At a vocational college in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a student simulates a futures transaction online. This has been made possible thanks to the Internet Plus education strategy implemented in the region since last July.

The strategy is only one of the many reforms carried out in the region in recent years.

In 2017, Ningxia set the goal of realizing economic prosperity, ethnic unity, a beautiful environment and people's affluence in order to complete building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020 together with the rest of the country.

Another innovation is the Internet Plus medical care strategy that has not only benefited local people but also people in Africa. In March, the No.1 People's Hospital in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia, helped Chinese doctors in Benin in West Africa to conduct an operation through telemedicine.

In addition, Ningxia has prioritized people's well-being. A series of programs have been launched to solve the problem of drinking water for people in arid areas. The regional government spent 76 percent of its fiscal revenue last year on guaranteeing and improving people's livelihood.

Moreover, in order to create a more favorable business environment, Ningxia has improved services for enterprises by streamlining administrative procedures. For instance, the approval process for starting a hospital was reduced from 215 days to just seven days.

In addition, the region reduced the burden on enterprises by 21.3 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) by implementing tax and fee cuts in 2018.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in Outlook Weekly on July 22）