Three years on: Remarkable achievements of the Yangtze River Economic Belt

In the past three years, China has achieved great results in the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and the idea of "ecology first and green development" has won wide support from the people. 

Additionally, the top-level design and strategic planning, ecological environment, economic transition, and institutional mechanism reform have made positive progress. A new pattern of joint protection has taken shape, according to the report released by the National Development and Reform Commission on Jan 6.

Planning guide: The top-level design has basically completed.

A "1+N" policy system has been formed to boost the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The "1" stands for the development plan for the Yangtze River Economic Belt issued by the State Council on May 30, 2016, and the "N" means a series of specialized plans, policy papers, and implementation schemes on the basis of the development plan. 

Special rectification: The water quality in the Yangtze River has been improved through ongoing conservation efforts. 

The Wuhan section of the Yangtze River [Photo/Xinhua]

To improve the ecological environment of the Yangtze River water area, the cities along the river have carried out in-depth rectification efforts to curb illegal sand excavation, chemical industrial pollution, and illegal pollution discharge. In the first nine months of 2018, the excellent rate of water quality of the river was 77.2 percent, an increase of 10.2 percentage points than that of the end of 2015. Water quality listed as Grade V, the poorest quality, was 1.8 percent, a decrease of 4.6 percentage points than that of the end of 2015.

Various measures were taken to highlight the comprehensive and three-dimensional transportation network.

As China's golden waterway, the function of the Yangtze River has been advanced, and the multimodal freight transportation system promoted. The regulation projects of the 12.5-meter deep-water channel, from Nanjing to the river's estuary, were completed, and ships of capacities up to 50,000 tons can go directly to Nanjing. The world's largest ship lift of capacities of 3,000 was built up and conducted its navigation test. The smart terminal of Yangshan Port was put into operation in 2017. 

An aerial view of containers at the fourth phase of the Yangshan Deep-Water Port, the world's largest automated cargo terminal, in Shanghai on April 10, 2018. [Photo/IC]