Green development not only drives economic growth but also brings tangible benefits to local people, said a regional Party chief when sharing his experiences on advancing ecological progress with a wide range of foreign guests in Beijing on Tuesday.

Fujian Province, situated on the southeast coastline of China, is accelerating industrial upgrading and restructuring through the development of high-level manufacturing with modern service sectors as the priority – in order to build a prosperous and beautiful province through flexible mechanisms and optimized industries, said You Quan, secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). He made the remarks at a briefing on green development hosted by the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC) on Sept. 26, 2017.

Song Tao, minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), delivers a speech at the thematic briefing in Beijing on Sept. 26, 2017. [Photo by Huang Shan/China.org.cn]

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core has been attaching great importance to green development and ecological progress, said Song Tao, minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), during the thematic briefing.

"In the last five years, the CPC has unraveled the contradiction between economic growth and ecological protection through green methods of development, concertedly promoted national prosperity and people’s well-being, striving to build a country where human and nature can both pursue development harmoniously," said Song, adding that China’s experiences on green development can be shared among countries since how to balance economic growth and environmental protection is a dilemma faced by most of the world.

The green development trend has yielded outstanding achievements in Fujian. The southeastern province, abundant in forest and marine resources, has made full play of its ecological resources and developed industries suited to local conditions, which in return has laid a concrete foundation for sustainable development.

The province has promoted development of advanced manufacturing sectors, which have a high technical level, great market potential while posing little harm to the environment. At the same time, modern services, including financial insurance, logistics, cultural tourism and healthcare and aging-care, have been raising their share in overall GDP and contributed to over 50 percent of the economic growth in the province in 2016.

You Quan, secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), shares his experiences on advancing ecological progress at the thematic briefing in Beijing on Sept. 26, 2017. [Photo by Huang Shan/China.org.cn]

"The economy should not be developed at the cost of environment," stressed You, Party secretary of Fujian. To encourage grassroots officials to implement green development policies, the provincial government has made adjustments to the performance assessment system, making ecological quality and farmers' income increments the major index while removing GDP from the official assessments in 34 counties focusing on poverty alleviation and ecological progress.

In addition to industrial upgrading, the provincial government has stepped up environment improvements. The greening rate has reached nearly 40 percent in urban areas and the forest coverage is 65.95 percent, ranking top in China.

The province has innovated in tenure reform for collective forests and established ecological compensation mechanisms, both of which can be spread and implemented in the country.

William Brown, an American professor of Xiamen University, told the audience how he thought the province was attempting to stay green. Having been living in Xiamen, Fujian for nearly 30 years, Brown witnessed the fast economic growth of China as well as the efforts made by the provincial government to pursue green development. He praised the government policies which balance economic growth and environmental protection, especially the far-sighted measures to raise the awareness of environmental protection among the public.

During the briefing, Muhammad Faruk Khan, presidium member of Bangladesh Awami League, chairman of the Standing Committee on Civil Aviation and Tourism of Bangladesh, and Paolo Ferrero, vice president of European Left Party, both shared their impressions about their trips to Fujian, calling for international cooperation on promoting green development and ecological protection.

The thematic briefing was the fifth edition of the series initiated by the IDCPC to introduce how the regional CPC committees implement the governance ideas of General Secretary Xi Jinping and review what achievements have been made while learning from the lessons of development.

By presenting real and vivid CPC stories to the world, it provides a chance to review the CPC achievements in the last five years before the 19th CPC National Congress which will be convened in October. The previous editions respectively focused on targeted poverty alleviation, supply-side structural reform, comprehensively strengthening Party discipline and innovation-driven transformation and development.

Around 300 people, including diplomats, scholars and political party representatives attended the briefing on Tuesday.