Baotou has won awards in the 2022 annual evaluation of national industrial transformation and upgrading demonstration zones.

In the notice, jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as well as the Ministry of Natural Resources, seven cities, including Baotou in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, were praised for their annual upgrading results.

In addition, three industrial parks, including the Baotou Rare Earth High-tech Industrial Development Zone, and eight cities, including Baotou, which have made positive progress in five key areas were commended.

According to Sun Yue, chief of the regional vitalization section of the Baotou development and reform commission, Baotou received an excellent rating in its national demonstration zone assessment and being recognized as a city with significant achievements made in key areas.

It was reported that the 12 demonstration cities in the country have developed into regional central cities second only to capitals in their respective provinces, and that their GDPs are now among the top 100 cities nationally.

These cities have cultivated 11 industrial clusters worth over 100 billion yuan ($14.47 billion) in construction machinery, equipment manufacturing, metallurgy and nonferrous metals, biomedicine, new energy, new materials, as well as automobiles and new energy vehicles.