The economy of Yichang maintained the steadily advancing momentum during the first 3 quarters of 2019, with the main economic indicators in a reasonable range, according the City-wide 3-Quarters Economy Analysis Meeting on October 28. The registered GDP growth came to 8.1%, placing it second in the whole Hubei Province. The numbers of enterprises with their main business revenues above RMB 20 million saw a 10.1% rise, leading the province. The fixed-asset investment gained 12.1%, while the investment and project construction took the first 3 spots in Hubei for 3 consecutive quarters. And the total retail sales of consumer goods came in third place, with the increase of 12.1%.

　　Effective investment won strong support. The number of monthly major project under construction in Yichang reached 77, with a total investment of RMB 62.9 billion. The number of newly-signed major industrial project of over RMB 50 million and new investment project of over RMB hundred million reached 827 and 119 respectively, a three-fold increase. 119 of the 126 key projects at provincial or municipal level have began construction, with their investment of 37.16 RMB billion, completing 105.9% of the investment plan. Of all the projects, the 600,000 TonGlycolProject ofSanningChemical Plant, Yangtze River Bridgeof WujiagangDistrict andrelocationproject ofHuaqiang Technologyco. ltdwere advancedsmoothly, GACMotorProject was officially put into production, Yangtze River bridgein ZiguiCountyand new toll stationsin WujiagangDistrictwere open to traffic.

　　Yichang’s industries saw faster transformation and upgrading. The output of emerging industries, such as equipment manufacturing, new materials, bio-medicine and electronic information, rose by 15.7%, accounting for 42.3% of the gross industrial output of Yichang. The output of high-tech industry grew by 16.8%, outstripping that of industry by 1.8%. The task of chemical enterprises to shut down, transform, move away or switch to other production progressed smoothly. At present, 31 chemical enterprises have been shut down, 3 have been relocated, 48 have been transformed and upgraded, and 6 have switched their production. The city received 76.291 million visitors, at a 15.9% increase. It is estimated that the growth of logistics will grew by 11.1% due to the fact that Yichang entered the first batch of National Logistics Hub Construction List.

　　With the focus on key enterprises, the top 100 key enterprises in Yichang showed a year-on-year gross industrial output growth of 13.3%, taking up 47.8% of Yichang’s gross industrial output. Some leading enterprises, such as Sanning ChemicalPlant, Yichang Humanwell Pharmaceuticalco., Ltd., Yichang Changjiang Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Angel Yeast Co., Ltd, andDaohuaxiang Groupachieved anincreased output valueof28.7%, 35.9%, 35.8%, 25.2%and 33.0% respectively.

　　Business environment was further improved. The capacity of online government affairs has seen steady development, which covers 98.6% of application items. Yichang has advanced “3550 plus 100”Reform (refers to the request that it shall take 3 days to start a business, 5 days for the registration of real estate, 50 days for approval of industrial investment project, and 100 days for approval to develop an industrial project), so that enterprises can start a business within 3 days, finish the real estate registration in 2 days, get construction permission for all industrial parks in 50 days, and obtain project construction approval in no more than 88 days. Financial safeguard was constantly intensified, with additional RMB 33.37 billion of various mortgage balances than that of the beginning of the year. Yichang will fully implement tax cut policies, with a total of tax cut amount of RMB 2.45 billion.

　　Yichang’s agricultural production remainsstable.Leisure agriculture and rural tourism areflourishing. There are81 demonstration sites at or above the municipal level, and over 4,900 business entities of leisure agriculture.

　　Agricultural production was generally stable, especially the thriving leisure agriculture and rural tourism, with the number of demonstration sites above the municipal level reaching 81, that of leisure agricultural businesses exceeding 4,900.

　　Yichang will accomplish the main yearly targets according to the goals set at the beginning of the year, plan out key tasks and prepare various missions for the next year. (Reporter:Gao Wei; Correspondent: Gu Pengcheng)