Nanjing, capital city of east China’s Jiangsu province, has scored remarkable achievements in economic and social development in recent years, njdaily.cn reported on Dec. 31, 2020.

The city of Nanjing (Photo/Dong Jiaxun)

Since 2014, Nanjing has forged ahead to notch up leapfrog development in overall strength and continuously increase its core competitiveness and improve its global influence, laying a solid foundation for embarking on a new journey to fully build a modern city.

Last year, Nanjing joined the country’s top 10 list of cities by GDP for the first time. The per capita disposable income of Nanjing residents increased to 57,630 yuan ($8,890) in 2019 from 37,283 yuan in 2014.

The city jumped to 21st in the overall ranking of the Global Innovation Index 2020 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization from 94th in 2017, with its innovation capacities ranking fourth out of Chinese cities in 2020.

Such progress can be attributed to the city’s implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy since 2017, which injects strong impetus into high-quality development.

Nanjing has improved its public facilities. The municipal public health medical center, the branch of the Nanjing Children’s Hospital in Hexi district, as well as 385 new primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, have been put into use.

The city has also created over 1 million jobs for college students over the past three years.

Taking protection of the ecological environment of the Yangtze River as a priority, Nanjing has also strengthened ecological conservation. Over the past six years, the city has lifted the percentage of riverbanks returning to their original appearance to 77.9 percent from 51 percent. It has restored over 3,000 mu (200 hectares) of wetland every year, with the rate of natural wetland areas under protection ranking first in Jiangsu. It also ranked first in the quality of the water environment in the province.

Nanjing will surely open a new chapter of development on the new journey. By 2025, the city will focus its efforts on building itself into a growth pole for high-quality development in the region, an innovative city with global influence, a principal city that can facilitate the development of its surrounding area, a livable city where residents can enjoy a high quality life, and a safe and resilient city with efficient governance.

The city aims to shape itself into a modern, global innovation-oriented city integrating Chinese features with the trend of the times by 2035.