Three years on, China's northeast regains its shine

Workers assemble vehicles on a production line at the China FAW Group plant in Jilin. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Tower cranes rise against the sky, dump trucks shuttle back and forth, and yellow excavators and bulldozers hum at a construction site in the coastal city of Dalian, northeastern China's Liaoning province.

In two years time, two 41-storey buildings will rise above the Donggang business district of Dalian, creating a new commercial complex for Japan's Orix Corp, a global financial services group.

Guo Xiaodong from Orix China Investment Corp said Orix was optimistic about Dalian's geographical location and development prospects, and it was building a large financial holding group with a total asset of 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) centered in the city.

This corner provides an economic snapshot of Northeast China, the country's old industrial base consisting of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces.

In April 2016, the central government rolled out new measures to revitalize the region struggled with industry decline, falling investment and daunting business environment. Reforms are carried out, with a series of supporting policies released, a free trade zone set up in Liaoning, administrations streamlined and the business environment improved.

The latest economic data give reasons for optimism. The economy grew by 6.1 percent, 2.4 percent and 5.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019 in Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang respectively, with Liaoning picking up a 6-plus percent of growth for the first time in four years.

"The economy of northeast China is bottoming out as a whole," said Li Kai, vice president of China Academy of Northeast Revitalization. "It shows that the new round of revitalization strategy has achieved initial success."