Fujian province is set to beef up efforts to cut excessive taxes and charges on local companies as part of its broader push towards a better business climate and invigoration of economic growth, local authorities said.

The Fujian Provincial Department of Finance, along with three other departments, announced at a press conference?last week?that cost cuts for businesses in Fujian in 2018 are targeted at roughly 18 billion yuan ($2.8 billion).

To achieve that goal, it plans to further lighten corporate burdens by reducing costs for electricity, telecommunications, transportation and logistics.

According to a government guideline issued in mid-May, companies in Fujian will be granted a 10 percent cut on electricity costs on an average basis.

Meanwhile, more chargeable items on administrative fees for the corporations will be lowered or canceled, and incremental cross-departmental efforts will be made to prevent illegal charges and ensure that these policies indeed work out effectively, it says.

Statistics show that in the past two years, Fujian has taken a series of measures to help local companies to reduce costs, with the total reduction exceeding 100 billion yuan.

Relieving burdens on corporations plays a significant?role in boosting the real economy, said Huang Jianqing, deputy head of the Fujian Provincial Department of Finance, noting that growth of the real economy acts as a powerhouse in the province's drive to promote economic restructuring for high quality development.

Fujian province, nestled in the southeast coast of China, has long been renowned for its open economy. Its imports and exports, which act as one of the pillars of its economic growth, were valued at 1.16 trillion yuan last year, a 12 percent increase year-on-year.