Xi Jinping presides over a symposium on promoting the development of the western region in the new era

On the afternoon of April 23, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, presided over a symposium on promoting the development of the western region in the new era in Chongqing and delivered an important speech. Photo by Wang Ye, Xinhua News Agency

Li Qiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Premier of the State Council; Cai Qi, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee; and Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, attended the symposium.

At the symposium, Zheng Zhajie, Director of the National Development and Reform Commission; Yuan Jiagun, Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the CPC; Wang Xiaohui, Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the CPC; Zhao Yide, Secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the CPC; and Ma Xingrui, Secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Committee of the CPC, delivered speeches in turn, reporting on the work and putting forward suggestions on promoting the development of the western region. Other major responsible comrades from other provinces, regions, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps submitted written speeches.

After listening to everyone's speeches, Xi Jinping delivered an important speech. He pointed out that in the five years since the Party Central Committee deployed the formation of a new pattern for promoting the development of the western region in the new era, the western region has achieved significant results in ecological environmental protection and restoration, its capacity for high-quality development has been significantly improved, an open economic pattern has been accelerated, infrastructure conditions have been greatly improved, people's living standards have steadily improved, the battle against poverty has been won as scheduled, and together with the whole country, it has comprehensively built a moderately prosperous society and embarked on a new journey of comprehensively building a socialist modern country. At the same time, it is necessary to see that the development of the western region still faces many difficulties and challenges, which need to be studied and resolved.

On the afternoon of April 23, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, presided over a symposium on promoting the development of the western region in the new era in Chongqing and delivered an important speech. Photo by Wang Ye, Xinhua News Agency

Xi Jinping stressed the need to persist in taking the development of characteristic and advantageous industries as the main direction of attack, developing emerging industries according to local conditions, and accelerating the transformation and upgrading of industries in the western region. Strengthen the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, actively cultivate and introduce high-level scientific and technological innovation talents, and strive to overcome a number of key core technologies. Deepen scientific and technological innovation cooperation between the east, central, and west regions, and build national demonstration zones for independent innovation and technology transfer and transformation. Accelerate the technological transformation of traditional industries, promote the upgrading and transformation of equipment in key industries, promote the upgrading, improvement, and efficiency increase of traditional advantageous industries, and improve the efficiency of comprehensive resource utilization and the degree of deep processing of products. Promote the integrated development of central enterprises and the western region. Develop tourism and other service industries into regional pillar industries. Develop new-quality productivity according to local conditions, explore the development of modern manufacturing and strategic emerging industries, plan and build future industries, and form new driving forces for regional development.

Xi Jinping pointed out the need to adhere to high-level protection to support high-quality development and build a solid national ecological security barrier. Optimize the pattern of national land space development and protection, strengthen ecological environmental zoning control, accelerate the implementation of major projects for the protection and restoration of important ecosystems, and fight the three landmark battles of the "Three-North" Shelterbelt Program. Strengthen the protection of ecological resources, strengthen the capacity building for forest and grassland fire prevention and control, and deepen pollution control in key areas and fields. Vigorously promote energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation of traditional industries, and orderly promote the clean and efficient utilization of coal. Improve the mechanism for realizing the value of ecological products and the horizontal ecological protection compensation mechanism.

Xi Jinping stressed the need to adhere to large-scale opening up to promote large-scale development and improve the level of domestic and international opening up in the western region. Vigorously promote the construction of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, promote the development and opening up of areas along the line, and deeply integrate into the joint construction of the "Belt and Road". Improve the layout of various industrial parks, border economic cooperation zones, and cross-border economic cooperation zones in border areas, and promote the high-quality development of pilot free trade zones. Steadily expand institutional opening up and create a market-oriented, rule-of-law, and internationalized business environment. More proactively serve and connect with major regional strategies, actively integrate into the construction of a national unified large market, innovate the mechanism for docking open platforms between the east, central, and west regions, and deepen pragmatic cooperation with the east, central, and northeast regions.

Xi Jinping pointed out the need to adhere to the coordinated development and security, and enhance the security guarantee capacity in key areas such as energy and resources. Accelerate the construction of a new energy system, and develop and strengthen a number of nationally important energy bases. Strengthen grid interconnection, and improve the capacity of "West-to-East Electricity Transmission." Strengthen the planning and control of mineral resources and their large-scale and intensive development and utilization, and accelerate the formation of a number of national-level mineral resource mining and processing bases. Improve the level of water resource security. Innovate cross-regional industrial cooperation and optimization mechanisms, and orderly undertake the gradient transfer of industries. Vigorously promote the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, actively cultivate urban agglomerations, develop and expand a number of provincial sub-central cities, and promote the interconnection of infrastructure and the sharing of public services among cities.

Xi Jinping stressed the need to adhere to the organic combination of promoting new-type urbanization and rural revitalization, and to ensure and improve people's livelihood in development. Deeply implement the rural revitalization strategy, increase support for key counties supported by the national rural revitalization, establish a normalized support mechanism for low-income populations and underdeveloped areas, and resolutely prevent large-scale poverty relapse. Learn and apply the experience of the "Ten Million Project," and create rural construction models with regional characteristics. Develop county economies with distinctive characteristics, cultivate a number of strong agricultural counties, large industrial counties, and famous tourist counties, promote the nearby employment and income increase of farmers, and promote urbanization according to local conditions. Promote the construction of high-standard farmland, shoulder the responsibility of stable production and supply of important agricultural products, and make due contributions to ensuring national food security. Strengthen rural spiritual civilization construction, promote the transformation of customs and practices, and actively cultivate new styles and appearances of the times. Improve the grassroots governance system led by the Party organizations, adhere to and develop the "Fengqiao Experience" in the new era, achieve the normalization of combating and eradicating evil, maintain grassroots stability, and ensure the safety of the masses.

Xi Jinping pointed out the need to adhere to strengthening the consciousness of the Chinese nation community and effectively maintain ethnic unity and border stability. Ethnic regions should integrate the consciousness of the Chinese nation community into all aspects and processes of development. Closely follow people's livelihood to promote economic and social development, improve the social security system, safeguard the bottom line of people's livelihood, and focus on solving problems that concern, worry, and trouble the masses. Fully and accurately implement the Party's ethnic policies, accelerate the construction of an inter-embedded social structure and community environment, and promote exchanges and integration among all ethnic groups. Fully implement the basic principles of the Party's religious work, adhere to the direction of Sinicization of religion in China, and continuously govern illegal religious activities. Deeply promote the new era's action to enrich the border and benefit the people, strengthen the construction of infrastructure and public service facilities in border areas, develop border tourism and other industries, and strive to achieve the prosperity of border residents, the beauty of border areas, border stability, and border defense consolidation.

Finally, Xi Jinping stressed that the Central Leading Group for Regional Coordinated Development should strengthen overall coordination and supervision and inspection, and relevant central departments should study and propose targeted policies and measures. Party committees and governments at all levels in the western region should shoulder their main responsibilities and promote the implementation of the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments. Improve the mechanism for East-West cooperation, and deepen counterpart support and targeted assistance. Consolidate and expand the achievements of thematic education, strengthen Party discipline and education, and continuously rectify formalism to reduce burdens on the grassroots level. Improve the decision-making mechanism, and conduct thorough argumentation and risk assessment before the introduction of major policies, especially those related to people's livelihood, and promptly investigate and decisively deal with problems that arise during implementation. Build a high-quality professional cadre team that is loyal, clean, and responsible, establish and improve the assessment and incentive system, care for and love grassroots cadres, especially those in areas with difficult conditions, and encourage cadres to be bold in innovation, daring to explore, and taking on responsibilities.

Li Qiang stated in his speech that it is necessary to earnestly study and understand, and thoroughly implement the important speech of General Secretary Xi Jinping. We should consider the bigger picture, positioning and comprehensively promoting the development of the western region within the overall context of China's modernization drive; and also focus on the details, tailoring measures to local conditions and implementing differentiated policies based on the differences in the endowments and development potential of various regions. We should leverage unique advantages, cultivate more growth poles and growth corridors to drive regional development, consolidate the national ecological security barrier, enhance the development capacity of special types of regions, and coordinate the resolution of local government debt risks and stable development. We should expand both domestic and international opening up, proactively align with other domestic regional strategies, actively integrate into international circulation, and enhance the dynamism and vitality of western development.

Ding Xuexiang stated in his speech that it is necessary to earnestly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, comprehensively, accurately, and fully implement the new development philosophy, coordinate the promotion of high-quality development and high-level protection, and push the development of the western region to continuously reach new heights. We should shoulder the major mission of safeguarding national ecological security, strengthen ecological protection and restoration, and improve the diversity, stability, and sustainability of the ecosystem. We should continue to fight the pollution prevention and control battle in-depth, adhere to precise, scientific, and law-based pollution control, and continuously improve the quality of the ecological environment. We should accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of the development mode, develop new-quality productivity according to local conditions, and steadily and cautiously promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.

Li Ganjie, He Lifeng, Wu Zhenglong, Mu Hong, and Jiang Xinzhi attended the symposium. Relevant officials from central and state organs, relevant localities, and relevant enterprises also participated in the symposium.