. Exports of new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar products, known as the "new three items", grew 77.4 percent compared with the previous year.