The Guiyang municipal government made an important decision in
March this year to build Guiyang into China's first cyclical
economic and ecological city. In April, Minister of the State
Environmental Protection Administration Xie Zhenhua recommended
this project as an international cooperation program at the
Conference of Environmental Ministers of China, Japan and Korea
held in Seoul. In May, the State Environmental Protection
Administration formally ratified Guiyang as pilot city for the
construction of cyclical economic eco-city.
To
most of the public, "cyclical economic eco-city" is an unfamiliar
concept. A people.com.cn reporter interviewed Guiyang Mayor
Sun Guoqiang on the project, and the interview began with the
interpretation of this concept.
Sun explained that the cyclical economy is an economic mode with a
feature of being in line with the natural eco-system substances'
cycle. At present, countries all over the world are implementing a
sustainable development strategy, as well as striving to find a
road for the simultaneous promotion of economic development,
environmental protection and social advancement. According to the
worldwide experience drawn from many years of practice, the
cyclical economy is different from the traditional economic
development mode. It can effectively solve many environmental
problems and support the sustainable development strategy for rapid
economic development in the future.
To
construct the cyclical economic eco-city, the idea of a cyclical
economy should be adopted as the guiding principle, and measures
related to clean production, eco-industry and eco-agriculture etc.
are integrated to form a systematic strategy, which can adjust the
layout of urban space structure and readjust and optimize the
economic structure. The best result -- less exploitation, more
utilization and less discharge -- will be realized via the
substances cycling-use among and inside the city's sub-systems, the
efficient utilization of power and the full share of information,
to decrease the impact of economic activities on the natural
environment to the lowest level possible.
Pointing to the advantages of Guiyang in building a cyclical
economic eco-city, Sun said it would be an explorative systematic
project, which could be analyzed in the following aspects:
First, several provinces, cities, villages and towns in China are
undertaking ecological construction, but most of this highlights
the content of the natural ecological system. Research within China
on the eco-city is mostly concentrated on such single sub-systems
as ecology and urban planning, but far less on the ecological urban
construction from the angle of the cyclical economy. The eco-city
of Guiyang is to be constructed in the cyclical economic mode
involving infrastructure facilities, industry, agriculture, energy,
consumption and architecture.
Second, Guiyang lies in the inland, less developed part of western
China, and, comparatively speaking, its ideas and concepts need to
open wider. The city is short of talented people and technology.
Furthermore, Guiyang lies in the central area of the Guizhou
Plateau, where the feature of karst topography is the most typical,
covering 85 percent of 8,034 square km (3,101 square miles) of the
land. Additionally, as the provincial capital, Guiyang is the
center of the politics, economy, culture and education of
Guizhou Province. Developing the cyclical economy and building
an eco-city in such a place should have its own obvious features
and important significance.
Third, to expand the space for development and improve the old
city's structural layout, the Jinyang New District in Guiyang is
under construction, ratified by the State Council. According to the
idea of the cyclical economy, the old city proper and the new city
proper, set in a "twin centers" mode, are closely connected to
develop mutually. The Jinyang New District has been planned and
will be constructed in accordance with the idea of a "zero
discharge system." This means that, during the processes of
production and consumption, there will be incorporated a
"resources-product-recycled resource" substances cycling-use
procedure, which can decrease waste discharge to somewhere close to
"zero."
Sun Guoqiang summed up the major content of the cyclical economic
eco-city in seven aspects:
Urban infrastructure facilities and the public cultural facilities.
This will include road and street construction and improvement;
enhancement of water supply and drainage as well as network pipe
construction; improvement in the supply of clean energy such as
electricity and gas; sewage treatment plant and garbage treatment
plant construction; increase in green areas; improvement in public
communications and facilities; public entertainment and cultural
facilities construction.
Traditional industry and newly-emerging industries. This will
include readjustment of the phosphorus chemical and coal chemical
industry; developing hi-tech sectors such as the electronics
industry, IT, new materials industry; modernization of the
traditional Chinese medicine industry and promotion of the
bio-pharmaceutical industry; prevention and control of
environmental pollution and developing environmental-friendly
industry; promoting contact and intergrowth among industries; and
promoting clean production.
Ecological construction and eco-agriculture. This will include the
return of farmland to forest (grass) and conserving water and soil,
building the second round-the-city forest belt, developing a
courtyard economy, promoting agricultural and side-line products as
well as pollution-free organic agricultural products.
Clean energy such as electricity and gas. This will include
promoting and encouraging the use of electricity, developing gas in
line with local conditions and devoting major efforts to developing
marsh gas in the countryside.
Healthy consumption. Enhance the public's healthy consumption
awareness, and promote pollution-free products.
Ecological housing. Make the environmental-friendly construction
planning the norm, and developing and constructing ecological
housing.
Laws and regulations. Enact and improve the legal system to support
and guarantee the cyclical economic eco-city construction in
Guiyang, plus ongoing research and adopting a scientifically
advanced administrative mode.
Sun Guoqiang noted that realizing the goal of building up the
cyclical economic eco-city will take 15 to 20 years. Three cyclical
systems including industry, agriculture and society are going to be
set up gradually in the city construction, and with the three
systems being combined organically by the streams of substances,
energy and information in the city, an operational system of the
cyclical economic eco-city will be built up in Guiyang.
He
added that the goal of Guiyang's construction is striving for
harmony between human beings and nature and building Guiyang into a
top class human residence city.
(from People's Daily
and translated by Zhang Tingting, July 17, 2002)