Kubuqi desert forum focuses on green economy

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2017-08-02

The Sixth Kubuqi International Desert Forum met in the Kubuqi Desert, North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region on July 29. The forum focused on sand control and the green economic development of countries along the Belt and Road.

During the three-day event, over 500 officials, experts, entrepreneurs and journalists from across 30 countries attended the forum and discussed issues concerning technological innovation to control desertification, poverty eradication projects in impoverished areas, and economic cooperation among Belt and Road countries.

The Kubuqi Desert is China’s seventh largest sand area measuring 18,600 kilometers. Inner Mongolia’s Elion Group has dedicated itself to controlling desertification in an area measuring over 6,000 km during the past three decades, through ecological restoration and photovoltaic technology.

The forum was sponsored by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, the State Forestry Administration, Inner Mongolia People’s Government, the United Nations Environment Programme and Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

Li Jiheng, secretary of Inner Mongolia Party Committee, addresses the Sixth Kubuqi International Desert Forum held in the Kubuqi Desert, North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region on July 29, 2017. [Photo/China Daily]

Desert plants help control the spread of desertification in the Kubuqi Desert, North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region on July 29, 2017. [Photo/China Daily]

A herdsman walks camels in the Kubuqi Desert, North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region on July 29, 2017. [Photo/China Daily]