Coordinated regional development key for Yellow River basin
The ecological protection and regional development of the Yellow River has received increasing attention. Photo: FILE
In recent years, the provinces and regions of the Yellow River basin have made some progress in regional cooperation and ecological protection. However, their understanding of the importance of the holistic development of the basin is still far from enough. Regional cooperation is still limited to reaching agreements and there have been few strongly effective measures that are binding. The industrial development of each region has gone its own way, and competition is greater than coordination.
One of the most polluted areas in China, the Yellow River basin suffers from hazy weather, which covers a wide area and lasts a long time. The utilization rate of water resources of the basin is nearly 60%, which exceeds the internationally recognized standard of utilization rate generally not exceeding 40%, and even the cut-off of rivers occurs. Many highly polluted chemical and metallurgy industries are distributed in the upper and middle reaches of the basin, which poses a threat to the water safety of the whole basin.
The prominent ecological protection problem in the Yellow River basin mainly lies in the failure to effectively solve the contradiction between the division of the administrative system and the indivisibility of the river ecosystem. The disparity of resources and geographical distribution makes the industrial pattern uneven within the basin.
First, The Yellow River basin spans nine provinces and regions with different administrative units. Based on their own foundation and interest, they pursue diverse development tasks and goals. Lacking coordination with each other, the regions are scattered with no unified system and little division of labor and cooperation.
Second, due to the disparity of resources and geographical distribution, industries overly gather in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. On one hand, China’s regional economy and social development varies greatly in regions and the eastern is generally more developed than the central and western regions. The Yellow River basin is no exception. On the other hand, the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River are rich in minerals, electricity, labor and other resources with great advantages. This has laid a foundation for the transfer of industry from the eastern to the western regions, which easily brought about the transfer of pollution. Given the topography of China, which is characterized by the fact that the west is higher than the east, the river originates in the west. Therefore, the direction of the industry of the developed area substituting for that of the less developed area is from downstream to upstream, which is opposite to the flow direction of the Yellow River. As a result, a large number of industrial parks are laid out in the upstream area, especially near the main tributaries, which has had great side-effects on the formation of the upstream ecological barrier and the healthy development of the whole basin’s social economy.
To promote the high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, governance should be administered from a more systematic, holistic and synergistic perspective.
Since the end of 20th century, China has adopted a strategy to advance development in the western region, energize the central region, and support the eastern region in spearheading transformation. However, these strategies did not fully focus on the gap between the eastern and western regions which led to insufficient integrated development between the two. The western region is quite vulnerable in terms of its environment. Once the environment in the upper and middle reaches is destroyed, it will not only bring risks to local production and life, but also will have considerable impact on the economic and social development of the whole country. The Yellow River basin connects the eastern, middle and western parts of North China. If better protected in a more holistic way, and if ecological degradation is reduced, the rising gap between North and South China will be curbed, which would thereby address the imbalance of national economic development.
An important underpinning and strategic carrier of economic high-quality development, city clusters are an effective mechanism that fosters coordinated regional development. One major reason that the overall development of the Yellow River basin lags behind that of the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta is its low city-cluster level. At present, a core metropolitan circle with strong leadership among city clusters in the basin has not yet been formed.
By speeding up the construction of large city clusters within the region, especially the construction of trans-provincial ones, the agglomeration of elements within the basin and the professional division of labor will be promoted.
Fan Yubo is from the Policy Research Office of the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences.
edited by BEI LE