mk a smartphone maker located in an intelligent industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on December 14, 2023. Photo: Chen Tao/GT" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2025/2025-02-06/cdbe4a77-c328-456a-83de-9e6fd16301c6.jpeg" />

Workers walk along an assembly line at Honor Device Co, a smartphone maker located in an intelligent industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on December 14, 2023. Photo: Chen Tao/GT

Multiple provincial-level regions across China have identified boosting technological innovation and improving the business environment as their top priorities during meetings on Wednesday, the first official working day after the Spring Festival holidays, displaying firm resolve to promote high-quality development.

At a meeting on Wednesday, Huang Kunming, Party chief of South China's Guangdong Province, said that as the largest provincial economy, Guangdong should play a leading and demonstration role in boosting the modernization of the industrial system, according to a transcript of his speech posted on Guangdong's official website.   

Among other things, the province will make concentrated efforts in artificial intelligence and robots so as to foster new growth drivers featuring advanced technologies, high growth rates and large industrial volume. Additionally, Guangdong will implement major special projects to strengthen the province's chip industry and strive for breakthroughs in core software, Huang said.

East China's Anhui Province focused on new quality productive forces at a meeting on Wednesday. The meeting stressed the need to actively seize crucial opportunities in the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, lead the development of new quality productive forces with tech innovation, and accelerate the modernization of the industrial system, according to a post on the WeChat account of Anhui's science and technology department. 

"These first meetings after the holidays underscore the importance local governments attach to economic growth in 2025, and their moves to highlight developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions is an important focus of promoting high-quality development," Wan Zhe, an economist and professor at the Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Since the beginning of 2025, a package of incremental policies has shown positive effects, which, along with the development of new quality productive forces and a continuously improving business environment, will ensure that the world's second-largest economy will maintain sustainable growth in 2025, Wan said.

Continuously improving the business environment was also a priority in the first meetings of several provincial-level regions. For example, Shanghai held a meeting on Wednesday, which focused on optimizing business environment, and issued an action plan on building a world-class business environment, according to a report on Shanghai's official website. 

Northeast China's Liaoning Province's "first meeting" also focused on continuously improving the business environment, and drew the attendance of foreign-funded companies, private enterprises and individual businesses. 

Guangdong's "first meeting" also invited representatives of many enterprises, especially from the private sector, including Midea Group, according to China Media Group. 

In a statement sent to the Global Times on Wednesday, Fang Hongbo, chairman and CEO of Midea Group, said that the group's revenue exceeded 400 billion yuan ($55 billion) in 2024, thanks to Guangdong's world-class business environment, solid manufacturing foundation and complete industrial system. "Against the backdrop of Guangdong's efforts to accelerate the modernization of the industrial system, the great potential of robots will continue to be unleashed in the province," Fang said.

It's a positive signal for private enterprises to attend the "first meetings," as direct communication between local governments and enterprises will help governments understand the difficulties that businesses encounter during operations and find solutions, Song Ding, a research fellow at the China Development Institute, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The introduction of policies to support all kinds of enterprises will help stimulate innovation and the investment enthusiasm of enterprises and thereby promote local economic growth, Song said.