An aerogel plant in the Pingding Economic and Technological Development Zone in Yangquan. [Photo/Yangquan Daily]

The city of Yangquan in North China's Shanxi province has made considerable achievements in developing a modern industrial system.

New progress in agricultural development

The counties and districts in the city have explored suitable development paths for their modern agriculture. They have accelerated the development of eight agricultural clusters – including the integration of leisure and health care, agriculture with local characteristics and functional food – to boost the modernization of traditional agriculture.

In addition, the city has introduced more resources to rural areas to develop and promote regional public agricultural brands, such as selenium-enriched millet, Bangou sweet potatoes and Xinanyu apples.

Intelligent, green transformation of traditional industries

Yangquan, the largest anthracite coal production city in China, has promoted green mining technology, improved informatization and intelligence in the coal mining industry, and increased advanced coal production capacity.

Over the past five years, the number of coal mines with advanced production capacity in the city has increased from 18 to 21. The annual advanced production capacity has increased from 43.4 million metric tons to 46.6 million tons, while the proportion of advanced production capacity has increased from 68.7 percent to 83.81 percent.

Local-based Huayang New Material Technology Group and China's tech giant Huawei jointly built a 5G-based smart mining laboratory to promote the deep integration of the internet, big data, artificial intelligence, 5G and other technologies with coal mining.

Emerging industries foster new economic pillars

During the past five years, the added value of emerging industries in Yangquan has grown by an average annual rate of 9.9 percent. 

In the first half of this year, the city added 23 new strategic emerging industrial enterprises, bringing the total to 67.

It has promoted the digital economy by increasing the added value of the information technology industry and boosting IT applications to traditional industries. 

The new materials industry has also been taken as a pillar industry in the city's high-quality transformation. The city has focused on five new materials industrial supply chains – new energy batteries, new non-ferrous metals, eco-friendly building materials and new semiconductors. 

As for new energy industry, Yangquan has developed solar power, wind power, coalbed methane, biomass and other clean energy and renewable energy projects to provide support for the city's green transformation. By the end of 2021, the local installed capacity of new energy power accounted for 29 percent of the total, and the added value of the new energy industry increased 15.4 percent annually on average.

In addition, the city has undertaken measures to encourage the producer services industry to develop towards the high-end sector of the value chain and the life services industry to move towards high quality and diversification.