Xi'an, China's first NW city to exceed 1t yuan in GDP

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Xi'an, capital city of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, grew 5.2 percent to more than 1 trillion yuan ($154.8 billion) in 2020, according to a news briefing held by the municipal government on Jan 21.

Xi'an is the first northwestern Chinese city to surpass the 1-trillion-yuan GDP threshold.

The city has consistently ranked first in Northwest China in terms of economic aggregate for more than 60 years.

Relying on abundant scientific and educational resources, Xi'an promotes high-quality economic growth through technological innovation, and high-tech industries and strategic emerging industries have become the main driving force for economic development.

According to statistics, in 2020, the output value of high-tech industries and strategic emerging industries in Xi'an increased by 23.4 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively.

The city's total import and export value came in at 347.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.2 percent, with an export value of 177.6 billion yuan and an import value of 169.79 billion yuan.

Faced with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi'an adopted a series of prevention and control measures to help the economy recover. Throughout the year, 162 industrial projects were successfully advanced, and 10 science and innovation companies were listed publicly, setting a new record for the number of newly listed companies in Xi'an in a year.

In 2021, Xi'an plans to have 278 industrial projects under construction, with an annual investment of nearly 190 billion yuan, 1.7 times and 1.6 times that of last year, respectively.

Total investment and the number of industrial projects have increased significantly compared with last year.