Shanxi province, a key player in the vast economic sphere of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is poised to become a new hub of opening-up in China's inland regions. 

The 2026 Government Work Report emphasizes the need to "further expand high-level opening-up" and "steadily broaden institutional opening-up to enhance international circulation", presenting Shanxi with fresh opportunities at a crucial stage in its transformation.

As 2026 marks the start of the "15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30)", Shanxi is set to actively deepen BRI collaborations to advance key tasks for the rise of Central China, while further integrating into the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development and strengthening pragmatic cooperation with the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and provinces along the Yellow River.

Efforts will also focus on upgrading platforms like comprehensive bonded zones, airports, and international land ports, while developing an airport economic zone. Shanxi plans to foster digital, service, and green trade and to enhance China-Europe and China-Asia freight train services. Using green electricity industrial parks, the province will nurture foreign trade enterprises and expand commodity imports and exports. Furthermore, Shanxi will actively undertake the transfer of foreign manufacturing industries and facilitate foreign direct investment.

From deepening regional cooperation with Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Greater Bay Area, to expanding international sister city relations with 32 countries and 67 local governments, Shanxi is striving to chart a new chapter in opening-up.