Prioritizing the development of a modern ecological economy system, Lishui strives to forge a new growth pole within Zhejiang’s evolving development paradigm.

Over the past year, Lishui has focused on driving economic growth, advancing projects, promoting development, and improving livelihoods, achieving fresh progress in leapfrog high-quality development. Its year-end report card reveals a regional GDP of 218.12 billion yuan, up 6.6% year-on-year, outperforming national (5.0%) and provincial (5.5%) averages, marking resilient progress amid challenging conditions.

Project-driven foundation, cultivating new growth momentum. In 2024, Lishui has designated “Dual Recruitment and Dual Introduction” as its top priority, integrating project planning, funding competition, and construction to bolster endogenous growth. Lishui City is rallying efforts to secure major projects, aiming for breakthroughs in attracting high-impact investments and accelerating project completion.

Throughout the last year, Lishui secured 210 projects each exceeding 100 million yuan in investment, totaling 109.2 billion yuan. These included 55 projects over 1 billion yuan and 14 exceeding 2 billion yuan. Notably, the city’s third 10-billion-yuan project—Panshi Digital Economy Headquarters—settled in Jinyun, reflecting expanding investment scale. Among new projects, 49 were led by high-quality enterprises, including listed companies, specialized “Little Giants”, and hidden champions.

The successful landing of good projects is attributed to Lishui’s “leading goose” recruitment strategy. Lishui has deeply implemented the “top leader” recruitment project. The main leaders of the municipal Party committee and the municipal government have set an example by going to first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen for “Dual Recruitment and Dual Introduction”. Localities and departments’ “top leaders” have actively “gone out and brought in”, forming a positive situation where the whole city cares about, supports, serves, and participates in recruitment.

Industrial innovation drives leapfrog high-quality development. Focusing on fostering new quality productive forces, Lishui is strategically reshaping industrial chains through sci-tech innovation, cultivating a robust “5+5” modern ecological economy system. Lishui is accelerating the establishment of the Lishui National High-Tech Zone, tackling key common industrial technologies, and building itself into a distinctive innovation-driven hub in the Yangtze River Delta region.

By building a semiconductor industrial chain from scratch, Lishui has secured a spot in the fourth batch of Zhejiang’s “Ten-Thousand-Mu and Hundred-Billion-Yuan” new industrial platform cultivation list. Today, Lishui’s “chip” connects the world. In high-end equipment and intelligent technology, a group of “Zhejiang Premium Manufacturing” enterprises have risen to prominence, driving the precision manufacturing industry toward high-end, intelligent, and green transformation. Leveraging ecological advantages, Lishui is prioritizing the development of traditional Chinese medicine and health industries, with major projects such as Kelun Pharmaceutical and Mabwell Biotech taking root. Guojing Pharmaceutical’s recognition as a national green factory underscores achievements in industrial green transition. In the digital economy sector, Jingjiu Bearing’s 5G factory has been listed as a national demonstration project by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, while digital transformation cases among SMEs have gained repeated national recognition. In fashion, the country’s first “Synthetic Leather Material Library” has been established in Lishui, propelling cluster development in the fashion leather industry.

Sowing seeds in future industrial frontiers, in emerging sectors such as low-altitude economy, smart transportation, and metaverse, Lishui is rapidly laying foundations. The Lishui Economic Development Zone has attracted enterprises like Rongqi Technology and Hangxun Information to build a low-altitude economy innovation ecosystem. Songyang County has gathered nearly 160 integrated transportation industry enterprises, with its smart transportation sector approaching a scale of 10 billion yuan. Qingtian County is advancing coordinated development between computing infrastructure and industrial ecosystems through its metaverse computing platform.

Ecology fuels prosperity, blazing a new trail for old revolutionary areas. Pioneering the mechanism for realizing the value of ecological products, Lishui is vigorously advancing transformative practices of “ecologizing the economy and economizing the ecology”. Through continuous innovation in industrial pathways, the city has opened new horizons for the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”, painting a new landscape of common prosperity where revolutionary “red” heritage harmonizes with ecological “green” development.

Not long ago, the cumulative transaction volume of the Zhejiang (Lishui) Ecological Product Trading Platform exceeded 10 billion yuan, marking a solid step forward for Lishui City in realizing the value of ecological products.

In Qingyuan County, the National Forest Reserve Project has boosted the annual income of 100,000 forest farmers by 35 yuan per mu through forest land circulation and centralized management. Yunhe County’s snow pear industry has consolidated over 1,700 mu of fragmented land to establish high-standard demonstration planting bases, enhancing brand premium rates. The platform has also innovated with a “carbon sink + finance” model, launching products such as carbon sink loans and insurance to monetize ecological resources. By extracting “high value” from the “high appearance level” of the ecology, Lishui is broadening pathways for mountain-region residents to prosper.

In 2024, the per capita disposable income of all residents reached 50,015 yuan, crossing the 50,000 yuan threshold with a year-on-year increase of 6.0%. Notably, rural residents’ per capita disposable income grew by 7.1%, outpacing urban growth and further narrowing the urban-rural income gap.

Leveraging overseas chinese as a bridge, expanding high-level opening-up.

Focusing on import trade, Qingtian County has hosted six editions of the Overseas Chinese Import Commodities Fair, attracting over 3,000 foreign exhibitors from 70+ countries and regions. A total of 3,416 brands and 1,024 overseas wineries have settled in the Qingtian Overseas Chinese Import Commodity City, generating cumulative intended transaction value of 13.11 billion yuan. The city is rapidly emerging as a “first-tier import hub”.

While bringing global goods home, Qingtian County is also sending local products abroad. Its “first-release economy” blueprint is unfolding. The “Western Cuisine Master” branded stores have expanded to over 10 cities nationwide, while specialty products like Qingtian bayberries, rice noodles, and Qianxia Lake fish heads are gaining global popularity. In 2023, Qingtian’s agricultural exports reached 159 million yuan.

Strengthening transportation infrastructure, accelerating integration into Yangtze River Delta. With an investment exceeding 10 billion yuan, the Lishui Airport—dubbed “East China’s Highest Slope Airport”—is set to commence operations soon, ending Lishui’s lack of air transport and positioning it as a critical node linking the Yangtze River Delta and the West Coast Economic Zone.

Over the past five years, Lishui has prioritized transportation development, completing two railways and one expressway, launching the Quzhou-Lishui Railway, and adding 171 kilometers of rail lines, ending the era of four counties without rail access. Following the renovation of the Oujiang River waterway and the imminent airport opening, Lishui’s transportation network has achieved three historic leaps: “from provincial periphery to regional hub, from basic adequacy to moderate, and from traditional to modern systems”.

Seizing momentum, striving for excellence in 2024. In the new year, Lishui will align with the provincial Party committee’s requirements of “one primary task, three main directions, and two fundamentals”, vigorously promoting the “Six Endeavors” spirit. Through “Lishui’s Resolve”, the city aims to renew the “Lishui Praise” legacy, accelerating its rise as Zhejiang’s new growth pole for high-quality development.