Xinjiang delegation champions innovation, openness for high-quality development

China

Xinjiang delegation champions innovation, openness for high-quality development

2025-03-09 17:02 Last Updated At：18:37

At this year's "two sessions" in Beijing, deputies from northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region gathered on Friday to share how the region has leveraged innovation and openness to drive high-quality development.

During a group meeting at the third session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, they highlighted the region's pivotal role in agriculture and as a key energy hub, with its power grid serving several major provinces. They noted that the area is also experiencing a surge in scientific and technological innovation.

Xinjiang is a region abundant in energy resources, having produced large quantities of coal and natural gas last year. It also registered robust grain yields, and emerged as the nation's leading cotton producer.

Delegates emphasized that the autonomous region is firmly committed to advancing both integration and development.

"We have strengthened Xinjiang's regional innovation capacity, propelling it up three positions in the national rankings," said Erkin Tuniyaz, governor of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Last December, the 22.13-kilometer Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, the world's longest expressway tunnel, completed tunneling, paving the way for the opening of a new shortcut linking southern and northern parts of Xinjiang.

It is a key project of the Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, which runs from the regional capital of Urumqi in northern Xinjiang to Yuli County in southern Xinjiang. The expressway is expected to be fully completed and open to traffic in 2025. The driving time between the two locations will be reduced from about seven hours to just over three hours.

In March 2024, the drilling of Shenditake-1 well in Tarim Oilfield exceeded 10,000 meters. As China's first scientific exploratory borehole designed to reach such depths, it set a new record of the deepest well in Asia, and demonstrated China's world-leading technologies in deep-Earth drilling and exploration of 10,000 meters.

"The moment we finished drilling, tears of joy filled our eyes, as we marked China's milestone of the 10,000-meter drilling," said Liu Hongtao, an NPC deputy and deputy general manager of PetroChina Coalbed Methane.

These technological breakthroughs weren't built solely on muscle and tears, but were also driven by human innovation.

"Xinjiang used to be a landlocked and closed region, but now it is a frontier of openness," said Ma Xingrui, secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Meanwhile, education is increasingly taking center stage in Xinjiang, with local leaders recognizing it as a cornerstone for long-term success.

The annual "two sessions" refer to the annual meetings of the NPC and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body. The NPC session is taking place from March 5 to March 11 this year, while the CPPCC National Committee session runs from March 4 to March 10 in Beijing.

China to strengthen fiscal, financial coordination to amplify policy effectiveness: experts

China will strengthen fiscal and financial coordination to amplify policy effectiveness, experts said as the draft central and local budgets for 2026 were unveiled on Friday at the ongoing fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress.

According to the draft central and local budgets for 2026, 1.3 trillion yuan (190 billion U.S. dollars) of ultra-long special treasury bonds will be issued to provide continued support for the implementation of major national strategies and security capacity-building in key areas and for large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs.

Ultra-long special treasury bonds totaling 800 billion yuan will be allocated to support the implementation of major national strategies and security capacity-building in key areas, and 250 billion yuan in ultra-long special treasury bonds will be earmarked for consumer goods trade-in programs.

The country will refine these programs in terms of their scope and subsidy standards, and continue to support the scrapping and replacement of automobiles, home appliance trade-in schemes, and purchases of new digital and smart products.

China will also set up a 100-billion-yuan fiscal-financial coordination fund to boost domestic demand. The fund will support consumption and private investment through loan interest subsidies, financing guarantee, and risk compensation.

"Fiscal and monetary policies are the two major macroeconomic tools for macro-control, and their coordination is crucial. For instance, fiscal funds primarily serve as a guiding role, while financial institutions provide the capital. When fiscal guidance and financial resources are combined, the synergistic effect creates a result greater than the sum of its parts," said Yang Zhiyong, director of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences.

"By leveraging interest subsidies, we can mobilize substantial credit from financial institutions, thereby naturally stimulating consumption. The Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the People's Bank of China, has introduced highly innovative measures, such as providing guarantees for the issuance of corporate bonds by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and compensating investors for losses. I believe the leveraging effect, making minimal efforts for maximum results, will become even more potent," said Yao Dongmin, director of the Center for China Fiscal Development under the Central University of Finance and Economics.

China's top legislature opened its annual session on Thursday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Party and state leaders attending the opening meeting alongside more than 2,700 NPC deputies. This year's NPC session is scheduled to run till March 12.