How to seek further and better development for resource-based cities in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province has become a big concern, according to a meeting during the annual session of the National People's Congress.

The resource-based cities cover 60 percent of the province's area, have 40 percent of the province's population and contributed 54 percent of its GDP in 2013. However, energy industries in the province increased only by 0.1 percent last year, compared with a gross industrial growth of 7 percent, according to Lu Hao, governor of the province.

Two of Heilongjiang's four coal-based cities had a decline in GDP in 2013, said Zhang En'liang, mayor of Qitaihe, one of the four cities.