The economy continues to develop healthily, and the ecological environment is significantly improved
Historic achievements in the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt
Beijing, January 5th (Reporter Zhao Zhanhui) January 5th is the fifth anniversary of General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the seminar on promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and delivered an important speech.
On the same day, the National Development and Reform Commission held a special press conference to introduce the results achieved in the fifth anniversary of the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
In the past five years, the ecological and environmental protection of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has undergone turning changes, and historic achievements have been made in economic and social development.
The turning changes are mainly manifested in three aspects:
The ideology of the cadres and the masses has undergone a fundamental change.
According to Luo Guosan, Director of the Basic Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, the provinces and cities along the Yangtze River and relevant departments have thoroughly studied and implemented the spirit of General Secretary Jinping’s important speech, placed the restoration of the Yangtze River ecological environment in an overwhelming position, and the concept of ecological priority green development has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and transformed into practice.
Significant changes have taken place in the water quality of the Yangtze River Basin.
The proportion of good sections in the Yangtze River Basin increased from 82.3% in 2016 to 91.7% in 2019, and further increased to 96.3% from January to November 2020.
The proportion of water quality inferior to Grade V in the Yangtze River Basin dropped from 3.5% in 2016 to 0.6% in 2019. In 2020, the elimination of water bodies inferior to Grade V will be achieved for the first time in 2020.
The ecological environment has improved significantly.
The capacity of urban domestic sewage and garbage treatment has been significantly improved. The length of urban sewage collection pipelines at prefecture-level and above has increased by 20.7% compared with 2015. The daily treatment capacity of urban and county domestic garbage has increased by 60.7% compared with 2015.
A large number of high-pollution and high-energy-consuming enterprises were shut down and banned.
The rectification of the Yangtze River coastline has been fully promoted, 1,361 illegal docks have been completely rectified, and green ecological corridors on both sides of the strait have gradually formed.
The "10-year ban on fishing" in the Yangtze River was fully implemented, and the trend of biodiversity degradation was initially curbed.
Historic achievements are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
First, the economy has maintained sustained and healthy development.
The total economic output of the Yangtze River Economic Belt increased from 42.3% in 2015 to 46.5% in 2019 and further increased to 46.6% in the first three quarters of 2020.
The leading role of emerging industrial clusters is obvious, and the scale of electronic information, equipment manufacturing and other industries accounted for more than 50% of the country.
The second is the accelerated formation of a comprehensive transportation corridor.
The high-grade waterway of the Yangtze River trunk and branch lines has a mileage of tens of thousands of kilometers. The construction of all 14 port iron-water combined transport projects has begun. The planning and construction of the high-speed rail along the Yangtze River is proceeding in an orderly manner. A number of hub airport projects have been accelerated.
As of November 2020, the length of the Yangtze River Economic Belt railway and high-speed rail opened to traffic has reached 43,700 kilometers and 15,400 kilometers respectively, an increase of 9,120 kilometers and 7,824 kilometers respectively from 2015; the mileage of expressways reached 63,700 kilometers, an increase of 1.55 from 2015 Million kilometers.
The function of the golden waterway in the Yangtze River Economic Belt has also continued to improve.
Su Jie, deputy director of the Comprehensive Planning Department of the Ministry of Transport, said that in the past five years, more than 20 waterway construction projects have been implemented. In 2020, the average tonnage of ships on the Yangtze River trunk line will reach 1,960 tons, an increase of 42% over 2015; the throughput of the Yangtze River trunk line has exceeded 3 billion tons, another record high.
Third, the level of opening up to the outside world has increased substantially.
The integration of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the "Belt and Road" construction is even higher.
The formation of a new land-sea channel in the west has accelerated.
Since 2016, 8 pilot free trade zones and 24 comprehensive bonded zones have been added to the Yangtze River Economic Belt. In 2019, the total volume of imports and exports of goods trade exceeded US$2 trillion.
In addition, the pilot demonstration of green development is at the forefront of the country.
The institutional mechanism has been continuously improved.
Wang Shancheng, head of the comprehensive coordination group of the Office of the Leading Group for Promoting the Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, introduced that strengthening the top-level design is one of the important tasks for in-depth implementation of the development strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
The negative list management system for the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has been established, and mechanisms for ecological compensation, diversified investment, and water environment quality monitoring and early warning have been accelerated.
Zhao Shixin, deputy director of the Department of Water Ecology and Environment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that the ecological environment of the Yangtze River still faces severe and complex situations.
In the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will continue to promote special actions for key rectification of urban black and odorous water bodies, industrial parks, river outfalls, and nature reserves, and in-depth fight for the protection and restoration of the Yangtze River.
At the same time, we will systematically plan the ecological environment protection of the Yangtze River Basin during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and strive to achieve breakthroughs in key sectors such as green development of key industries, non-point source pollution prevention and control, and ecological protection and restoration.