Xi analyzed the problems and challenges now facing the development of this area. He stressed that it must avoid over-exploitation, develop in a well-protected environment, and never cross the ecological red line.

Problems and Bottlenecks

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is a typical basin economy that involves water, roads, ports, banks, industries, cities, biology, wetlands, and the environment, etc. Its population and GDP both account for 40 percent of the country’s total. The Belt passes through 11 provinces and municipalities, linking China’s north, south, west, and east.

There are hundreds of big, medium-sized, and small cities along the Belt. Early in the 1990s, they launched their respective development plans. Though economic cooperation zones and city circles were established in certain areas, enthusiasm for integrative development in a broader area was not high, which, to some extent resulted in homogenized and fragmented industries.

In recent years, the Yangtze River Economic Belt has been over-burdened with shipping, hydraulic engineering, mining, and electricity generation among other functions. Industrial parks and heavy chemical industries have been built, and hazardous chemicals are shipped, both of which pose hidden dangers to the area. These problems are closely linked with public safety, economic development, and social security, and call for a change in the current disjointed management mode of the Belt. Besides, there’s still great potential in the Yangtze River with less than 20 percent of it being tapped into.

The Yangtze River Delta pools lots of talents, universities, and research institutions, which give it a technology- and knowledge-intensive economy. Its next step is to prioritize the service economy. The other two cross-regional city groups (middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and Chengdu-Chongqing), and two regional city groups (central Guizhou and Yunnan) lag behind in secondary and tertiary industries. In the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, industrialization and urbanization remain the focus. This regional imbalance is an obstacle to the realization of green development along the Belt.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment conducts a targeted inspection of the water sources of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Sustainable Development Is the Goal

At the 2014 Central Economic Working Conference, the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt was elevated to a national strategy. Since then, the Belt embarked on the path of coordinating ecological protection with the goal of green and sustainable development.

Notable results have been achieved in ecological protection and restoration. Water quality in 22 key sections along the Yangtze River main stream all meet or exceed the third grade. The PM 2.5 and PM 10 concentration in eight provinces and cities along the river dropped. Major pollutants in six provincial capital cities were reduced by two percent year-on-year. The green development index (GDI) in 11 provinces and cities in 2016 averaged 80.4. The area also takes the lead nationwide in seven realms including resource utilization and environmental management. The annual rankings in ecological development of seven provinces and cities made it to the top 10 nationwide.

China’s capability of independent innovation is improving continuously. While planning the layout of a national center for manufacturing innovation, the country has also sped up its steps to build the Shanghai Zhangjiang Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, and national laboratories for marine engineering and air pollution monitoring.

Cities along the Yangtze River have carried out policies one by one to support the development of intelligent industries. In Shanghai, intelligent manufacturing projects have been initiated; in Wuhan, a City of Robots is being forged with the key in industrial robots; in Hefei, a Chinese Speech Valley co-built by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Anhui provincial government will serve as a foothold for the development of the intelligent industry.

In 2015, the proportion of the tertiary industry exceeded that of the secondary one for the first time in the region, a big change in industrial structure. In 2016, the ratios of the three industries were 8.10:42.88:49.02, a decrease of one percent in primary industry, of 6.2 percent in secondary industry and an increase of 7.2 percent in the tertiary one compared with 2012.

The rapid development of the emerging industry gives support to the development of the Belt. Specifically, next-generation information technologies such as integrated circuits, panel displays, Internet of Things, Cloud computing, AI, and big data have gathered momentum in Chongqing, Wuhan, Hefei, Nanjing, and Shanghai. Wuhan Optics Valley excels in photoelectronics.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is the main battlefield for achieving a new type of urbanization. It is moving forward rapidly with persistence in green development, steady increase in economic aggregate, rapid per-capita GDP growth, and strong local finance. By the end of 2016, the urbanization levels in Shanghai (87.9 percent), Jiangsu (67.7 percent), Zhejiang (67.0 percent), Chongqing (62.6 percent), and Hubei (58.1 percent) were higher than the national average (57.4 percent).

In January 2016, an inter-provincial consultation and cooperation mechanism covering the whole river basin was initiated, and a basic framework of multi-level inter-provincial coordination came into being.

High-Quality Development

Under the guidance of Xi’s Wuhan speech, the Yangtze River Economic Belt sticks to the principle of prioritizing ecological protection and green development. Through coordinated and balanced development, it aims to improve the quality of economic development, increasing its efficiency and transforming growth drivers to build itself into a zone with good ecology, streamlined transportation, a coordinated economy, a unified market, and sound institutions.

First, balanced and coordinated development promotes environmental protection. Measures to be undertaken are: promoting green development of the Yangtze River Economic Zone in a coordinated and balanced way, and protecting its ecological environment. Strengthening joint prevention and control of pollution and comprehensive management of the environment, promoting water pollution treatment, repair of the aquatic ecology, and protection of aquatic resources are all areas that are being worked on. Introducing a negative list and implementing the most strict regulations and laws to establish a harmonious relation between people and nature, and the building of a green ecological corridor are also under keen focus.

Furthermore, promoting green, cyclic, and low-carbon regional development is also a priority. Making full use of market-oriented means, improving the mechanisms of pricing, resources and the environment, upgrading traditional industries, technological innovation, and green finance are goals being worked on.

On May 8, 2018, a 50,000-ton vessel from the Republic of the Marshall Islands is loaded at the Tianyu wharf of Nanjing Port.

It’s crucial to improve the multi-mode transport system and build a safe, convenient, green, and low-carbon comprehensive transport network. There is a strategy to integrate the concept of ecological progress into the construction of an urban agglomeration in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and build a world-class urban agglomeration ecosystem in the Yangtze River Delta. The region aims to become a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society and an ecological shield in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Second, balanced and coordinated development promotes regional pooling of resources for sci & tech and innovation. The cooperation mechanism will be established and improved to improve the efficiency of coordinated innovation. It will give full play to the leading role of the Shanghai Global Center for Science and Innovation and build a cross-regional innovation cooperation alliance. It aims at the core technologies of intelligent manufacturing, new energy, new materials, Internet of Things, big data, and aerospace. It will collaboratively conduct scientific research and industrialization application demonstration. At the same time, the region will strengthen support for innovative capital, market, and talents to foster and expand green technology innovation players, and provide strong support for industrial transformation and upgrading.

World-class manufacturing innovation centers and sci & tech think tanks at important nodes will be set up. In 10 provincial capital cities and municipalities directly under the central government along the river, a networked layout will be designed to make comprehensive manufacturing innovation centers, to build a manufacturing innovation network covering the whole basin in order to meet the needs of the development of regional innovation engines.

Third, a coordinated and balanced modern economic system is planned. It will accelerate the building of a unified large market. This calls for breaking administrative barriers between regions and accelerating interconnectivity, advancing river port transportation system, building a comprehensive transportation corridor, and improving the functions of the golden waterway and traffic hubs. Industrial transfer and flow of production factors will also be accelerated. Support will be given to strategic cooperation in building industrial parks and industrial enclaves to forge complementary advantages and promote win-win cooperation in the region.

Promoting supply-side structural reform in the Belt, the government will, on one hand, support reform, innovation, and find new growth drivers, and on the other, weed out backward and excess production capacity. It will endeavor to form a modern industrial corridor with a high degree of agglomeration and strong international competitiveness. It will promote centralized treatment and recycling of waste in industrial parks and push forward industrial transformation and upgrading along the river. Concerted efforts will be made to expand production services in the basin, and shift manufacturing from production-oriented to service-oriented. Relying on the construction of a world-class urban agglomeration, a world-class industrial cluster in which different regions build their respective advantages to strive for coordinated and high-quality development will be built in the Belt.

Fourth, a new pattern of opening up of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is to be shaped by harmonious and balanced development. The building of Free Trade Zones will be accelerated. As the 11 provinces and cities along the river overlap with the five FTZs in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan, good opportunities are lying in front of the Belt to create an international, market-oriented, and law-based business environment. As a result, it can orderly promote the opening up of the sectors of public services, production services and finance, and enhance the functions of FTZs. It will also build free trade ports to elevate its open economy to a higher level.

All of this will sync up effectively with the massive transnational undertaking, the Belt and Road Initiative. It will act as a catalyst and complement activity that promotes development and furthering of development initiatives falling under the development umbrella of the Belt and Road Initiative. All in all, this will undergird the foundation upon which these once in an era undertakings can flourish and reach their developmental potential.