Jiangxi vows to promote development of Yangtze River Economic Belt

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East China’s Jiangxi province, which boasts a 152-kilometer-long golden waterway along the Yangtze River, is an important component of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and a significant “ecological security barrier“ for the middle and lower reaches of the river.

The province will carry out efforts in five areas to promote the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt: environment reparation, ecological security barrier construction, cultivation of green industries, mechanism innovation and regional cooperation, said Li Zhigang, deputy director of Jiangxi Development and Reform Commission, in August 2018.

It is expected that Jiangxi will see progress in water pollution and total pollutant emission control by the end of the year. The ecological restoration project will see initial success and river-sea combined transport will be improved, along with the upgrading of the three-dimensional transport corridor.

The total range of the Yangtze River will be covered by the restoration project. As the largest freshwater lake in China, Poyang Lake in Jiangxi will go through a three-year renovation where it flows into the Yangtze River. By the end of 2020, Jiangxi will build itself into an ecological security barrier in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

A green development pattern featuring both resource-saving and environmentally friendly measures will be established in the province. Emerging industries, such as new-type photoelectric, intelligent equipment and narrow-band internet of things, will be emphasized in the development plan.

Jiangxi has been making continuous innovations in the mechanism of ecological civilization and providing institutional guarantees. Ecological compensation standards will be elevated on the basis of the version released in 2016, and the wetland ecosystem compensation of Poyang Lake will be set as a pilot project.

Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces have formed a regional cooperation mechanism in overall management to jointly build and share public services, pushing forward the integrated development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and realizing the standardization and equalization of public services.