Shift to green empowers innovation

Company seizes opportunities in nation's transition to pursue high-quality growth

Ever since the official announcement was made at the end of August that the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China would begin on Oct 16, 31-year-old Zhang Renyi has been reading up on Party history whenever he has spare time.

"Studying history helps me understand the past and it is one of the best ways to approach the future, especially for such an important occasion as the congress," Zhang said. Moreover, each time he examines Party history, he can learn something new.

Zhang was among a group of Party members that Chint Group organized to watch the opening session of the congress live on TV at its headquarters in Wenzhou city, Zhejiang province last Sunday.

Born in 1991 in the city, Zhang joined the company, a leading smart and green energy solutions provider with a global presence, in 2014 after graduating from college, mainly helping develop and promote its corporate culture, in particular sustainability.

"I am very proud of China's past accomplishments and confident about its future," Zhang, who became a Party member in 2013, said after watching the opening session.

In the report he delivered at the opening session, Xi Jinping hailed the historic achievements of the Party and the country, saying that the country has put forward and applied a new development philosophy, worked hard to promote high-quality development, and pushed to foster a new pattern of development, adding that China has joined the ranks of the world's innovators.

As a top innovative private enterprise in the area of renewable energy, the development of Chint Group is also part of the success story.

Over the 38 years since Chint was established, the number of its Party members grew from 5 to 1,791, and its operating revenue increased from 50,000 yuan ($6,900) to more than 100 billion yuan, according to Wu Bingchi, Party secretary and chairman of the board of supervisors of Chint Group.

"General Secretary Xi Jinping has always cared about private enterprises," Wu said. "The rapid progress by Chint Group has benefited enormously from the guidance and policies of the Party.

"We will continue to focus our efforts on the innovation of key technologies and fully leverage the potential market opportunities in the pursuit of the 'dual carbon' goals," Wu said.

Over the past decades, China has been making persistent efforts to achieve the goals of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. In September 2020, it pledged to realize the "dual carbon" goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.

The products and services provided by Chint Group, especially in the field of photovoltaic energy, have greatly aided China's green transition. The company has built more than 690 photovoltaic power plants and 700,000 distributed solar photovoltaics in and outside of China.

Official figures show that by 2021, China's energy consumption per unit of GDP had dropped by 26.2 percent compared with 2012, equivalent to a reduction of 2.94 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

In his report, Xi again highlighted the importance of green development for China's future.

The country will carry out coordinated industrial restructuring, pollution control, ecological conservation and climate response, and will promote concerted efforts to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, expand green development and pursue economic growth, he said.

The concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", which Xi first proposed in Zhejiang while serving as the province's Party secretary, has not only guided the development of companies like Chint, but also improved the lives of villagers in places such as Eshan She ethnic township in Tonglu county of Hangzhou, the provincial capital.

In the past decade, thanks to the upgrading of its infrastructure and the development of its agritainment business, fiscal revenue of the township has jumped from 15.9 million yuan to 56.3 million yuan, and per capita disposable income has more than tripled to 38,284 yuan.

"I was born and grew up here," said Li Dan, a 27-year-old villager from the township. "I have witnessed firsthand the transformation of the township in the last 10 years."

Gathering with close to 100 fellow She people to watch the opening session at the local ethnic and culture square, Li couldn't hide her excitement.

"With better houses, better roads and more convenient public transportation, our dream to enjoy a better life has simply come true," she said.

Qi Xiao contributed to this story.