Anning city plans ambitious year for innovation, development

Anning in Yunnan province is striving to boost high-quality development in its industrial transformation, tourism and rural revitalization this year, local officials said.

Anning will focus on facilitating investment, production and operation of enterprises while continuing to optimize its business environment.

In 2021, Anning plans to promote stable economic development and continue to extend petrochemical downstream industrial chains such as PetroChina's Yunnan petrochemical refining and chemical projects.

The city will center on a group of high-quality projects that will lay foundations and boost long-term management in key areas such as infrastructure, equipment manufacturing, copper smelting and deep processing, biomedicine, environmental protection and cultural tourism.

Anning will introduce supporting projects to advantageous industries such as petrochemicals, iron and steel and phosphate salt chemicals.

The total industrial output value of Anning is expected to reach more than 100.5 billion yuan this year, a year-on-year increase of 10 percent, with industrial investment projected to surpass 7 billion yuan.

The city plans to launch a series of favorable policies and set up a service center to support small and medium-sized enterprises.

Anning will also aim to build an attractive destination that boasts itself as "the first stop for tourism in Kunming, western Yunnan, the first choice for health and leisure".The city also hopes to improve its cultural and artistic performances and promote the construction of grassroots service centers.

Liu Xin, deputy director of Anning's culture and tourism bureau, said the city received a total of 4.92 million tourists and the city's tourism income totaled about 2.72 billion yuan. The revenue laid a solid foundation for the comprehensive recovery of the city's cultural tourism industry.

Liu said Anning is prioritizing the integration of culture and tourism. "Cultural tourism has become a new requirement for urban development and we aim to make it a new pillar industry as well as a driving force for economic growth."

Besides culture, Anning will integrate tourism into its healthcare, sports and agricultural industries while working to build a beautiful countryside and characteristic towns that promote creativity, product development and research.

The city also aims to create a group of tourism offerings with special characteristics as well as cultivate leading enterprises.

An artist paints pictures on a wall in a village in Anning. CHINA DAILY