On 24-25 June 2021, a SCO Secretariat delegation took part in the China Forum on International Ecological Competitiveness in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province.
The event was organised by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the Committee on Population, Resources and Environment, China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration, and the Government of the Jiangxi Province.
Opening the Forum, General Secretary of the Ganzhou municipal CPC Committee Ms Wu Zhongchong told the audience about the history and socioeconomic and environmental achievements of the Jiangxi Province. She noted the province had created a modern pilot environmental zone combining natural landscapes with relevant ecological parks. Ecological industry is developing actively. The province is in the lead on the national scale in terms of water and air quality.
She described the implementation of the programmes to achieve zero carbon dioxide emission levels and to ensure the region's ecological development in accordance with the PRC national goals and programmes. In her words, all these measures help to increase the ecological competitiveness of both the province and the republic as a whole, at the present stage in its development.
Deputy SCO Secretary-General Muratbek Azymbakiyev read SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov's address, which highlighted the importance of environmental issues for SCO member states, including Green Development and the use of renewable and alternative energy sources. He mentioned some multilateral documents that had been approved in this area and the advancement of relevant initiatives, including the upcoming Meetings of the Heads of the SCO Environmental Ministries and Agencies scheduled for July and August 2021, as well as Meetings of the SCO Energy Ministers.
The message focused on the implementation of Uzbekistan's initiative regarding the SCO Green Belt draft programme aimed at introducing modern energy and resource efficient and environmentally clean technologies. It also focused on PRC President Xi Jinping's initiative to create a SCO Platform to exchange environmental information designed to ensure high-quality economic development and Green Restoration.
The event also involved representatives of PRC government agencies and business organisations from China, Pakistan, Turkey, Korea, and Japan, as well as diplomats from Russia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and a number of African countries, accredited in the PRC, and representatives of the China-ASEAN Centre.
Participants in the three forum panels on digital economy, Green Development, tourism, innovations and investment discussed sustainable development, reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, and the fight against climate change.
They stressed the need to enhance state and public control over the pollution of nature, introduction of energy efficient technologies and the use of renewable energy sources, as well as to develop a system of specially protected natural areas. They also concentrated on the possibility of using modern innovative technologies to maintain the ecological balance and protect the environment.
The China Forum on International Ecological Competitiveness is an annual event which has been organised in one of the PRC cities since 2008. In 2021, it was attended by nearly 300 participants.
Ganzhou is a city in southern Jiangxi Province with a population of 9 million people. It is situated on the Ganjiang river. The city has well-developed dyeing, weaving, woodworking and tourist industries.
Tungsten is mined in the environs of Ganzhou, for which reason the city is known as the "world capital of tungsten." The city has a railway station and a network of high-speed motorways.
It is also famous for its botanical gardens, some of the biggest not only in China but throughout the world. The gardens boast a rich flora and rare plants numbering nearly 4,000.