TAIYUAN, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Not long after metaverse became a buzzword in the tech world, generating hopes that it may unlock new potentials of the internet, the term has made its way into the industry policies of China's local governments.

As part of their economic planning for 2022, local decision-makers have vowed to further develop future industries, from metaverse and blockchain to artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality, a move reflective of their growing desire to look to innovation as a key driver of growth.

NEW ECONOMIC MILESTONES

Over the past weeks, China's provincial-level regions held their annual legislative and political consultative meetings, known as "two sessions." Economic data from the meetings showed that various parts of China continued to recover steadily from the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Hubei Province reached 5 trillion yuan (about 789 billion U.S. dollars) last year, a new height for the province once hard hit by the epidemic.

Calling 2021 "extraordinary and challenging," Wang Zhonglin, governor of Hubei, said it was a year full of achievements in post-pandemic recovery.

With the GDP of Dongguan, a city in south China's Guangdong Province, surpassing one trillion yuan, Guangdong now has four cities in the "one trillion yuan club." The GDP of the province itself exceeded 12 trillion yuan for the first time, leading all provincial-level regions.

In 2021, the GDP of north China's Shanxi Province surpassed two trillion yuan. The traditional energy base also saw a continuing switch to high-tech industries, with the added value of industrial strategic emerging sectors and high-tech manufacturing increasing 19.5 percent and 34.2 percent respectively.