Grassroots efforts bring far-reaching rewards

Liang Weixin, Party secretary of Ningde, said officials in the city have visited residents at home to listen to their needs.

Officials and technicians have also been sent to villages to solve local problems.

The authorities in Ningde have created industries for each county based on local characteristics, such as the white tea of Fuding, the mushrooms of Gutian, and the large yellow fish of Jiaocheng.

More importantly, the city now has four major industries: producing lithium-ion batteries and new energy; new energy vehicles; stainless steel; and copper. These industries have a combined production value of some 523 billion yuan.

CATL, for example, has been the world's largest electric vehicle battery manufacturer for six consecutive years, while Tsingtuo Group is the world's largest manufacturer of stainless steel, Liang said. CATL said it earned revenue of 328.6 billion yuan last year, a year-on-year rise of 152 percent, while its net profits reached 30.7 billion yuan, up by 93 percent in 2021.

Lei Biaohua, chief engineer at the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology in Ningde, said the lithium battery and new energy vehicle industry is the biggest in the city, so the local government attaches great importance to its development.

The local authority has set up a special task force to work at CATL to examine and resolve problems the company might experience during its development, he said.

The task force is also responsible for offering a "babysitter-style" service to the company for business expansion, such as obtaining investment and more land.

Moreover, the task force has worked hard to attract businesses in CATL's upstream and downstream industry chain to move to Ningde to create an industrial cluster, Lei said.

For example, CATL's Cheliwan base was built in less than 20 months thanks to the government's efforts in streamlining service and solving problems at grassroots levels, he said.