A figure for economic statistics of Yuncheng city [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

Yuncheng has been focusing on its economic development by successfully implementing a series of plans for transforming industrial companies, according to local officials. 

They said the plans also support small and micro-sized enterprises in innovation and entrepreneurship, caring for Yuncheng's locals who work outside the city. 

The city's GDP has maintained a growth rate of over 7 percent for past 10 quarters and the manufacturing industry accounted for 80.8 percent of the industries above a designated scale. 

The total number of enterprises in the city has exceeded 20,000, according to official figures. There were four companies in the city earning over 10 billion yuan ($1.41 billion) annually in primary business revenue and 35 earning more than 1 billion yuan by the end of 2018.

Small and micro-sized enterprises have grown rapidly as the city has built three national-level and 32 provincial-level bases for innovation and entrepreneurship and increased investment in the high-tech sector. 

As a result, the capability for independent innovation of enterprises has been enhanced and more than 7,000 Yuncheng locals have been attracted to return home to start up businesses.

To promote the city's profile and reputation, Yuncheng has organized a series of regular events such as a folk culture and tourism festival, an industrial fair, a medical expo and a fruit fair. The city has secured trading partnerships with 36 countries along the Belt and Road as it has further opened up. 

In terms of building major infrastructure, Yuncheng has been expanding the local Yuncheng Airport, which transports more than 2.4 million passengers annually. The annual passenger throughput of the Yuncheng High-speed Railway Station has reached 9 million, figures show. 

Rural revitalization is also a major goal of Yuncheng city. The city has furthered the supply side structural reform of agriculture, so as to advance the sector's modernization. 

It has launched eight projects involving agricultural infrastructure construction, agricultural green development and farm produce specialty exports.

Modern agricultural demonstration parks covering over 666 hectares have been planned or built in each county and district in Yuncheng. The city has accelerated its systemic construction of standardized production, inspection and quarantines -- as well as export trade marketing -- which has successfully promoted local farm produce, especially Yuncheng apples that are now exported to 61 countries and regions. 

The rural environment, production and living conditions have been improved as the city has continued to construct rural roads, energy and water supply lines, houses and toilets. 

As for the lives of its residents, Yuncheng has been promoting the importance of education among its people as a top priority. Officials say the pre-school education rate is now 10 percentage points higher than the provincial average and the quality of its vocational education and high school education is better than ever. 

A total of 5.54 billion yuan has been invested in industrial technical upgrades over the past two years, so as to protect and improve the local environment, which has achieved remarkable results in air, water and soil quality enhancement. 

Officials said that with its continuous efforts on poverty alleviation, the poverty incidence rate in the city declined to 0.55 percent in 2018 from 4.1 percent in 2016.