Xi Highlights Coordinated Regional Development to Advance Common Prosperity

General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping has urged incessant efforts in regularizing coordinated regional development to secure solid progress in advancing common prosperity for all.Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in recent instructions on steadily advancing the cooperation between China's eastern and western regions. He highlighted the east-west cooperation program's significant role in supporting poverty alleviation efforts and promoting balanced regional development over the past 30 years since its initiation, which has demonstrated the political strengths of the Party, as well as the superiority of China's socialist system.Xi highlighted this year as the opening year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan, as well as the first year of the regular assistance efforts in the country's rural revitalization drive. He also called for efforts to summarize and apply the valuable experience gained from cooperation between Fujian province and Ningxia Hui autonomous region, further improve cooperation mechanisms, optimize cooperation methods, and expand the scopes of cooperation. The endeavors are expected to promote industrial complementarity, personnel exchanges, and mutual learning of technologies, ideas, and work styles between the eastern and western regions, and to achieve mutual benefits, win-win outcomes, and common development.Party committees and governments at all levels should earnestly fulfill their responsibilities for regularized assistance for western regions, firmly secure the bottom line to prevent any large-scale relapse into poverty or new cases of poverty, steadily advance rural revitalization across the board, and continuously enhance coordinated regional development, so as to make solid progress toward common prosperity for all.The important instructions of Xi were conveyed at a national work conference on east-west regional cooperation, which opened on June 17 in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia. Liu Guozhong, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, delivered a speech at the meeting. Liu emphasized that General Secretary Xi's important instructions are strategically insightful, profound and incisive, demonstrating strong political, ideological and guiding significance. They provide fundamental guidance for carrying out regularized east-west cooperation, and must be thoroughly studied, fully understood and resolutely implemented.Liu underscored the need to consistently uphold the political responsibility, firmly establish and practice a correct understanding of governance performance, and draw upon the successful experience from Fujian-Ningxia cooperation, among others. Efforts should be intensified to deepen industrial and labor-service coordination between the eastern and western regions, strengthen the exchange of officials and professionals, expand cooperation in science and technology, finance and other fields. It is essential to carry out work creatively in light of local conditions, continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of collaboration, and promote complementary strengths, mutual empowerment and common development.The meeting also briefed participants on the progress of east-west regional cooperation. Officials from Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Fujian province respectively introduced the experience and practices in Fujian-Ningxia cooperation. Officials from Beijing and Shanghai municipalities, as well as Jiangsu, Guangdong, Sichuan and Gansu provinces also addressed the meeting.Officials from relevant provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities undertaking east-west regional cooperation tasks, as well as those from some member departments of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, attended the meeting.