The gap of regional development in China is narrowing

The National Bureau of Statistics released the eighteenth report on the achievements of economic and social development on the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China on the 19th. The report shows that since the founding of New China 70 years ago, China's regional economic development has stepped up to a new level, regional plate integration and interaction, regional development coordination has been continuously enhanced, and regional development gap has been narrowing. Over the past 70 years, with the implementation of the regional development strategy, China's regional economic aggregate has been rising. In 1952, the gross domestic product of the eastern, central, western and northeastern regions was only 25.7 billion yuan, 14.6 billion yuan, 12.7 billion yuan and 8.4 billion yuan, respectively. By 1978, it had increased to 151.4 billion yuan, 75 billion yuan, 72.6 billion yuan and 48.6 billion yuan, respectively, which were significantly higher than at the beginning of the founding of New China. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, regional economy has maintained a sustained and rapid development. In 2018, the gross domestic product of the eastern, central, western and northeastern regions reached 48.1 trillion yuan, 19.3 trillion yuan, 18.4 trillion yuan and 5.7 trillion yuan respectively.

From the perspective of regional development disparity, the relative disparity of regional economic development has undergone a process of change from narrowing to expanding to narrowing in the past 70 years. Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the average annual growth rates of per capita GDP in the eastern, central, western and northeastern regions have been 7.2%, 8.2%, 8.5% and 6.1%, respectively, at constant prices. The development speed of the central and western regions is faster than that of the eastern regions, thus forming a benign interactive situation of regional economic development.