Gansu Accelerates Industrial Upgrade with Digital, Green and Future Industry Layouts

Northwest China’s Gansu Province is forging a new industrial development path by empowering traditional industries, expanding emerging sectors and pioneering future-oriented industries, driven by digital transformation and clean energy advantages. According to official industrial operation data, the province’s digital economy scale exceeded 520 billion yuan during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, with newly installed new energy capacity surpassing 56 million kilowatts and an average annual industrial added-value growth rate of 6.2 percent. Industrial momentum continues to strengthen, with the added value of strategic emerging industries and high-tech manufacturing in the first quarter of this year rising 9.2 percent and 16.6 percent year-on-year respectively.

Gansu has delivered tangible results in upgrading traditional manufacturing industries. Local enterprises have achieved high-value resource recycling through independent core technologies, extracting rare and precious metals from industrial smelting waste residues. The added value of scattered metal products has increased more than tenfold, and key metal materials have been successfully applied in aero-engine components for domestic large aircraft, breaking previous reliance on imported supplies.

Digital transformation is reshaping traditional equipment manufacturing. Leading local equipment manufacturers have lifted the penetration rate of digital R&D and design tools above 95 percent and achieved over 80 percent numerical control rate in key production processes. These enterprises have evolved from pure equipment suppliers to intelligent service providers, supporting digital upgrading and cloud migration for more than 200 enterprises across the province and beyond. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Gansu completed 1,424 industrial transformation projects, building over 30 industrial internet platforms, 45 5G factories and 122 intelligent factories to underpin high-quality traditional industry development.

Emerging industries centred on digital computing and low-carbon manufacturing are gaining robust traction. Qingyang, a core node of China’s national East Data, West Computing strategy, has built a data centre cluster with intelligent computing capacity exceeding 15 PFLOPS. Leveraging abundant photovoltaic and wind power resources, the region promotes direct green power connection to computing parks, enabling low-carbon and sustainable operation of digital infrastructure.

The expanding computing capacity supports innovative industrial scenarios. Real-time data processing and intelligent scenario adaptation for low-altitude flight have become accessible. The first low-altitude economy track of the National Digital China Innovation Competition settled in Qingyang, attracting 405 teams with 1,570 participants nationwide in April this year.

Gansu’s advanced non-ferrous metal industrial cluster covers Jinchang, Baiyin, Lanzhou and Wuwei, forming a complete upstream and downstream industrial chain. Collaborative research by local enterprises and universities has developed high-purity oxygen-free copper strips, filling key technical gaps for the industrialisation of medical heavy-ion accelerators. The cluster hosts 34 national-level technological innovation platforms and gathers high-end expert talents to drive industrial iteration.

The province is also actively deploying forward-looking future industries by leveraging its unique geographical and resource endowments. A 2MW liquid-fuel thorium molten salt experimental reactor operates steadily in Minqin County, creating safe and efficient inland nuclear energy application solutions. Jinta County is building a commercial space innovation test area with 28 planned launch pads, fostering the Jinta space industry cluster.

Breakthroughs continue in medical isotope and quantum technology fields. The main accelerator device of the IP-SAFE project was installed in Lanzhou New Area in February this year, marking solid progress in the construction of the world’s first medical isotope mass production demonstration device based on superconducting linear accelerators. Gansu will further improve its innovation system, focusing on key technologies in quantum sensing and special robots to sustain long-term industrial vitality.