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Zone in Yangtze River powerhouse area to demonstrate green engines of growth

Green and sustainable development should be further emphasized in the Yangtze River Delta region to nurture innovation and create new engines of growth, officials said.

The framework territory plan for the demonstration zone of green and integrated ecological development of the Yangtze River Delta, which lays out long-term goals through 2035, has been approved by the State Council, Zhang Bing, director of the national territorial spatial planning bureau of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said at a news conference in Shanghai last week.

The governments of Shanghai municipality and the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu began working on the plan in July 2019.

As the first cross-regional territory plan approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet, it aims to integrate a green economy, high-quality lifestyles and sustainable development in the demonstration zone, Zhang said.

The integrated development of the delta region was elevated to a national strategy in November 2018, and the demonstration zone was established a year later to include Qingpu district in southwest Shanghai, Wujiang district in Suzhou in eastern Jiangsu province and Jiashan county in northeast Zhejiang province, covering a total of 2,413 square kilometers.

According to the newly released plan, the forest coverage rate in the zone will increase from 8.6 percent to 12 percent, and for each person in the zone there will be 15 square meters of park area, up from 10 sq m.

Green traffic will make up 80 percent of all means of transportation by 2035, according to the plan.

Protected cultivated land will cover 51,170 hectares within the zone by 2035, of which 86.8 percent will be permanent basic farmland.

Planned construction land in the demonstration zone will be limited to 803 sq km by 2035.

To that end, Wujiang district will spend three years upgrading its existing industrial parks. The overall mapping will be optimized to enhance land-use efficiency, said Li Ruhai, deputy head of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Natural Resources.

Innovation and industrial upgrading have also been stressed in the plan. By 2035, research and development expenditure should take up no less than 5 percent of the combined annual GDP of the demonstration zone, it said.

The GDP generated from the construction land in the demonstration zone should reach 1.5 billion yuan ($215 million) per sq km in 2035, up from 480 million yuan at present, according to the plan.

To realize that goal, more biomedicine, digital economy and environmental protection companies will be attracted to the zone.

The gist of the plan is to drive the development of the new economy by creating a better environment, said Zhang Zhongwei, deputy head of the executive committee of the Yangtze River Delta integrated development demonstration zone.

The ecological advantages in the demonstration zone should become important growth engines to facilitate the deep integration between industries and capital. More talent will be thus attracted to the zone, nurturing innovation and advancing the development of strategic emerging industrial clusters, he added.

shijing@chinadaily.com.cn