CHENGDU -- Southwest China"s Sichuan province has advanced high-quality development over the past decade, provincial officials have said at a press briefing. The province's gross domestic product rose from 2.39 trillion yuan (about $351 billion) in 2012 to 5.38 trillion yuan in 2021. Sichuan has been transforming itself into a hub of science and technology and a center for innovation factors, according to Wang Xiaohui, secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China. In 2021, the number of high-tech enterprises in the province exceeded 10,000, which is 7.4 times the number in 2012, said Wang. The

Rationing of industrial power consumption in Southwest China"s Sichuan province, a key manufacturing location for the semiconductor and solar panel industries, will have short-term and limited impact on local industries, said corporate representatives and analysts. Sichuan, which is also a lithium hub in the country, has rationed electricity supply to factories in the past few days as a heat wave sent power demand soaring and dried up reservoirs, which has worsened the situation as the region relies on dams to generate 80 percent of its electricity. Several electronics, semiconductor and solar panel manufacturers in Southwest China said they have either

China National Petroleum Corporation, the country"s largest oil and gas producer and supplier, said the company further optimized its production structure last year as it diversifies its business and expands cooperation to meet the country's growing demand for clean energy. The percentage of natural gas in the company's oil and gas production volume was 51.6 percent last year, and the company has also been actively pushing forward clean energy, including solar power, wind power and hydrogen, it said in a 2021 social responsibility report released on Thursday. It has come up with 39 new energy projects put into operation in