Being a sparkling pearl in southwest China, Yunnan is tagged as Paradise for Travelers, Picturesque Plateau with Splendid Culture, Destination for Leisure and Healthy Lifestyle, and Powerhouse for China’s Opening up to South and Southeast Asia. With an area of 394,000 km2, it has 48 million people and one third of them are ethnic minority groups. There are 129 counties in 16 prefectures/cities under its jurisdiction. It shares 4060 km borders with Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. Thanks to its strategic location, it has long been an important portal that connects China to South and Southeast Asia. Endowed with abundant resources, it has the most species of plants and animals in China, and a wide range of well-known products, including tobacco, sugar, tea, rubber, flower and medicine. It is the largest producer of tobacco, fresh cut flowers, coffee and walnuts in China.
Since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, all ethnic groups of Yunnan people have unswervingly followed the policies and steps of the CPC. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee, Yunnan people have worked unremittingly with all the Chinese people to get rid of poverty, close-mindedness and backwardness, and embrace a prosperous life with an open and progressive mind. Fundamental changes have taken place in the economy, and urban and rural areas, and people’s living standards have been greatly lifted. The whole province is shifting from the once backward and impoverished state to a well-off society in an all-round way. In 2018, the GDP reached 1.7881 trillion Yuan and the local fiscal revenue amounted 37.1977 billion Yuan, which had increased by 205 folds and 1988 folds compared with that of 1952 respectively; the per capita disposable income of urban residents was 33,488 Yuan, with an increase of 283.7 folds compared with that of 1950, and the average net income of rural residents were 10,678 Yuan, with an increase of 182.8 folds compared with that of 1956. It has fostered such pillar industries as tobacco, tourism, energy, non-ferrous metal, bio-pharmacy, and has become national green energy base transmitting electricity to eastern China and neighboring countries.
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, Yunnan province has, under the guidance of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, studied and strictly implemented the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, and united all the forces to work together as per the requirement raised by President Xi during the visit in 2015. President Xi said that he hopes “Yunnan may actively serve and integrate into national development strategies and blaze a path of striding development. The province must strive to become a model area of ethnic solidarity and progress, a vanguard of ecological conservation, and a powerhouse for China’s opening up to South Asia and Southeast Asia, composing well the Yunnan chapter of the China Dream.” President Xi also pointed out that Yunnan should develop with five priorities, namely, maintaining steady and sound economic growth, promoting modern agriculture, improving ecological conservation, advancing ethnic solidarity, and giving full play to the role of the CPC bodies.
Concrete progress has been made on striding development. Yunnan has been one of the fastest provinces in terms of GDP growth rate since 2015, and has moved up from 23rd in 2014 to 20th in 2018 in China’s provincial GDP ranking list. The GDP grew by 9.2% in the first half of this year, maintaining its top position. Yunnan is now breaking the bottleneck that constrains its development by improving the infrastructure of five networks (road, aviation, energy, waterway, and internet). The total mileage of expressway in service across the province reaches 5198 km, linking 82 counties. The total mileage of operational railway is 3856 km, including 1026 km of high-speed rail mileage. It has 15 airports in operation, and the air routes link Kunming to all the capitals of Southeast Asian countries. With the official commencement of Central Yunnan Water Diversion Project, the comprehensive transport network is fully formed. The urban and rural areas are fully covered by energy network and internet. Moreover, the fast development of logistics network has further fueled the striding development.
Meanwhile, we have deepened supply-side structural reform by pursuing open, innovative, high-end, information-based and green industries and replacing old growth drivers with new ones. The industry structure, energy mix, and economic structure have been upgraded and the pace of shifting from old driving forces to new ones has accelerated. We have further upgraded and transformed the traditional industries, such as tobacco, petroleum refining, hydro-power, non-ferrous metal, and fostered new growth drivers, including eight key industries (bio-pharmacy and general health, tourism and culture, information, modern logistics, modern highland agriculture, new material, advanced equipment manufacturing, and food and consumption goods production) and three cards (green energy, green food, and healthy lifestyle destination). Great achievements have been made in 2018 through these efforts. The percentage of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector was adjusted as 14.0:38.9:47.1. The output value of information industry and advanced manufacturing industry reached hundreds of billions yuan respectively, the tourism revenue registered 899.144 billion yuan, and the oil refining volume exceeded 10 million tons. Around 428 green food brands and 665 organic product brands were certified, and the number of leading enterprises whose sales revenue exceed 100 million yuan and 1 billion yuan was 448 and 27 respectively. The export volume of agricultural goods amounted 3.87 billion US dollars, ranking top in western China.
Reform and opening up continues to deepen. In the last four decades since the reform and opening up, Yunnan has evolved from the international passageway that connects China to South and Southeast Asia to the gateway for Southwest China’s opening up, and to the powerhouse for China’s opening up to South and Southeast Asia, while the scale of exhibition held here has also been elevated from the once border market to China Kunming Import and Export Fair, China International Travel Mart, and to the China-South Asia Expo. The four decades recorded the story of Yunnan’s opening up through building and integrating into the bigger market, and the history of Yunnan’s transformation from the tail to the forefront of the opening up. Since General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Yunnan in 2015, we have strictly implemented General Secretary Xi’s instruction of “harnessing the favorable location and making headway by opening-up”, and actively participated in such major national strategies as the Belt and Road Initiative, Western Development Drive, and Yangtze River Economic Belt Development. While deepening the exchanges and cooperation with Yangtze Delta, Pan-Pearl River Delta, Jing-Jin-Ji Metropolitan Region, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao, and neighboring provinces/regions, we have also strengthened comprehensive cooperation in various areas with South and Southeast Asian countries, and Indian Ocean Rim Economic Circle, and have made solid progress in improving the connectivity with neighboring countries. An international comprehensive transport hub and a new mechanism that facilitates international exchanges have been formed, providing a platform for quality and comprehensive cooperation between Yunnan and domestic and international counterparts, especially with the neighboring countries. There are 19 Class-I and 6 Class-II border crossings, 11 bilateral sub-national cooperation mechanisms with neighboring countries, 18 function zones for opening-up and cooperation in seven categories, China-South Asia Expo and other major platforms, trading partners from 206 countries and regions, and cross-border RMB settlement service covering more than 90 countries and regions. Meanwhile, the general framework for carrying out reform in various sectors has been put into place. We have further deepened the reform of streamlining administration and delegating powers by focusing on the six initiatives, expanded and upgraded the e-government app, and promoted the One-Stop Approval service across the province. We have also optimized the business environment, and made new progress in the reform of state assets and state enterprises, as well as reform in power system, tourism management system and rural collective property rights system, further boosting the dynamism and vitality of development.
Decisive achievements have been made in the battle against poverty. All ethnic groups of people in Yunnan have been fighting against poverty for generations. The foundation of the People’s Republic of China enabled all the people to become their own masters, and the reform and opening-up policy has gradually improved people’s living standards. However, there are still a large number of impoverished people due to historical, natural and individual reasons. Since the 18th National Congress of CPC, we have made solid progress in poverty alleviation by prioritizing poverty alleviation in the economic and social development, fully implementing the targeted poverty reduction policies, and focusing on ensuring food, clothing, and access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. From 2013 to 2018, we have invested 50 billion yuan of provincial special fund for poverty alleviation, helped lift 7.07 million people out of poverty, and removed 5068 villages and 48 counties from the poverty list. We have helped three tribe-turned ethnic groups (Dulong, Jinuo and De’ang ethnic groups) and other ethnic groups with small population to get rid of poverty by one whole group. The poverty incidence has dropped from 21.7% in 2012 to 5.39% by now. People of all ethnic groups sang songs to celebrate and wrote letters to General Secretary Xi Jinping to express their gratitude for the new life. We will say goodbye to poverty by 2020, and embrace the rural rejuvenation and a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.
The living standards of all ethnic groups continue to improve. We have adopted people-centered approaches to meet people’s aspiration for a better life. We have further enhanced people’s access to childcare, education, employment, medical services, elderly care, housing, and social assistance by increasing financial inputs, ensuring basic medical care, strengthening areas of weakness, helping those most in need, building the necessary institutions, and promoting social justice. Balanced development of county-level compulsory education has been basically realized in 120 counties across the province, and 94.18% of the students graduated after nine-year compulsory education. The social security system has been further improved, especially in elderly care, medical care, subsistence allowance, and housing. The basic pension schemes for urban and rural residents have covered the whole province, and the participants of basic medical insurance reached 45.2092, and the social security card holders totaled 42.6098. There are 177,100 nursing beds for the elderly in the province, and at least one Level A tertiary hospital in 14 prefectures/cities. Around 40 county-level public hospitals have been improved to the set standards and standard clinics have been built in all the administrative villages. Since 2013, we have completed 1.309 million social houses, and raised the urbanization rate of permanent residents to 47.81%. The life expectancy has increased to 74.7 years old in 2018, and the Engel’s coefficient has dropped from 36.6% in 2012 to 28% in 2018. People of all ethnic groups feel grateful for the work of the CPC and the benefit of the socialism system.
Tremendous improvements have been made in ecological conservation. Yunnan is the ecological security barrier in southwest China, and shoulders the responsibility of safeguarding the regional, national and international ecological security. With the target of being a vanguard of ecological conservation and building the most beautiful province in China, we have strictly implemented the Action Plan for Prevention and Treatment of Air/Water/Soil Pollution, and made every effort to win the eight landmark battles, including protection and treatment of nine alpine lakes, and conservation and restoration of six major river systems (with Yangtze river as the priority). Meanwhile, we have also taken measures to improve the living environments in urban and rural areas, and deepened the reform of ecological conservation system. We shall take solid action to win the battle against pollution, and promote the ecological conservation and environmental protection to achieve new progress. From 2012 to 2018, the forest coverage has increased from 50.03% to 60.3% across the province, and proportion of days with good air quality in all the municipal-level cities have been maintained above 98%. New progress has been made in conservation and treatment of Erhai Lake, Dian Lake, Fuxian Lake and other alpine lakes, the idea of green development and ecological conservation has taken roots in this land, and the responsibility of building well the ecological security screen in southwest China has been translated into concrete actions.
Ethnic solidarity and progress have been further enhanced. Yunnan has the largest number of ancestral ethnic groups, ethnic groups exclusive to Yunnan, and the most ethnic autonomous prefectures in China. Guided by the principle of “ethnic-related work is the top priority in Yunnan” and with the belief of “creating a better life for all ethnic groups as a big family”, we have incorporated the ethnic-related work into the economic master plan to achieve the goal of becoming a model area for ethnic solidarity and progress. A series of initiatives have been implemented to ensure equal access to public service and legal service, and to embrace a harmonious and well-off society, including the Action Plan for Improving the Living Standards of People at Border Areas through special border projects, program of helping the tribe-turned ethnic groups and ethnic groups with small population to get rid of poverty altogether, projects that consolidate ethnic solidarity and progress, and program of ethnic cultures protection and promotion. These initiatives have further enhanced the socialism ethnic relations featuring equality, unity, mutual assistance, and harmony, and created a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation. All ethnic groups live together as one, share in a common cause, and develop together in harmony. The flower of ethnic unity is blooming on the land of colorful Yunnan. People from different ethnic groups could be good friends, friendly neighbors, and happy couples, and they remain closely united like the seeds of a pomegranate that stick together.
Looking back to every change and every stride happened in Yunnan in the last seven decades, we strongly feel that the leadership of the CPC is the fundamental guarantee for ensuring development and progress of all ethnic groups, the socialism with Chinese characteristics is the right path to realize people’s ideals, and reform and opening up is the source of vitality that advances development of Yunnan province. No matter what lie ahead, storms, or twists, or interference, we have to maintain political integrity, think in terms of the big picture, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership; we have to be confident about the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics; we have to firmly safeguard General Secretary Xi Jinping’s position at the core of the CPC Central Committee and the whole Party, and safeguard the authority of the CPC Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership; we have to closely unite around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, and never stop on the way of completing the new Long March for the new era under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. We shall implement the major decisions of the CPC Central Committee and the instructions given by General Secretary Xi Jinping regarding Yunnan to become a model area of ethnic solidarity and progress, a vanguard of ecological conservation, and a powerhouse for China’s opening up to South Asia and Southeast Asia. We shall blaze a path of striding development, and unswervingly advance the cause of practicing socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era in Yunnan.
