Officials, experts and grassroots representatives on Tuesday called for stronger coordination in regional development, continued efforts to safeguard and improve people's well-being through development, and solid progress toward common prosperity.
They made the remarks at a seminar on the theory and practice of Fujian-Ningxia cooperation in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.
Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended and addressed the seminar.
In 1996, China launched the program of East-West Pairing-off Cooperation for Poverty Reduction under which a developed provincial region in the east assisted a less-developed region in the west.
While serving as a provincial leader in East China's Fujian province in the late 1990s, President Xi Jinping personally oversaw the progress of pairing-off cooperation between Fujian and Ningxia, opening up a successful path and creating a model for cooperation between China's eastern and western regions.
Participants at the seminar said that since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has placed east-west cooperation in an important position in national governance, made a series of strategic plans and advanced innovative practices, leading to historic achievements in such cooperation in the new era.
They underlined the importance of adhering to a people-centered approach to development, and efforts to make full use of China's political and institutional strengths.
Participants called for the development of cultural undertakings and industries in accordance with local conditions to enrich people's cultural lives, while strengthening the protection of historical and cultural heritage and harnessing culture to support the economic and social development of western regions.
Theoretical research and news coverage should be strengthened, they said, calling for efforts to summarize the valuable experience of Fujian-Ningxia cooperation and tell compelling stories of east-west cooperation in the new era.
