XI'AN — Shaanxi province, a former revolutionary base of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has seen great achievements in ecological protection and technological innovation, which further boost the region's high-quality development, local officials said.

Located in Northwest China's arid hinterland, the province's forest coverage rate has increased from 32.55 percent before the large-scale forestation project to 45 percent last year, the provincial publicity department told a press conference on June 9.

It has so far returned 1.89 million hectares of farmland to forest and grassland, and fixed over 573,000 hectares of moving sand along the Yellow River, according to Liu Guozhong, Party chief of Shaanxi.

Shaanxi has also ramped up efforts to strengthen technological innovation in recent years. It is now home to more than 100 universities and colleges, 1,500 scientific institutions, and over 2 million professional technical talents.

The number of high-tech enterprises in Shaanxi rose by 41 percent year-on-year in 2020, Liu added.

The province's GDP has increased from less than 1.3 billion yuan (around $203 million) since the founding of the People's Republic of China, to 2.62 trillion yuan last year.