An unmanned seeding and lamination machine sows cotton in Kuqa County, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on March 26, 2021. Photo:VCG

A national meeting on rural and agricultural support for Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has called for efforts to boost industrial development in the region, particularly the southern parts of Xinjiang to increase jobs and income in the next five years.

The meeting, which was held over the weekend, underlined the importance of establishing a modern agriculture and animal husbandry industrial, production and operation system in Xinjiang to boost economic growth and improve livelihood, according to an article from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The industrial structure in Xinjiang needs to be further optimized to stabilize grain output while promoting cotton, fruit and animal husbandry sectors. In addition to effectively developing high-standard farmland and facilitating seed breeding, it also calls for building complete industry chains and developing new industries, including rural tourism.

To foster growth momentum in Xinjiang, the meeting urged to step up efforts in attracting leading agricultural enterprises to set up manufacturing and processing bases in Xinjiang with the goal to realize the full coverage by provincial-level large enterprises within major industries by the end of 2025.

In addition to facilitating industrial technology capacity in all Xinjiang counties that have eliminated poverty, targeted and functional training will also be offered to farmers.

As for the development of southern Xinjiang, which has a challenging geography and lower living standards, industrial clusters will be designed systematically and national-level modern agriculture industrial parks will be established, according to the meeting. The efforts will help improve the livelihood of more farmers in southern Xinjiang.

With national level planning and supports, Xinjiang has seen great achievement both in terms of economic growth and improvement in people's livelihood over the past several years.

This is marked by a sound economic momentum with an average annual GDP growth rate of 7.2 percent in Xinjiang during 2014-19, people's living standards being significantly improved with an average annual 9.1 percent growth in residential per capita disposable income, the Xinhua News Agency reported.