Zhejiang stays focused on high-quality development

East China's Zhejiang province, an economic powerhouse that is renowned for its thriving private sector, is further developing its digital economy by launching a 10 billion yuan ($1.48 billion) industrial fund and supporting key digital enterprises and projects such as unmanned factories and workshops, in a bid to achieve high-quality economic development in the year ahead.

"We are pushing ahead with market reform, further intensifying reform of supply-side structure, in a bid to ensure high-quality and sustainable economic development," said Zhejiang Governor Yuan Jiajun in his annual work report at the opening ceremony of the second session of the 13th provincial people's congress, which opened on Sunday in Zhejiang's capital Hangzhou.

In 2018, Zhejiang's gross domestic product rose by 7.1 percent, with its general public revenue posting an 11.1 percent increase, ranking fourth in the nation.

In the first three quarters of 2018, the province's GDP volume reached 3.98 trillion yuan, up 7.5 percent year-on-year. The added value of its digital economy, a featured sector in the province's economic profile, rose by 14.8 percent year-on-year, accounting for 9.7 percent of the province's GDP.

Meanwhile, its urban disposable income rose by 8.4 percent and the rural by 9.4 percent year-on-year last year, according to the work report.

In 2019, Zhejiang is aiming to realize a GDP increase of around 6.5 percent, according to the work report.

Yuan also said the Zhejiang government will further deepen its "go once at most" campaign, an initiative it first raised in December 2016, which was designed to simplify and minimize bureaucratic red tape at all levels to better serve the people.

The province is aiming to realize online applications and processing of all livelihood and business-related issues this year, with over 60 percent of administrative issues to be handled online, said the governor.

"We will move to work out a stable, predictable and rules-based business environment and open up further to make Zhejiang a pivot in the nation's Belt and Road Initiative," he said.