Through the long history, Chenzhou has lived up to the name of “city in forest”. With the forest coverage rate amounting to 70%, Chenzhou City shelters its people in hilly areas of Southern China from wind and rain. The three major water systems of the Xiangjiang River, the Pearl River and the Ganjiang River enable Chenzhou to serve as an important ecological protective screen in South China.
When it comes to the sustainable development of Chenzhou City, it can be said that “green” is the most distinctive color and “water resource” is the most reliable source.
On November 8, 2012, with the opening of the 18th CPC National Congress, China was in the global spotlight.
In the report of the 18th CPC National Congress, the ecological civilization construction was incorporated into the overall layout of socialism with Chinese characteristics for the first time, constituting the “Five-sphere Integrated Plan” together with ecological, political, cultural and social construction.
Since then, China has slowed down its pace of economic growth. This has left room for the transformation of economic development mode and ecological civilization construction, and also provided great enlightenment for Chenzhou that was struggling on the road of industrial transformation.
In 2015, China proposed a new development concept and strengthening the supply-side structural reform. “Green” is one of the five components of the new development concept.
It was in 2015 that Chenzhou High-tech Zone was upgraded to a national high-tech zone.
At that time, more than 470 enterprises had gathered in Chenzhou and formed dominant industries like new non-ferrous metal material, electronic information, advanced equipment manufacturing and modern service industry. Incubation bases for strategic emerging industries and innovation and entrepreneurship bases for college students were also available in Chenzhou.
Meanwhile, Chenzhou has proactively promoted the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and wiped out low-end and outdated production capacity. It has supported the competitive industries, developed emerging industries, cultivated future industries and promoted the industries to move toward high-end, digitalized, agglomeratelization, green and integrated development.
The “Silver City of China” Yongxing County thrives on smelting.
Yongxing County closed all gardens in villages and towns, and gathered enterprises with advanced production technology and qualified environmental protection standards to Bolin Industrial Park and Taihe Industrial Park (Botai Industrial Park).
With the aim of building the “ecological and smart industrial park”, Botai Industrial Park has facilitated enterprise transformation and development by adhering to the concept of “comprehensive recovery, cyclic utilization, scale development, environmental protection with technology”, redoubling efforts to advance infrastructure construction and upgrading park management.
Currently, Botai Industrial Park has not only fully completed the construction of infrastructure like water, electricity, road, gas and communication, but also improved the quality of road rehabilitation, afforestation and light installation. The sewage treatment factories have operated with data networking and intelligent monitoring and the effluent water quality can meet the discharge standards. More than 20 enterprises have settled in the industrial park to bring out a brand-new Botai Industrial Park.
The severely damaged 36 Bay Mining Area in Linwu County has adopted various technologies to implement the “Three-year Action Plan” for the protection and management of three Xiangjiang River basins, and fully promoted the comprehensive prevention and control of heavy metal pollution.
In the past ten years, Chenzhou City has closed more than 1,000 smelting, mining and beneficiation enterprises, and successively finished the industrial structure adjustment and enterprise integration upgrading in places like Yongxing County, Yizhang County and Linwu County. It has invested nearly 5 billion yuan to establish 130 heavy metal governance projects and 28 soil governance projects.
The discharge of heavy metal in key industries has declined by more than 12% compared with that of in 2013. The water quality of sections in key basins has been improved on the whole. In 2021, the good water quality rate of the national controlled surface water assessment sections in Chenzhou reached 100%.
In accordance with the new concept, Chenzhou has displayed its perseverance and belief in high-quality development.
