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BEIJING, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- China made environmental protection and restoration a top priority in its development of the Yangtze River economic belt, a senior official said Sunday while discussing the national plan to boost the economy along China's longest river.
The development of the economic belt will follow a green path, with the strictest environmental protection and water resources management measures, according to an official with the leading group of the Yangtze River economic belt development.
The official said China aimed to markedly improve the environment of the economic belt by 2020, with over 75 percent of the region's water meeting Grade III standard or above and forest coverage to reach 43 percent.
China classifies water quality into six levels, from level I, which is suitable for drinking after minimal treatment, to level VI, which is severely contaminated.
By 2030, the region's environment will much improved, the official said.
Other targets include improving the river's traffic capacity, promoting innovation and industrial upgrading, boosting urbanization, advancing opening up and establishing a modern market economy, according to the official.
The Yangtze River will be developed into a "golden waterway" by 2030. A low-carbon, integrated transport system will connect roads, railways and air routes by 2020.
By 2020 the region's spending on research and development will account for 2.5 percent of its GDP and it will be home to a group of world-class companies and industries.
The urbanization rate of the region's population will be 60 percent by 2020, while the quality and efficiency of its economy will be substantially improved.
By 2030, an innovative, modern industrial system will be fully incorporated and integrated along the river, making the economic belt a "strategic support" for national economic and social development, the official said.
The Yangtze River economic belt will boost concerted development in riverside regions and provide new growth stimuli for China's slowing economy.
Revered as the Chinese people's "Mother River," the Yangtze traverses eastern, central and western China and joins the prospering coastal regions with the less developed inland. It is one of the busiest inland rivers for freight traffic worldwide.
The Yangtze River Economic Belt involves nine provinces and two municipalities that cover roughly one fifth of China's land, accommodate a population of 600 million and generates more than 40 percent of the country's GDP.
