Province balances ecology, economy for sustainable growth

Jiangxi province needs to strike a balance between economic growth and environmental protection and seek sustainable development during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), according to the 12th plenary meeting of the 13th Jiangxi provincial committee of the Communist Party of China on Monday.

"We are striving to make Jiangxi both a rich and beautiful place," Qiang Wei, Party chief of the province, said in a recent interview with Xinhua News Agency.

Jiangxi has made great progress in preserving its natural landscape and improving the environment over the past year.

At the beginning of the year, the provincial government issued a guideline for building ecological demonstration zones and launched 60 projects to promote the initiative.

The number of days the province has had good air quality this year accounts for 90.5 percent of the total thus far, and water in 80.9 percent of the province's rivers reached the national quality standards, according to the provincial Environmental Protection Department.

The province has also prioritized some counties for development of ecological civilization and established an ecological compensation mechanism that covers forests, wetlands and exploitation of mineral resources.

"People normally associate ecological conservation with sluggish economic growth, which is not true," Qiang said. "Jiangxi is seeking green development to achieve the win-win outcomes of both economic growth and environmental protection.

"Sustainable development can only be achieved through economic restructuring and innovation-driven growth in the context of the economic new normal. The old extensive growth pattern featuring energy-hungry and high-pollution industries should be abandoned."

Jiangxi has put forward a strategy for developing modern agriculture and service sectors to achieve new industrialization in its 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), Qiang said.

The strategy features a low-carbon environmentally friendly industrial system, an organic agricultural system and an efficient service system, according to the provincial government.

Wuning, a mountainous county in northwestern Jiangxi, epitomizes the province's efforts in ecological conservation and green development.

About 77 percent of the county's territory, or 270,000 hectares, is covered by forest and its forest stock volume stands at 14.52 million cubic meters.

The residents in the county used to live in poverty and were barely able to make ends meet by selling trees they cut down in the mountains.

Nowadays, the local residents enjoy a better quality of life by engaging in ecological agriculture and tourism.

The per capita disposable income of farmers in the county increased by 87.8 percent over the past four years, and reached 10,717 yuan ($1,678) last year.

In the past three years, the county has launched 41 agricultural projects each with investment worth more than 30 million yuan and 23 tourism projects with total investment of 43 billion yuan. Of the 41 projects, 18 have attracted investment of more than 100 million yuan.

The county is also home to more than 120 healthcare farms. "A large number of tourists visit Wuning during holidays, and the parking lots of the farms are packed with vehicles from outside the county," said Li Jun, deputy director of the county's tourism development commission.

The Xihaiwan Scenic Zone in the county, with investment of 300 million yuan by the county government, was named a national 4A-level - the second highest - tourist attraction by the National Tourism Administration last year.

The county was also named the No 1 Landscape County at the Beautiful China Development Forum in November last year.

"Green mountains and clear waters can be transformed into sources of economic growth. But we cannot sit by idly but should make great efforts to make that happen," said Shen Yang, Party chief of Wuning.

shixiaofeng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/27/2015 page17)