New member of '3 trillion club' aims to soar higher on global stage

Hunan joined the"3 trillion" club in 2017 after its GDP hit nearly 3.46 trillion yuan ($502 billion) - the ninth-largest regional economy in China, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Its GDP grew to 3.64 trillion yuan last year, according to the provincial authorities.

The province is home to eight national high-tech zones and a host of technology companies, such as Zoomlion, CRRC Zhuzhou and Hunan Boyun New Materials. The added value of high-tech industries in Hunan reached 846.8 billion yuan last year, up 14 percent from 2017.

Hunan is aiming for a GDP growth rate of 7.5 percent to 8 percent this year.

Delivering his work report at the annual session of the provincial people's congress in January, Hunan Governor Xu Dazhe said the province wants to accelerate the growth of new and promising industries - such as biological medicine and energy conservation - and also press for upgrades in traditional industries such as steel, construction and food processing.

Its 2019 development plan also includes adding 1,000 high-tech enterprises.

Xu said the tech-savvy approach has helped energize the province's manufacturing industry and put it on the path to high-quality development.

"The Hunan government has enacted a series of measures to promote the use of technology in traditional industries. Going forward, we will put more effort into the betterment of industrial chains in sectors like vehicle manufacturing, steel, nonferrous metals and others," Xu said.

In recent years, Hunan has made great efforts to encourage innovation in industrial development. It is the birthplace of many high-tech, innovative products that count among the world's best. These include the fastest electric train traction system, the longest concrete pump, the strongest crawler crane, the most powerful six-axle electric locomotive and Tianhe-1, the world's fastest supercomputer.

More than 100,000 companies in Hunan had adopted cloud computing technologies by the end of last year, while nearly 1,000 internet companies were incubated in the province's 90 big-data industrial parks. In addition, Hunan has also launched a test zone for connected intelligent vehicles.