Narrator: Zhuang Zeping, Head of Hongsibu District Work Group, 14th Paired Assistance Work Team from Fujian to Ningxia, Deputy Secretary of Party Committee of Hongsibu District, Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

Who would have thought that the once barren wilderness would become a thriving land of plenty, with booming production and sales?

"Green beans picked this morning will be on dinner tables along the coast of Fujian tomorrow evening!" In the greenhouses of the Huihong Modern Facility Agriculture Industrial Park in Yangliu village, Hongsibu district, Wuzhong, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, farmers are busy sorting and boxing their harvest, their faces beaming with joy. This lively scene of production and sales is a vivid testament to 30 years of cooperation between southeast China's Fujian and Ningxia, spanning over 2,000 kilometers, leveraging the advantages of the east to drive development in the west.

As a key area supported by the Fujian-Ningxia pairing assistance program, Hui'an county in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, and Hongsibu district in Wuzhong, Ningxia, have worked together in a two-way, collaborative effort. The Huihong Modern Facility Agriculture Industrial Park is a microcosm of this collaboration. With a total investment of 112 million yuan ($16 million), including approximately 13 million yuan from the Fujian-Ningxia pairing assistance program fund, the project has effectively leveraged private capital for its construction and operation. Since its completion, the park has generated over 8 million yuan in annual labor income for the local community and contributed more than 1.8 million yuan to the collective revenue of Yangliu village, laying a solid foundation for sustainable rural development.

"There are more and more people in the village, and many young people are returning to start businesses or find employment," said Ma Zhirui, Party secretary of Yangliu village. He noted that the governments of both regions have organized villagers to attend trade fairs in Fujian and elsewhere, expanding sales channels and securing a stable market for their specialty agricultural products, giving villagers greater confidence in production and development.

The proactive efforts of business operators have also injected continuous momentum into the Fujian-Ningxia pairing assistance program. The school uniform industry is a distinctive strength of Hui'an county. Xu Jiantian, chairman of Minning Shanhai Industrial Company, established a school uniform factory in Hongsibu and later developed a "base + enterprise + farmers + village collective" model for shared development and prosperity. The model involves bulk purchasing and deep processing of local specialties such as goji berries, daylilies, and beef and mutton. By precisely connecting with markets across the country, products that were once little known outside the region have reached consumers in other regiones, with their added value increasing several times over.

As a major provincial economic powerhouse, Fujian has taken on the responsibility of promoting coordinated regional development. Lin Liangzhen, head of the Rural Revitalization and Cooperation Division of the Fujian Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, explained that over the past 30 years, Fujian has provided more than 7 billion yuan in aid to Ningxia, implemented over 4,000 projects and established 12 Minning industrial parks. Nearly 6,000 Fujian companies have set up operations in Ningxia, and close to 150,000 Fujian residents have worked or lived there. Meanwhile, nearly 50,000 Ningxia residents have found employment, started businesses, married or settled in Fujian.

Three decades of heartfelt collaboration between Fujian and Ningxia have opened a new chapter in their partnership, driving rural revitalization and paving the way toward shared prosperity.