Critical role of inland platform for opening-up

During his inspection tour of Shaanxi province, President Xi Jinping stressed importance of adopting new development concepts and making all-out efforts to protect jobs, people's basic livelihoods, market players, food and energy security, stability of the industrial supply chain and normal grassroots operation.

The idea is to overcome the negative impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak and completely eliminate poverty to build a moderately well-off society in all aspects.

It was important for the top leader to underline the goals in the final year of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). But realization of these goals is facing challenges following the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Despite encountering temporary difficulties, the basic trend of steady and long-term improvement of China's economy remains unchanged. The enormous resilience of the Chinese economy and the huge market size of 1.4 billion people are enough to convince us our country can turn this crisis into an opportunity and promote high-quality economic development.

During the Shaanxi tour, President Xi stressed on the need to speed up the transformation of the economic development mode; strengthen the real economy, especially manufacturing; promote investment in and construction of new infrastructure such as 5G network, the internet of things, artificial intelligence and industrial internet; increase investment in transportation, water conservancy and energy; increase infrastructure construction in rural areas; and address the problem of unbalanced and insufficient development.

He also said that China should build an inland platform for reform and opening-up by modernizing the governance system and governance capacity, and speed up the formation of a passageway, a trade and logistics hub, and important industrial and cultural exchange bases for Central, South and West Asian countries.

Shaanxi's capital Xi'an is an important economic center, a foreign communication center, a Silk Road technology and innovation center and a national comprehensive transportation hub. This means Xi'an enjoys very good resources and conditions to further elevate its status in the overall national strategy.

A number of domestic internet giants, such as Baidu and Tencent, have set up regional headquarters in Xi'an, creating more advantages for its development. Many multinational technology companies are also investing in Xi'an.

To improve the business environment and social governance, Xian should focus on modernizing its governance system and capacity, and improving the market environment in the vast western region through reform and opening-up, in order to give full play to its current advantages and promote the development of Shaanxi and the whole western region. It is a historic task for Xi'an to promote the development of the whole western region by reform and opening-up.