From "fighting for policies" to "fighting for ecology", Shanxi explores new ways to attract high-quality investment

China News Service, Taiyuan, October 13 (Fan Lifang, Li Jinyang) On the 13th, the Propaganda Department of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Information Office of the Shanxi Provincial People's Government held a series of themed press conferences on "Starting the 15th Five-Year Plan". The reporter learned from the meeting that Shanxi will reshape the logic of investment promotion and explore new ways to attract high-quality investment with the support of high-level open channels and exhibition platforms.

Li Shaohua, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Shanxi Provincial Investment Promotion Bureau, said that the construction of a unified national market is not to weaken the enthusiasm of local investment promotion, but to promote the reshaping of development logic in various places, and to change the past path of fighting for preferential treatment and subsidies to a new direction of leveraging each other's strengths, fighting for ecology and fighting for services. "Whoever understands the new rules first and adjusts the new playstyle will be able to take the initiative in the new round of regional competition."

Specifically, Shanxi will reshape the logic of investment promotion from three aspects: changing the method, that is, from "fighting for policy preferences" to "grasping investment with ecological thinking"; establishing a mechanism, that is, forming an ecological investment promotion pattern in which "investment promotion departments are the front line, and all functional departments coordinate and cooperate"; focusing on the path, that is, using ecological thinking to grasp development and chain thinking to grasp industries, and promote investment promotion from "quantitative expansion" to "qualitative improvement."

In terms of opening up to the outside world, from January to August 2026, the number of enterprises with import and export performance in the province reached 2,979, a net increase of 1,017, and the import and export volume with the countries co-building the "Belt and Road" increased by 8.9% year-on-year; the China-Europe (Central Asia) train has opened 31 routes, reaching 56 cities in 18 countries.

High-quality investment promotion is inseparable from high-level open channels. Li Guorong, deputy director and spokesperson of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Commerce, said that in the future, Shanxi will promote enterprises to "gather together to go overseas" and drive the export of advantageous production capacity, core components and technical standards; increase international and regional passenger and freight routes, improve the rail-sea combined transport pattern with Tianjin Port and Qingdao Port as the sea outlets, promote the expansion and quality improvement of China-Europe (Central Asia) trains; and deepen pragmatic cooperation in multiple fields with countries co-building the "Belt and Road".

The exhibition platform is one of the important means for Shanxi to expand its opening up and attract investment. Wang Ligang, deputy director of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Commerce, introduced that the just-concluded 2026 China (Taiyuan) International Energy Industry Expo had 467 exhibitors and a total of 65,000 visitors, both of which hit a new high. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Shanxi strives to host more than 450 exhibitions and the total exhibition area exceeds 5.5 million square meters.