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July 4, 2024

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Hangzhou, Delingha pairing assistance moves from one-way aid to two-way union

By Wu Huixin | 00:00 UTC+8 July 4, 2024 | Print Edition

This year marks the 15th anniversary of Hangzhou’s “pairing assistance” project with Delingha in northwest China’s Qinghai Province. Civil servants and professionals have been sent from Hangzhou to Delingha, coordinating with the local governments to enhance the economy, education and healthcare.

In an effort to strengthen the pairing assistance and further explore win-win opportunities, the two cities constructed an industrial cooperation platform in Hangzhou last month, which aims to transform the one-way support to a two-way partnership.

A white paper was released at the inauguration ceremony of the platform, which heralded a new chapter of the pairing-assistance between the two cities.

The white paper states that Delingha aims to develop into a high-plateau modern oasis with low-cost entrepreneurship and high-quality of life with Hangzhou’s support, focusing on salt chemical engineering, new energy, biology, equipment manufacturing and new material industries.

To achieve the goal, Delingha will explore new development modes and seek more partnerships with Hangzhou in the realms of technology, brand building, new businesses and industrial chains.

Delingha literally means “golden world” in Mongolian, and is subordinate to the Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where the annual sunshine reaches 3,500 hours a year.

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), a leading optical telescope project in China, was built there because of the clear night sky for astronomical viewing and less atmospheric disturbance or light pollution.

In a bid to make full use of its natural advantages, Zhejiang SUPCON Solar Technology Co installed a solar thermal power project in Delingha in 2013 and officially began generating electricity in 2018. This year, the energy produced by the project reached 1,843.58 million kWh a month, breaking a record since it first went into use.

In addition to long sunshine hours, Delingha also boasts vast salt lakes, which could be used for chemical and new energy industries. Last May, Geely JoiNet Energy Co invested a polycrystalline silicon purification project there, which is expected to produce 10 tons of high-purity polycrystalline silicon yearly.

Geely JoiNet is a subcompany of the Geely Group, a leading new energy vehicle manufacturer in China. Purified polycrystalline silicon is used as a raw material in the solar photovoltaic and electronic car industries.

According to Hangzhou’s five-year plan (2021-25) for high-quality development, the city will keep optimizing the ecological environment, taking solid steps toward the goals of achieving a peak in carbon emissions and carbon neutrality.

Delingha attracted Hangzhou companies by virtue of its abundance of green resources. In return, the investments have boosted employment in the less-developed city. Such win-win cooperation will continue to be a priority in the future paring-assistance efforts.

During the past 15 years, 418 Zhejiang companies have registered in Delingha with a total registered capital of 14.2 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion). More than 39 billion yuan was invested last year, with annual sales revenue of 30 billion yuan. Hangzhou’s civil servants in Delinghua have identified and found matches for 15 investment projects worth 32.4 billion yuan.

Throughout history, Delingha was a hub along the ancient Silk Road. In 2010, Zhejiang Province started to support Haixi prefecture, while Hangzhou paired with Delingha.

Throughout the many years of pairing assistance, Zhejiang Province has prioritized the economy of Haixi. In addition to new energy, agriculture has always been a mainstay of the pairing assistance efforts. Sales channels have been created in Hangzhou’s supermarkets to provide local residents with more organic products from the assisted city.

Haixi reciprocates Zhejiang’s assistance by opening up attractions for its residents free, including the popular Chaka Salt Lake, Emerald Salt Lake and Water Yadan Geopark. The prefecture is known for its unique Yadan landform, the vast Gobi and millennium glaciers, making it a popular tourist destination.

Since the Chinese government initiated the pairing assistance program in the 1990s to help poverty-stricken regions, Hangzhou has supported the development of 11 cities and 47 counties across eight provinces. A group of government officials, doctors and teachers have been dispatched to raise living standards.

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