2) We will press ahead with the coordinated development of the western, northeastern, central, and eastern regions. We will support Ningxia, Guizhou, and other parts of the western region in developing open inland economies, each with its own distinctive features, and help to establish innovation platforms and systems. We will increase investment in infrastructure and other needed areas in the central and western regions, step up efforts to protect and restore the ecological environment, and cultivate and expand competitive industries that take advantage of local strengths. We will implement a new round of strategies for revitalizing the northeast and other old industrial bases, and promote the development of city clusters along the Harbin-Dalian Economic Belt. We will introduce a new ten-year plan to promote the rise of the central region; drive forward the development of major economic zones such as the city clusters along the middle reaches of the Yangtze, the Central Plains Economic Zone, and the city cluster along the Yangtze in Anhui Province; press ahead with the development of the eco-economic belts along the Huai and Han rivers; and support the development of clean energy production centers in Shanxi. We will continue to support the exemplary role of the eastern region in leading the rest of the country in pursuing reform and innovation, transforming and upgrading industries, and improving the quality and performance of the economy. We will increase efforts to turn Hainan into an international tourist island. We will work to develop the marine economy and build demonstration zones for this purpose. We will move forward with the development of state-level new areas, demonstration zones for industrial relocation, and other major function platforms, and encourage all localities to lead the way and explore new paths in the reform of systems and mechanisms and in the pursuit of coordinated development between regions. Successful practices that have been developed in national experimental zones for integrated, complete reform will be applied to other regions in an orderly manner. We will promote the integrated development of key areas and support city clusters with suitable conditions in exploring the further integration of urban development.

Box 15: New Strategies for Revitalizing the Northeast and Other Old Industrial Bases

3) We will advance people-centered New Urbanization. We will implement the plan to grant urban household registration to 100 million people. We will deepen the implementation of the guidelines on promoting the New Urbanization; accelerate reform of the household registration system and implementation of the residence certificate system; establish a sound mechanism for adjusting the land designated for construction, development funds, and transfer payments in line with the number of migrant workers that have been granted urban household registration in an area; and encourage and guide rural migrant workers in obtaining urban household registration. We will put urban land held in reserve for construction to better use and carry out trial reforms relating to rural land requisition, the marketization of rural collective land designated for business-related construction, and the rural land used for private housing. A plan for the national urban system will be drawn up. We will continue to promote the cultivation of emerging small and medium-sized cities, small towns with unique features, and new models of urban development, and, where conditions permit, we will help development zones and land border areas to improve the overall functions of cities. Great efforts will be directed toward developing smart cities, green cities, and sponge cities. We will develop urban utility tunnels and ensure construction starts on 2,000 kilometers of such tunnels. We will move faster to develop intercity railways in city clusters in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Chengdu-Chongqing region.

Box 16: The New Urbanization

7. Promoting green, circular, and low-carbon development

In pursuing green development, we will drive forward the revolution in energy generation and consumption to make development more eco-friendly.

1) We will move faster to build functional zones. We will revise the plan for functional zoning, implement a negative list of industries for key ecosystem service zones, release a national functional zoning map and catalogs of major agricultural production zones and key ecosystem service zones, and draw up and implement provincial-level plans for marine functional zoning. We will carry out trials for spatial planning at provincial level and conduct research on establishing a long-term monitoring and early-warning system for resource and environmental carrying capacity.

2) We will use energy and resources more efficiently. We will release the 2030 strategy for revolutionizing energy generation and consumption, push forward the transformation and development of the energy sector, and exercise control over both the total amount and intensity of energy consumption. In order to continue the dynamic development of renewable energy, we will work to address the issue of idle capacity in water, wind, and solar power by increasing the capacity of power grids to absorb electricity generated from renewable energy sources. We will actively develop distributed energy and smart grids, and apply an energy-saving, low-carbon approach to the management of power distribution. In order to expedite the growth of industries in relation to energy conservation, environmental protection, and ecological improvement, we will carry out green manufacturing programs, support green and clean production along with a comprehensive eco-friendly approach to the use of resources, and carry out major energy conservation and environmental protection projects. We will promote circular operations within industrial parks, a circular approach to constructing industrial systems, and pilot and demonstration projects for a circular economy. A plan for increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and promote the construction of green buildings will be implemented throughout the construction industry chain. We will take comprehensive measures to build a water-conserving society, and promote efficient and intensive use of land.

3) We will improve the quality of the environment and ecosystems. We will fully implement the action plans for preventing and controlling air and water pollution, release and implement an action plan for addressing soil pollution, and remain persistent in the fight against smog and water pollution. We will strictly control the expansion of coal production capacity and the capacity of coal-fired power plants, ensure cleaner use of coal in non-industrial sectors, expand the use of electricity to replace less environmentally friendly forms of energy and promote the use of electricity generated from renewable energy sources, and move faster to upgrade coal-fired power plants and the quality of fuel across the board. Third party governance will be introduced in the treatment of environmental pollution. We will launch a new round of efforts to return marginal cultivated land to forest or grassland, and intensify efforts to carry out the national afforestation project. We will move steadily forward with the establishment of a system of national parks. We will continue to advance the comprehensive governance of the water environment in key water basins and the environment in key areas, such as those at the source of dust storms affecting Beijing and Tianjin, areas afflicted by the spread of stony deserts, and areas where grazing land has been returned to grassland. A major biodiversity protection project will be launched. We will step up the ecological conservation of lakes and wetlands and establish ecological red lines for forests, grasslands, wetlands and the ocean. We will improve the mechanisms for compensating ecological conservation efforts. We will ensure the implementation of environmental impact assessment for strategies and plans and enforce stricter environmental standards for project approval. We will carry out ecological rehabilitation in cities to restore and improve their ecological functions. Pilot programs will be launched to place county- and prefecture-level environmental monitoring, inspection, and law enforcement bodies directly under the jurisdiction of provincial-level environmental bodies.