Fujian pushes agriculture, green economy

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2014-08-06

Fujian province will now gauge certain local governments' overall performances by their development of agriculture and ecological protection rather than GDP growth, according to latest policies.

Fujian created a development plan in 2012 that divided 84 cities and counties into four areas with different functions – optimized development, key development, agricultural production and ecological zones.

The agricultural and ecological zones, which include 34 cities and counties, are considered “restricted development” areas.

The assessment of these less-developed areas will now be based on green-economy efforts instead of GDP growth, according to a notice recently issued by an organization affiliated with the Fujian provincial government.

Adopting different criteria for different areas' development will deepen Fujian's economic reforms. The strategy will also push forward the province's goal, endorsed by the State Council, of becoming a demonstration zone for ecological civilization, according to an official within an inspection organization.

The State Council first suggested that Fujian improve its evaluation standards for local governments, saying that non-economy indicators – such as resource consumption and environmental protection – should be given more weight than GDP.

The move will help local governments choose development strategies best suited to them, an anonymous government official told the Strait News.

Overemphasis on GDP can lead to unhealthy industrial expansion and cutthroat competition between cities and counties, he added.

The policy encourages upward growth for local governments and stresses economic efficiency over everything else, said Huang Maoxing, deputy dean of Fuzhou Normal University's economics department.

“Fujian is majorly competitive in terms of ecology. If its 34 cities and counties make good use of that to cultivate modern agriculture and a green ecological industry, the prospect of economic prosperity will be pretty good,” he said.

Appendix:

The 22 cities and counties belonging to the agricultural production zone are: Minqing county in Fuzhou city; Changtai, Nanjing, Pinghe in Zhangzhou city; Ninghua, Youxi, Jiangle, Mingxi, Jianning, Qingliu in Sanming city; Zhangping, Changting, Shanghang, Wuping, Liancheng in Longyan city; Jian'ou, Shuncang, Pucheng, Songxi, Guangze, Zhenghe in Nanping city; Gutian county in Ningde city.

The 12 counties and cities that belong to the ecological zone are Yongtai in Fuzhou city; Hua'an in Zhangzhou city; Anxi, Dehua, Yongchun in Quanzhou city; Taining, Datian in Sanming city; Wuyishan in Nanping city; Pingnan, Shouning, Zhouning, Zherong in Ningde city.