Zhejiang’s success in social, economic and environmental development is not simply a string of eye-catching statistics and figures; real people are working hard for it. The six stories that follow are just some of the best examples showing the world why Zhejiang is leading the pack at present and why it will continue to do so in the future.

The Story of  Digital Reform in Hangzhou

In early 2020, to help enterprises weather the difficulties wrought by COVID-19 and deliver the support promised to them in a timely and non-face-to-face manner, Hangzhou municipal government’s “Qinqing Online” digital platform was launched, facilitating direct communication between government and enterprises, which is an important achievement of Zhejiang’s digital transformation.

“Qinqing Online” couldn’t have been possible without the Hangzhou City Brain system, an original innovation of Hangzhou. In 2016, Hangzhou proposed the concept of City Brain for the first time, initially an attempt to alleviate traffic congestion in the city through the use of big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. Hangzhou has continuously enriched and expanded the City Brain to solve difficulties in urban governance and services. In 2020, while proactively fighting COVID-19, the Hangzhou municipal government introduced a health code system, the first in the nation, allowing healthy people to travel freely.

Direct service delivery via process re-engineering. “Qinqing Online” is a practice of digital-service-oriented government with a focus on process re-engineering. By optimizing process flows of policies and services, “Qinqing Online” provides a platform for direct interactions between government departments and companies with improved service delivery. Take “employee rental subsidy” during the epidemic as an example. Thanks to process re-engineering, the complicated claiming process that used to take 1 to 2 months is now reduced to one or two seconds with “zero materials, zero approvals, and instant cash-out”.

Digital empowerment for the benefit of government governance. By breaking down data barriers and improving data collaboration and data governance capacity, “Qinqing Online” has gradually opened a new path of harnessing digital technology to help with city management. With City Brain as its engine, it has established 453 data interfaces and integrated more than 300 service modules with 53 government departments including taxation, human resources, housing management, natural resources and planning, and services in 14 districts and counties (cities). Driven by data collaboration, it has established resource collaboration, business collaboration, service collaboration and supervision collaboration centered on “service scenarios”, and 1.16 million funds and 3.25 million times of service have been delivered accurately, actively and safely and directly to enterprises and employees.

Approval procedure reform on the concept of direct service delivery. “Qinqing Online” has rolled out a series of flagship service programs, such as “approval of investment projects within hours”, “enterprise registry within minutes”, and “related businesses on a single sheet”. It is reshaping the administrative examination and approval procedure by offering “one-click direct access”, which enables enterprises to have direct access to related services with a single click online and without going to the government service center even once. For example, after the optimization and streamlining of the administrative processes, the approval of enterprise industrial projects on “Qinqing Online” was reduced from the original 10 working days for full process approval to 9 and a half hours, which has greatly benefited enterprises.

An innovative approach to adaptive governance based on credit system. By establishing a public credit information platform of Hangzhou and fully applying credit commitments and credit rewards and punishments, “Qinqing Online” has integrated the public credit records and evaluations of enterprises. For the first time, “Qinqing Online” was able to establish a dual random check mechanism based on credit classification, creating a closed-loop online management system of corporate credit. Companies are encouraged to make credit commitments beforehand. The system is able to check their honesty in commitment, control potential risks and punish acts of dishonesty afterward.

Smart city, efficient governance. “Qinqing Online” is an important exploration of modern governance, it combines and makes full use of various data, streamlines procedures, integrates public credit information and provides efficient service. By examining and solving problems from a corporate perspective, “Qinqing Online” breaks through conventions to reform the government services in concepts, behaviors, systems, rules and methods in an all-round way, embarking on a new path to empower the government-business relations with digital technology.

Today, digital applications and platforms similar to “Qinqing Online” can be found everywhere in Hangzhou’s urban governance. In 2021, Zhejiang province is promoting digital reform in an all-round manner. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Zhejiang will promote the modernization of provincial governance, establish an integrated and overall smart governance platform, and push for reforms in digital Party building, digital government, digital society, digital economy and digital rule of law, producing a number of theoretical and institutional innovations.

The Story of a Foreigner Starting Business in Yiwu

Mohammad Falah Nasser, a Jordanian businessman, is now Chairman of Zhejiang Yingfan Trading Co., Ltd. Back in 2002, when he just graduated from university, he came to Yiwu and started a foreign trade business with an initial capital of 30,000 yuan. Today, his company exports commodities from Yiwu to 13 countries and regions including Jordan, Algeria, Tanzania, and Morocco, shipping more than 1,000 containers overseas annually. In 2020, the company’s export delivered outstanding growth of more than 60% despite the epidemic.

In 2002, when he entered Yiwu International Trade City for the first time, Mohammad was stunned by the huge market and the dazzling arrays of products, and saw huge business opportunities in it. Like many other foreigners in Yiwu, he started from a humble office and worked in Yiwu for nearly 20 years. Step by step, he created his own company and brand.

Last year, when COVID  19 broke out, the company’s 80 containers of goods arrived at the Algerian port, and a bill of lading to the bank needed to be submitted to the bank to allow for foreign customers to pick up the goods. Otherwise, it would incur a daily demurrage cost of US$8,000. However, the employee happened to be under home quarantine and could not go out to deal with bank procedures. Mohammad was so worried that he asked the Yiwu Municipal Bureau of Commerce for help. After learning about his difficulties, the Bureau of Commerce worked out a plan to issue a pass for the employee while meeting the requirements on epidemic control as soon as possible. In this way, the employee was able go to the bank to complete the procedures in time, and the company was saved from troubles.

As the epidemic abated, Yiwu was among the first to reopen the market. This time, Yiwu government officials visited the company to ask about his difficulties and advised him on the necessary preparations for the resumption of work and production. With their guidance and help, the factory fulfilled requirements for epidemic prevention, resolved problems such as shortage of supplies, and resumed production soon. Thanks to various incentive policies and logistical and other support, Mohammad’s foreign trade business went back on track. Last year, its export volume grew by 60% against the trend.

For Mohammad, Yiwu is a magical place that has transformed him from a “poor boy” to a “big boss” doing business with the world. “I have been to more than 70 countries around the world, including the United States and many European countries, but I think Yiwu is the best place to do business.” In recent years, with “One-Stop Administrative Service Reform”, Yiwu’s business environment and government services have been continuously improving. In 2004, when Mohammad started his business, it took him more than two weeks to run through the procedures and get licenses. In 2018, when he applied for a wholly foreign-owned enterprise license, it only took him less than two days to complete all the procedures.

After years of operation, Mohammad now exports hardware, power tools, energy-saving lamps and other products from Yiwu market to 13 countries and regions around the world, with a cumulative export volume exceeding 130 million US dollars. He is planning to build a power tool factory in Yiwu to further extend his “industrial chain” and expand his business “friend circle”.

“Our factory has grown from 200 workers to more than 1,700 employees now, and our agents abroad have seen their employees increase from 6 initially to more than 300 now. This also testifies that China’s success not only benefits China, but also promotes the common development of all countries in the world,”said Mohammad. Doing global business in Yiwu makes him feel that we are all in a “global village”. In particular, the Belt and Road Initiative put forward by China has not only strengthened economic ties and shared business opportunities with many countries, but also brought people closer to each other.

“What we have gone through during the fight against COVID-19 made me more convinced that we are living in a common world. I think I should also do something for Yiwu and China.” At the end of January last year, Mohammad purchased a batch of masks in Algeria and donated them to Yiwu government and many Chinese friends. He also donated 80,000 yuan to the Yiwu Red Cross to help the fight against the virus. When COVID-19 broke out in many countries around the world, he donated 400,000 medical masks to Algeria.

The Story of Rural Revitalization in Lujia Village

Located in Anji county, Huzhou city, Zhejiang province, Lujia village covers an area of 16.7 square kilometers with a population of 2,300. In recent years, under the support of the Party committees and governments at all levels and the guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s green development concept, the village relies on leisure agriculture and rural tourism to construct the country’s first family farm area and Tianyuan Complex Demonstration Zone. In 2020, the village collective assets, the annual revenue of the village collective economy, and farmers’ per capita net income reached 290 million yuan, 5.72 million yuan and 47,100 yuan respectively. It has preliminarily reached the goal of  “becoming a village that is strong, prosperous, beautiful and harmonious”.

Environmental governance gives the old village a new look. Lujia village used to be a notoriously dirty, disorderly and poor village in the county. In 2003, when Zhejiang launched the Green Rural Revival Program, the village was among the first to react. Through projects of river improvement, sewage treatment, and classified garbage disposal, the village tried every means to improve its environment and infrastructure. Now, Lujia village has not only built a public service center, a home-care service center, and a cultural activity hall, but also integrated various government projects to create a green, beautiful environment. A picturesque scenic area has come into shape with green waters surrounding the farmhouses in the village.

Planning goes first before development. In 2013, the village leadership gathered more than 20 capable villagers to discuss the village development. They raised 3 million yuan from various sources and invited well-known designers from Shanghai and Guangzhou to make a comprehensive high-standard development plan for the village. On the basis of resource optimization and differentiated operation, Lujia village has established a development blueprint with 18 theme farms as leading projects (such as Flower Farm, TCM Farm, and Mountain Pasture), so as to ensure a balanced layout of industries and common development of farms with complementary advantages in the area.

Breakthroughs in rural revitalization depend on mechanism innovation. In 2016, Lujia village innovatively established a set of distribution mechanisms, created a business model of “company + village + family farm” and “dual management”, and set up an agricultural development company, a rural tourism service company, and a beautiful village training school. By building China’s first family farm cluster, the village has vigorously developed rural tourism. At present, 18 family farms have been set up, 8 of which are in trial operation, and more than 2 billion yuan has been introduced. The village has transformed from a “poor, backward, dirty village” to a garden-like picturesque scenic spot.

Since 2018, the village has received nearly 500,000 tourists each year. Lujia villagers today make a living by collecting rent, earning salaries and sharing dividends. Besides the dividends from the village’s collective economy, each household receives an annual rent of about 8,000 yuan in land circulation. In addition, the jobs created can bring the villagers an annual income of 10 million yuan in salary, and the total housing rent amounts to 3 million yuan.

The development of Lujia village is a vivid practice of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s idea of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. Throughout the years, successive village governments have continued to carry on the blueprint. Taking advantage of its clear rivers and green mountains, the village integrates agriculture with rural areas and farmers, makes full use of its resources, assets and funds, and takes the development of industries as one with the prosperity of the village and the people. It has achieved tremendous changes by vigorously promoting leisure agriculture and rural tourism. In the future, the village will firmly keep in mind its original aspiration, vigorously promote the construction of a national pastoral complex and a national demonstration park for integrated development of agriculture and tourism, and try to translate its beautiful environment into economic benefits, so as to become an important window to showcase the remarkable achievement of China’s rural revitalization.

The Story of Dadu Community Fighting Against COVID-19

Located in Keqiao district， Shaoxing city， Dadu community is the largest “immigrant community” in Zhejiang. It has 6，300 households and over 25，000 residents. More than 60% are from other places， including more than 500 foreigners from Republic of Korea， Pakistan， India， and other countries.

At the beginning of 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic disrupted the peaceful life of the residents of Dadu community. On New Year’s Eve, after receiving an emergency notice, all the community workers went on duty within one hour. After preliminary investigation, they found that 1,428 people were from Hubei, more than 1,700 people from Wenzhou, Taizhou and other epidemic areas in the province, and there were also hundreds of foreigners. Altogether 2,868 people from 715 households needed to be quarantined, but there were only 9 community workers. It was an extremely arduous task.

At the critical moment, the Party members in the community came forward to offer their help, together with some volunteers. The district and sub-district governments also sent some officials to the community to help. In just a few days, a team of 300 people was assembled. Following the order of the government, the community quickly established work teams covering investigation, data collection, testing, procurement, logistics, and inspection, getting ready for the fight against the epidemic.

In order to contain the virus, the community adopted an approach of “early discovery, early isolation and early treatment”. They raced against time to make telephone calls to check the status and health conditions of residents. The first confirmed case in the district was discovered through telephone investigation. On that day, the community workers learned that two people had a low fever on their way back from another place. They immediately reported this to their superior. When the community workers picked them up at the highway intersection in the midnight, they sent them directly to hospital for isolation and examination. One of the two was confirmed and received treatment immediately. After the patient was discharged from hospital, the community followed up on his health condition regularly, and celebrated an unforgettable birthday for him with his family. During the epidemic, there were 3 confirmed cases in the community. Due to the meticulous work of the community workers, they were all detected early, and recovered after treatment without causing secondary transmission.

In addition, with 715 quarantined households, the daily work of the community workers included checking temperature twice, delivery of these daily necessities and other services for the convenience of these households. They made an average of 200 visits a day and walked more than 20,000 steps, with their monthly telephone bills reaching over 5,000 yuan. In order to save time, they just made do with instant noodles and took a nap on their desks when they felt exhausted. As they often went home in the late night, they slept on the sofa with their clothes on so as not to interrupt other members of the family in case of emergency calls. Some community workers felt sick but still kept working without revealing unwellness to the colleagues; some mothers were too busy to breastfeed their months-old babies.

Repetitive ringing of the telephone and long hours of high-intensity work nearly exhausted the community workers. Zhang Xiaohong, the Party secretary of the community, lost 20 kilograms in a month. Though the community workers were worried of being infected when facing suspected patients, they always wore a warm smile before their families and community residents to give them confidence and comfort. Sometimes, some residents couldn’t understand their work, and refused to cooperate or even yelled at them. There were several times that community workers couldn't help but burst into tears, yet they kept explaining to the residents over and over again, in a hoarse voice: “We know that you want to come out, and we also want to go home. What do we do? If you cooperate well, we’ll all be well. Only when your family is well, and everyone is well, can we all go home.”

Finally, their hard work won the support of more and more people.

A foreign resident in the community was resistant to the quarantine measures at first. After detailed explanation by the community workers, she became cooperative. When her quarantine ended, she expressed her apology and gratitude to the workers.

The child of another quarantined foreign family demanded the community workers to check the temperature of his dolls. To calm him dowm, the community workers, in spite of their fatigue, went to take the temperature of the dolls one by one for fourteen days without letup. Deeply moved, the child’s father offered to sign up as a volunteer to serve the community. Now he also mobilized his friends in Keqiao to participate in community work. Because of the hard work of the community workers, the selfless dedication of the Party members, and the joint efforts of every resident, the community finally won the battle against COVID-19. As “masters” of the community, they have also gained a sense of accomplishment.

The Story of  CHINT  Group in Transformation

Over 40 years ago, Nan Cunhui came from a poor peasant family in a small town in southern Zhejiang. In order to make a living, he dropped out of school at the age of 13 and became a roadside cobbler like his father. Later, the breeze of reform awakened the entrepreneurial passion of the Wenzhou people, and the market economy began to sprout.

However, at that time, disputes about “planned economy or market economy” never stopped, and no one knew exactly what to do. Then, the local Party committee and the government promised to respect people’s creativity, which gave the private business owners some reassurance. Nan Cunhui followed the trend of the times and used his own house as a workshop. He borrowed some money and became a self-employed businessman. In the 1980s, he started his own business.

In the early days, the low-voltage electrical appliance market was at the preliminary stage. Nan Cunhui was among the first to hire technical experts, set up laboratories, and apply for production licenses. He was determined to run the business with integrity and compete with quality.

In 1991, he established the Sino-US joint venture—Wenzhou CHINT Electric Co., Ltd., introduced foreign investment, advanced technology and equipment, and determined to take a path of specialized operation. In 1992, in order to promote scale development of the private economy, Zhejiang Provincial Government sent a large number of experts to different private enterprises to provide guidance and introduce modern enterprise management techniques. In 1994, CHINT, a pioneer in China’s business exploration,  established the first enterprise group in the industry. Later, by adopting the concept of value sharing, Nan Cunhui decided to reduce his own personal equity share and allowed for investment in forms of technology, management expertise or operation. In this way, he was one of the first to start a shareholding reform of private enterprises in China. His company was committed to scientific, globalized and intelligent development, so as to get integrated into the Yangtze River Delta, and finally go global and become a leader in low-voltage electrical appliances in Asia.

In the 21st century, the government began to promote transformation and upgrading of industrial economy and develop new energy. Nan Cunhui came to realize that due to the three major global problems of resource shortage, environmental pollution and climate change, it is an inevitable trend to optimize the energy pattern. Developing clean energy is not only the need of the global market and the need of transformation and upgrading, but also the responsibility of enterprises to participate in ecological conservation. He once imagined that if 1% of the earth’s surface was equipped with solar panels, all electricity problems could be solved. What an achievement that would be!

Starting from 2006, CHINT entered the new photovoltaic energy field, forming a full industrial chain of power generation, energy storage, power transmission and transformation, distribution, and energy use. It has explored a series of new green development models with leading technologies and business types, including desert-photovoltaic complementation, agriculture-photovoltaic complementation, fishery-photovoltaic complementation, industrial and commercial roofs, household photovoltaics, multi-energy complementation, and integrated energy services. So far, CHINT has invested and built more than 6 GW of photovoltaic power plants in the world, with an average annual power generation of about 6.4 billion kWh, which can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 6.47 million tons per year. Every day, as the sun rises, CHINT carries out safety management and “butler-style” maintenance services for more than 300,000 roofs.

Looking back on its history of over 40 years, Nan Cunhui and CHINT have always followed the pulse of society and the times, adhered to the customer-centered, market-oriented, and technology-supported development concept, and created a model of integrated development of modern energy, advanced manufacturing and digital technology. With the digital upgrade of upstream and downstream industrial chains and strategic emerging industries, the group has globalized its production layout, marketing network, R&D system and talent team. With more than 37,000 employees, it has created more than 200,000 upstream and downstream jobs and provided products and services to more than 140 countries and regions around the world. During the pandemic, by leveraging its advantages in smart manufacturing and the global value of Chinese companies, CHINT worked with global customers from Italy, Spain, Dubai, and South Africa to fight the epidemic and tide over the difficulties.

In the future, CHINT will seize the major opportunities in industrial internet and energy reforms, and take “One Cloud and Two Networks” (i.e., CHINT Cloud, CHINT Industrial IoT, and CHINT Energy IoT) as its strategic guidance. It will further play its role as a Chinese enterprise in stabilizing growth, promoting innovation, increasing employment, improving people’s livelihood, and promoting “carbon peak and carbon neutrality”, and continue to create new value for the evolution of global commercial civilization and the beautiful life of mankind with safer, cheaper, more environment-friendly and more convenient smart energy.

The Story of Grassroots Governance in Chengxi Village

Located in Sanmen county, Taizhou city, Zhejiang province, Chengxi village has 795 households with 2,255 people and 101 CPC members. Since the establishment of the village Party branch in 1957, there have been nine Party secretaries, namely, Zhang Zhenghe, Jin Jigui, Zhang Yiqi, Ye Jiafa, Zhang Hongjiang, Zhang Hongjun, Zhang Ping, Zhang Yijia, and Zhang Guojin.

Over the past 64 years, the nine successive Party secretaries have always kept in mind their original aspiration of enriching the people, and led the villagers to turn the poor and backward village into a “Well-off Demonstration Village”. With a fixed asset of 360 million yuan, the village now generates an annual income of tens of millions of yuan from collective economy, and a per capita income of 80,000 yuan.

How did the village achieve such great changes? By reading through the 35 diaries recorded by the nine successive secretaries, one can discover the secrets behind the tremendous changes, and the footprints of the village Party branch in leading the local people towards their dreams from 1957 to the present.

In the 1960s, when Chengxi village was called “Fanshen village”, the poverty-stricken villagers still lived in leaky wooden houses with inadequate food and clothing. Then secretary Zhang Zhenghe often said, “if we don’t have enough to eat, what can we do?” What he desired for most was to provide the villagers with enough food. So, he led the people to reclaim land, build water conservancy projects, and farm scientifically. As a result, grain production increased year by year, and the villagers no longer suffered from starvation. He recorded the exciting moment in the notebook in 1963: “In 1963, the total grain output reached 406,245 jin (203.1225 tons), an increase of 27% over 1962.” That year, Chengxi village won the city’s “food production champion”, and was awarded a big ox, which caused a sensation throughout the county. You must know that the value of an ox at that time was no less than that of a BMW or Mercedes-Benz today.

“With enough to eat, the people still have no money. What should we do?” The 1978 diary gave the answer: “Reform. It is risky to be first movers. Still, we need to think out of the box. As long as it is beneficial to the village, we shall be brave to give it a try.” In this way, with the pioneering spirit, successive secretaries joined the reform and opening-up drive. They vigorously developed industry and commerce, and established a hardware factory, a transformer fittings factory and the county’s first village level farmer’s market. In 1985, Zhang Yiqi, the thirdParty secretary, set up a baking-free brick factory, allowing all villagers to receive an annual dividend of more than 100 yuan for the first time. At that time, the price of meat was only two yuan per kilogram.

After 30 years of development, Chengxi village accumulated a certain amount of wealth. Then how should they further innovate and transform to achieve prosperity? In 1988, the fourth secretary Ye Jiafa took office. During his tenure, he engaged in technological transformation, plant expansion, equipment procurement and market expansion for 17 years. Under his leadership, the number of industrial and commercial enterprises of the village soared from a few to 25, which created job opportunities to more than half of the villagers. In 1995, the village became the richest among the county’s “Top 100 Villages” with 100 million yuan as its assets.

With wealth come new expectations for a better life. “We hope to live in a better house, with more colorful cultural life...” Since the 1990s, the wishes of the villagers have appeared in the diaries of successive secretaries.

The well-off buildings, the Senior Villager Activity Center, the Ecological Park... dreams and blueprints came true one after another with the villagers’ joint efforts. In the development of the village, successive Party secretaries always disregarded their own personal interests. In allocation of the villagers’ residential buildings, there were not enough houses for every family. The sixth Party secretary Zhang Hongjun voluntarily gave up his share without any complaints.

Nowadays, every household in the village lives in a well-off building. Villagers have organized various leisure activities all by themselves, such as line dance, Tai Chi and jogging. They improved the village-level regulations for financial management, weddings and funerals, sanitation, and civilized etiquettes. With improved social conducts, the villagers’ sense of happiness and satisfaction also improved. In addition, men above 55 years old and women above 50 years old can receive a sum of pension every year, and elderly people over 60 can also enjoy benefits such as group travel, physical examination, and reunion dinner each year. Besides, all villagers can receive a year-end dividend of about 5,000 yuan every year, as their life becomes better and better.

The 35 diary notebooks are convincing footnotes for the village’s exploration of grassroots governance. It testifies to the commitment of every Party secretary to their original aspirations. In December 2020, Zhang Guojin, who had worked in the two village committees for 19 years, was elected as the ninth Party secretary. In a new notebook, he began to write down his own dreams and the dreams of the villagers. This is the dream to be a good Party secretary, a secretary who keeps pace with the times and contribute his share to enrich the village. He is determined to rebuild a new Chengxi village in the future five years.