A Volkswagen employee works on an assembly line in Chengdu, Sichuan province, in December. [Photo by WANG QIN/FOR CHINA DAILY]

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 main business revenue of companies in the high-tech industry in 2021 reached 2.3 trillion yuan, which was 2.8 times that of 2012.

In the past 10 years, Sichuan has seen wider opening up. China-Europe freight trains connect Sichuan with 75 overseas cities and the number of air routes increased to 131. The province has attracted more than 5,200 foreign-funded companies.

Wang said that the province had lifted 6.25 million people out of poverty. The average life expectancy in the province increased from 75.2 years in 2012 to 77.9 years in 2021.

Huang Qiang, governor of Sichuan, said the province now has better water and air quality, with forest coverage rate reaching over 40 percent, up 5 percentage points from 10 years ago.