Bird's eye view of Baotou [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Three industries in Baotou have developed together in the past 10 years, taking new steps in transformation and upgrading.

Improving quality, efficiency of agriculture, animal husbandry production

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, Baotou's agricultural and animal husbandry supply-side structural reform has continued to make efforts, and the development pattern of characteristic industries has been accelerated. Grain production has remained above 1 million metric tons for 10 consecutive years since 2012, reaching 1.15 million tons in 2021, with an average annual growth of 1.5 percent from 2013 to 2021.

The modernization of agriculture and animal husbandry and of rural and pastoral areas were promoted together. In 2021, the processing and conversion rate of agricultural and livestock products reached 73 percent. By the end of 2021, the city had 2,065 farmers' professional cooperatives, 215 key leading enterprises in agricultural and animal husbandry industrialization above the municipal level, and 11 trademarks of the agricultural and livestock products industry well-known in China.

Steady development of industrial economy

Baotou promotes industrial transformation and upgrading and optimizes the industrial investment structure so that its industrial economy shows a steady and positive development trend. From 2013 to 2021, the city's industrial added value above designated size increased by an average of 10.6 percent annually.

The city has focused on the new energy industry and rare earth industry, promoted the implementation of 20 industrial clusters at the 10-billion-yuan-level ($1.4 billion) in the industrial field, and focused on the implementation of a number of rare earth industry transformation and upgrading projects. In 2021, the added value of the rare earth industry increased by 31.8 percent.

Optimization and upgrading of service industry

Baotou has insisted on paying equal attention to both the producer service industry and the life service industry, the modern service industry and the traditional service industry, and built the "Baotou Service" brand in an all-round way.

In 2021, the added value of the city's service industry was 160.74 billion yuan, 1.8 times that of 2012, with an average annual growth of 5.9 percent from 2013 to 2021.