Yunnans GDP increases by 8.9% in 2018
Yunnan Daily and Xinhua
The second session of the 13th Yunnan Provincial Peoples Congress, the provinces legislature, opened on January 27 in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province.
A total of 619 deputies from across Yunnan attended the opening meeting this morning. Chen Hao, executive chairman of the presidium of the session and Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, presided over the meeting.
Governor Ruan Chengfa delivered the government work report on behalf of Yunnan Provincial Peoples Government. In his government work report, Ruan Chengfa reviewed the work done in 2018 and laid out the goals for 2019.
Yunnans GDP reached about 1.79 trillion yuan last year, growing by 8.9% year on year. 15 counties in the province were removed from the impoverished list. The number of visitors coming to Yunnan grew by 20% year on year and the gross tourism revenue of the province increased by 22%.
In 2018, Yunnan authorities rolled out a series of measures to cultivate new momentum driving local economic development, including developing eight major industries such as biological medicine and tourism. Yunnan also decreased production of crude steel and coal, and lowered costs for local companies.
Accordingly, Yunnans foreign trade volume in 2018 amounted to 197.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.7%. The trade volume between Yunnan and ASEAN accounted for 46.1% of the provinces foreign trade. And trade between Yunnan and the Belt and Road countries recorded a 30.3% growth in 2018, with a total value of 133.16 billion yuan.
Yunnan mainly exported produce, electromechanical products, fertilizers and labor-intensive products, while importing crude oil, natural gas, metal minerals, sulfur and others from its trading partners.
For 2019, Yunnan aims to achieve a GDP increase of around 8.5%, with the fixed asset investment growing by 12%. A total of 1.3 million impoverished residents in the rural areas will be raised out of poverty.
