GDP growth

Minhou has made great strides in development in recent years. Its GDP surpassed 100 billion yuan ($13.81 billion) in 2022, making it one of only 52 counties in the country to achieve the milestone.

The county's economic strength has improved significantly over the past 12 years, moving from 100th in the national ranking of counties' economic performance in 2011 to 38th in 2022.

The change in fortunes is thanks mainly to the cultivation of six industrial clusters: automobiles; electromechanical engineering; building materials; food products; home decoration; apparel and textiles, each with a production value exceeding 10 billion yuan.

In 1992, Xi emphasized during a discussion with village cadres in Qingkou, Minhou, the need to establish an image of people who provide excellent services and who are also able to cooperate.

"If we have the right talents and efficiency, who wouldn't love Minhou and come here? Then this place will become a treasure trove, accelerating its development," he said.

At China Southeast Auto City Park — a modern industrial park that integrates automobile development research, production, and sales — the local government has taken the lead in providing services to make enterprises' operations easier.

Minhou Qingkou Automotive Industrial Park Government Service Hall houses 15 departments, 34 service windows and provides 560 services.

"The hall is located in the center of the industrial park, and most companies in the park are within a 10-minute drive, allowing for quick completion of tasks within half an hour without affecting normal work," said Wu Pengzheng, deputy director of the management committee of the industrial park.

"If there are relevant tasks that do not fall under the jurisdiction of the departments, requests can be submitted here (at the hall) for unified processing by staff at the county level," he said, adding that automated and intelligent services are also provided.

"The hall is equipped with self-service machines for certain transaction services, allowing clients to complete tasks without queuing at the windows," Wu said.