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BINZHOU, China, Oct. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

This is a news report from chinadaily.com.cn: Significant progress has been

made in Binzhou city, East China's Shandong province, over the past decade in

achieving well-rounded high-quality development, local officials said.

Between 2012 and 2021, the city's gross domestic product increased by 95.5

percent, with an average annual growth of 6.9 percent, according to Song

Yongxiang, Party secretary of Binzhou.

The general public budget revenue grew at an average annual rate of 7.5 percent

in previous years, reaching 28.73 billion yuan ($3.96 billion) in 2021, which

provided strong financial support for the city's high-quality development.

Additionally, the industrial economy witnessed robust development in Binzhou.

The city has developed five industrial clusters worth 100 billion yuan each and

is home to 1,530 enterprises above designated scale, including five in China's

top 500 list.

More focus has been placed in promoting sci-tech innovation in the last 10

years of development. The R&D investment of Binzhou accounted for 3.36 percent

of its GDP, ranking first in the province.

In the aluminum industry, one of the city's pillar sectors, the proportion of

middle and high-end aluminum products increased by 30.2 percentage points in

three years and reached 65.2 percent last year. The city has been named the

national high-tech industrialization base for high-end aluminum.

Located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, China's second longest river,

Binzhou has also taken up the mission of boosting the ecological conservation

and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.

According to Li Chuntian, mayor of Binzhou, the city has given top priority to

ecological protection along the Yellow River.

By the end of 2021, the forest coverage rate in Binzhou had reached 31.8

percent and the protection area of wetlands had reached 176,000 hectares,

ranking fourth in the province. A 7.8 square-kilometer botanical garden along

the Yellow River is currently under construction in an effort to create a

better ecosystem.

Binzhou is working to develop ecological and efficient modern agriculture along

the Yellow River to help improve living conditions for locals. To date, five

modern agricultural industrial parks at or above provincial level have been

built among counties and districts along the river.

Comprehensive progress also has been made in employment, education, medical

care and elderly care, said Song, adding that Binzhou is developing into a city

suitable for living, working, traveling, and healthcare.

SOURCE: chinadaily.com.cn