Northeast China's Liaoning Province, one of China's old industrial bases, has come "out of its most difficult time," and is entering into a new era of sound and stable development, Tang Yijun, the provincial governor said on Wednesday.

In 2018, Liaoning's GDP is expected to reach 2.53 trillion yuan ($374 billion), a year-on-year growth of 5.6 percent. Local fiscal revenues amounted to 452.5 billion yuan, an increase of 7.8 percent compared with a year before, according to the local government work report, delivered by Tang on Wednesday.

Liaoning's gross domestic product (GDP) only grew by 4.2 percent in 2017, lagging behind the national growth rate of 6.9 percent. Provincial GDP shrank 2.5 percent in 2016, and it was the only region reporting negative growth across China that year.

The public budget revenue reached 261.6 billion yuan in 2018 with a year-on-year increase of 9.3 percent, according to the latest report.

Tang said that Liaoning had achieved major breakthroughs in significant projects such as transportation in 2018, and the province's target this year would be to "maintain the economic growth at a reasonable level, and keep the GDP growth at a similar level to the country's growth."

China has been ramping up efforts to rejuvenate the Northeast region, which consists of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces and dominated by traditional industries such as steel and automobile manufacturing.