The economic growth and development of Shanxi Province, a main coal producer, remains slow, said Governor Li Xiaopeng, the son of former premier Li Peng, during a meeting with a group of state-owned enterprise (SOE) representatives who visited the province for investment talks on Aug. 29, the Want China Times reported.
Li told the SOE representatives that "the current economy of Shanxi generally maintains the same sluggishness seen last year." He added that the economic growth of the province has been slower than the national average and "economic development remains tough."
According to Zhengshier, the Beijing News' official WeChat account, the group of 58 SOEs visited the province and signed a total of 47 deals with Shanxi last week.
The report said that the investment contracts for the province reached the total value of 155.5 billion yuan ($24 billion), with the state-owned enterprises injecting funds of about 97.3 billion yuan ($15.3 billion).
The investment was reportedly the largest in recent years and the rank of the state officials involved in the projects as the highest, according to Shanxi Daily. But Zhengshier expressed doubt that the combined funds of SOEs can help Shanxi get out of its economic situation.
In the first half of the year, the National Bureau of Statistics data on the GDP of the 31 province-level regions in mainland China showed that Shanxi recorded a 2.7-percent GDP growth in the period, 4.3 percentage points lower than the 7 percent of the overall national growth.
The report added that Shanxi is second from last among the 31 regions, with only 0.1 percentage point higher than the Liaoning Province's GDP growth. Last year, the province registered a GDP growth of 4.9, the last among the 31 provinces.
In the industrial sector, particularly the key industry of coal mining, the prospects for the province are bothersome.
On July 28, data published by the Shanxi Daily showed that the province's coal industry lost more than 4 billion yuan ($628 million) in the first half of the year. Year-on-year earnings declined by 6.1 billion yuan ($953 million).
However, in the face of these financial problems, some cities in the province have ensured that the wages of public servants are top priority, the Southern Weekly reported.
"If this year's financial tasks can be completed, we can maintain the wage payments and ensure that government facilities continue running, but if we can't there will be a problem in paying wages and keeping facilities running," an economic affairs official in the province's Fangshan County said.
"The economic structure is not good, and the quality efficiency is not high," Li said in his compiled reports for 2014 and 2015.
"In particular, the dominance of the coal industry has not been changed," he added.