By Jan. 24, 12 Chinese provinces and cities have unveiled their targets for GDP growth in 2018, with all of them lowering or maintaining the growth from 2017, China News reported on Jan. 25.

Anhui, Xinjiang, Shanghai, Jiangxi, Beijing, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Henan, Hunan, and other places announced the figures at their ongoing provincial-level legislative meetings.

The local economic data released have sent firm signals that China is moving toward high-quality development, analysts say.

The 2018 growth for Anhui was lowered from around 8.5 to above 8 percent, and Hubei from around 8 to 7.5 percent.

Tianjin saw a large drop from 8 to 5 percent due to last year’s economic slowdown. According to official data of Tianjin, the city reported a year-on-year growth rate of 3.6 percent last year.

Bu Xiaolin, chairwoman of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, expressed determination to abolish the work style of simply using GDP growth as a criterion to evaluate development in her government work report.

Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangxi, and Hunan all kept their 2018 GDP growth target the same as last year, planning to pay more attention to promoting high-quality and sustainable growth.