China’s coal capital seeks to diversify economic growth

CGTN | 09-Aug-2021 | By Hu Chao, Zhu Shuying

North China’s Shanxi Province is known as the country’s “coal capital.” Local officials have been implementing reforms to diversify its once coal-oriented economy. Shanxi serves as China’s first pilot zone for the energy revolution. In 2016, the Shanxi Transformation Comprehensive Reform Demonstration Area was set up in its capital city of Taiyuan to reduce the economic reliance on coal.

The Dashengfeng Technology Group, an electronic company from Shenzhen that produces semiconductor chips, set up a plant in the demonstration area.

The company signed a contract with the demonstration area at the beginning of the year. By now, their offices and factories have been established and they’re gearing up to start production at the end of August. “It’s really fast. We come from Shenzhen, which is known for its high efficiency in China. But we feel the demonstration area’s work efficiency isn’t any slower than Shenzhen. Sometimes it’s even faster when we deal with some administrative affairs,” said Zheng Shufeng, chairman of the company. On average, 20 new companies are registered per day at the demonstration area. But its administrative affairs center doesn’t seem busy as the registration and approval procedures have been simplified. Everything can be completed through online platforms. Increasing the efficiency of government administrative services is one of the measures taken by local officials to promote high-quality development.

High-quality development puts less emphasis on the speed of the economic expansion, but weighs more on the technology-driven growth, said Wei Hulin, a professor at the Business Administration Institute at the Shanxi University of Finance and Economics. He added that now the growth focuses more on strategic industries. Over the years, Shanxi has made some achievements in cutting overcapacity and protecting the environment. However, Wei cautioned that the province still has a lot to do. “The modern industrial system has not yet been established here,” he said. “It remains vague about what’s the right way to realize green development and an economic transformation,” he added.

With rich coal resources, Wei emphasizes that Shanxi has to figure out how to develop its economy while at the same time balancing environmental protection.