Southeast Asia Information Port News (www.dnyxxg.com) – The Fifth Session of the 18th People's Congress of Xiangyang City concluded on the 16th. The Xiangyang Municipal Government Work Report (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") disclosed that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the city will accelerate its development into a truly provincial sub-center city, strive to build a regional center city for development in central and western China, better lead the Han River basin, radiate to the Nanxiang Basin, and link high-quality development in northwestern Hubei, making due contributions to Hubei's accelerated development into an important strategic pillar for the rise of central China.
Xiangyang is an important old industrial base in China and Hubei Province, with a solid industrial foundation. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Xiangyang will promote the transformation of its industrial structure from "one industry dominating" to "multiple points supporting it," and accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system that reflects Xiangyang's advantages.
By 2025, Xiangyang will vigorously implement the "Two Resources and Three Capabilities" project (project establishment and investment attraction, production capacity release, technological upgrading, and supply chain strengthening). The city established 10 investment promotion teams, attracting 456 projects with investments exceeding 100 million yuan, totaling 350.4 billion yuan. It also built and put into operation a "five-pronged" management platform, strengthening full life-cycle service management, with an 88.9% commencement rate for investment projects exceeding 100 million yuan.
Xiangyang, known as the "Phosphorus Capital of Central China," possesses unique advantages for developing the phosphorus chemical industry. In 2025, Xiangyang achieved breakthroughs in attracting and implementing projects such as the Hubei United Investment Phosphorus-Coal-Fluorine Industrial Base and the Xingfa Baogu Phosphorus Chemical Industrial Park, accelerating the formation of a "golden triangle" pattern encompassing Baokang (mineral output area), Gucheng, and Yicheng (industrial development areas).
It is understood that Xiangyang will deeply integrate into Hubei's "51020" modern industrial cluster, promoting the coordinated development of the Wuhan-Xiangyang-Yicheng "golden triangle." Zhou Jianhong, a member of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Xiangyang Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, stated that the city will optimize and upgrade its three leading industries—automobiles, modern chemicals, and agricultural product processing—and cultivate and strengthen four distinctive supporting industries: new energy and new materials, high-end equipment manufacturing, bio-manufacturing, and low-altitude economy.
By 2025, Xiangyang will comprehensively promote new urbanization and rural revitalization, fostering common prosperity and development between urban and rural areas. The report shows that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Xiangyang will accelerate the construction of an innovative, livable, beautiful, resilient, civilized, and intelligent modern people's city, and accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.
Walking into the ancient city of Xiangyang, the renovation and utilization projects of the East and West Drum Tower shopping malls and squares are progressing smoothly. "The ancient city has changed a lot in recent years." Strolling along North Street after dinner is a long-standing habit of resident Li Xiu. As a witness to the ancient city's revitalization, her phone's photo album contains many old photos of the ancient city.
In the vast countryside, the revitalization scene is equally vibrant. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Xiangyang's agricultural products have achieved stable production and supply, and rural characteristic industries have accelerated their development. Zhao Qing, chairman of the Zhaizi Rice Planting Professional Cooperative in Nanzhang County, has been rooted in the countryside for many years, driving farmers' income growth through organic farming. "I hope to drive villagers' income growth and prosperity through the entire industrial chain, and establish a brand so that more villagers can benefit," she said.
In the early morning in Xiangyang, the streets and alleys are filled with the aroma of butter. Currently, over 100 of Xiangyang's nearly 7,000 noodle shops operate 24 hours a day. During holidays, the city sells approximately 1.5 million bowls daily, making Xiangyang beef noodles a crucial window into the city's image.
"City IP has become an important vehicle for cultivating new consumption formats and enhancing urban brand recognition," said Yu Yuanyuan, Director of the Yicheng City Culture and Tourism Bureau. She added that Xiangyang is currently making every effort to expand new consumption patterns and urgently needs to transform its cultural resource advantages into economic development advantages, using IP to empower the upgrading of cultural tourism consumption.
By 2025, Xiangyang will adhere to the principle of closely integrating people's livelihood and consumption promotion, optimizing supply and activating demand simultaneously to comprehensively promote the upgrading and expansion of consumption. Currently, Hubei Province is focusing on supporting Xiangyang and other areas in building international distinctive tourist cities. To this end, Xiangyang will accelerate the pace of high-quality development of cultural tourism, contributing Xiangyang's strength to Hubei's goal of becoming a world-renowned cultural tourism destination. As of now, Xiangyang has 59 A-level tourist attractions, continuously strengthening its cultural tourism industry foundation.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Xiangyang achieved new progress in people's livelihood: 510,000 new urban jobs were created, and per capita disposable income exceeded 40,000 yuan; 60 new or expanded compulsory education schools were built; life expectancy reached 79.2 years; and the city was awarded the titles of National Civilized City and National Food Safety Demonstration City.
On January 16, Xiangyang announced its 2026 livelihood projects, covering key areas of social welfare such as employment and entrepreneurship, medical services, education, and transportation. According to reports, Xiangyang will conduct over 600 recruitment events, creating over 100,000 new urban jobs; provide free non-invasive prenatal genetic screening for pregnant women aged 35 and above; conduct 5,000 training sessions for "caring mothers"; and provide 1,000 sessions of care services, including daily living assistance and psychological counseling, for left-behind children.
Currently, Xiangyang, an ancient city with a rich cultural heritage, is leveraging its vigorous industrial transformation, robust urban-rural integration, vibrant consumption, and people-centered approach to comprehensively enhance its development capacity, speed, quality, efficiency, and potential, striving to become a regional central city for development in central and western China. (End)
