Xuzhou, a hundred-year-old coal city in Jiangxu province, has transformed itself into the national model for environmental protection, achieving national forest and ecological garden status via industrial transition, Yicai.com reported.
Zhang Guohua, the Party Secretary of the city, said ecological reconstruction is the key starting point to the community’s success. “We have repaired about 233.6 million square meters of the mining subsidence area and treated pollution in Pan An lake,” Zhang said.
Li Gang, head of the Land Resource Bureau in Xuzhou, thinks the ecological improvements will play a significant role in attracting business, investment and talent to the city, as parks and lakes lay everywhere. “Local people are willing to move back, while others are seeking to park their money here,” Li added.
The city has invested 30 million yuan in special funds to boost its service outsourcing industry and built up two international service outsourcing zones. Meanwhile, the government aims to develop ecological tourism in the area, the report said.
For the first three quarters, Xuzhou’s GDP reached 475 billion yuan, an 8% rise from a year earlier. Meanwhile, the city’s GDP stood at 580.8 billion yuan in 2016, a growth rate higher than the national and provincial level.