Events and industries attractting attention

Guizhou, a mountainous province in Southwest China, is attracting increasing overseas attention through the following events and industries.

Global Eco-Forum

To match the increasing focus on solving climate and environmental problems, the Eco-Forum Global Guiyang, held in the provincial capital Guiyang, has accelerated efforts to reach global consensus to achieve sustainable development.

The annual event has run for six years and is authorized by the State Council as the only national forum that concentrates on eco-civilization.

Political figures such as former British prime minister Tony Blair, former prime minister of Ireland Bertie Ahern, and former chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder have taken part in the conference in the past.

Guizhou has 176,000 square kilometers of remote wilderness that has managed to remain, in many ways, untainted by modernity.

Miao medicine

Miao medicine refers to the traditional remedies used by the Miao ethnic group for thousands of years.

Miao people traditionally live in mountainous areas, which are rich in natural medicines of good quality.

In recent years, several herbal medicine plantations and production bases were set up to further explore and develop popular herbal medicines in areas where Miao communities live.

Some medicines have become raw materials for patented drugs, healthcare food and cosmetics and others are prescribed by hospitals.

Annual sales of Miao medicine rose to 15 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) within 30 years. It was the first national ethnic medicine valued and is known as the "Miao medicine phenomenon".

Moutai

Moutai is a brand of the Chinese liquor baijiu, which is distilled from fermented sorghum.

It is produced in the town of Maotai near Renhuai city in Guizhou. It is believed that Maotai town has a unique climate and vegetation that contributes to the taste of the drink, which is the top brand drunk at luxury Chinese banquets.

Big data

China Mobile Communication Corp, China Telecom and China Unicom have footholds in Guizhou's big data industry.

Taiwan business guru and CEO of Foxconn, Terry Gou, decided to invest in Gui'an New District in Guizhou to build the fourth generation industrial park.

At the start of the project he promised he would "build a real ecological high tech industry".

It is expected that in Guizhou Foxconn will achieve 100 billion yuan ($16.4 billion) in output by 2018.

More and more industry giants are eyeing Guizhou's potential growth in the sector.

yangjun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/04/2015 page7)