The Yangtze River is full of vitality and vitality.

Promoting high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is a major decision made by the Party Central Committee and a major strategy related to the overall development of the country.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made many in-depth inspections and surveys along the Yangtze River and chaired four special symposiums. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen policy coordination and work coordination, plan for long-term trends, implement long-term strategies, and build a foundation for long-term stability, further promote the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and better support and serve Chinese-style modernization.

Wuxi, which is located in the core area of the Yangtze River Delta and sits on the 35.7-kilometer golden coastline of the Yangtze River, has in recent years always insisted on forward-looking thinking under the overall national strategic situation, systematic planning in the global collaborative trend, and overall advancement in in-depth and detailed implementation. With the power of hub connection and engine drive, it has been implementing major national development strategies. Leading the way forward - using diversified hard-core support to expand new space for the flow of elements, allowing the "golden waterway" to continue to release more "golden benefits"; between advancement and retreat, shape new industry advantages with higher-level green development; in the further advancement of east-west collaboration, we will work with brother cities to create a richer "mountain and sea love" for cooperation scenarios...

Hard-core support allows the “golden waterway” to continue to release more “golden benefits”

A few days ago, a dazzling report card of Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port was presented to the world - in the first half of the year, the port's cargo throughput exceeded 180 million tons, a record high; the results of the smart logistics project were implemented, and the on-site verification of the special pilot project for a transportation power was passed... Groups of dynamic figures witnessed the gorgeous transformation of traditional ports into modern hubs.

The Yangtze River is the largest and busiest river in the world. The 35.7 kilometers of Yangtze River coastline is Wuxi’s unique resource endowment. In recent years, Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port has focused on terminal capacity expansion and renovation, hub function improvement, and qualitative transformation and upgrading, and has made every effort to improve the quality and efficiency of the port economy. Its annual cargo throughput has exceeded 380 million tons, ranking third among inland river ports in the country, and many economic indicators rank among the best among ports along the Yangtze River.

The increase in cargo is inseparable from the upgrading and expansion of ports. In the first quarter of this year, Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port launched three key projects at once to promote the port's energy level. United Logistics Terminal is one of them. The project plans to extend the idle shoreline in the upstream section and combine it with the existing berths in the downstream section to transform and expand it into a 40,000-ton general cargo berth. At the same time, Ligang Power Plant Pier 1 plans to upgrade and transform the existing 35,000-ton berth into a 70,000-ton bulk cargo berth; Yangzi Jiasheng LNG Terminal plans to transform it into two 30,000-ton LNG berths...

Choosing to go to sea from Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port, companies are also interested in upgrading port services. At the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation jointly issued a notice clearly approving Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port as the port of departure to implement the port of departure tax refund policy from December 1, 2024. In June this year, Jiangsu Maritime Safety Administration officially released "Several Measures to Support Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port in Building the Optimal Business Environment Innovation Practice Zone in the Yangtze River Basin", with 22 specific measures in 6 major sectors to help Wuxi transform from a "big water transport city" to a "strong water transport city". These visible and tangible practical measures to benefit enterprises have become the "hard core support" for optimizing the business environment of the "golden waterway".

Since the beginning of this year, the opening of many new hub routes such as "Jiangyin-Chile", "Jiangyin-Guyana", "Jiangyin-Portugal" and "Jiangyin-Sihanoukville Port in Cambodia" have built a wider "water highway" for goods to go out to sea, boosting the significant growth in the volume of foreign trade exports. While routes and flights continue to increase, Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port digs deep into the "golden benefits" and continuously adjusts the cargo structure. The cargo structure is also better. Wind power, electromechanical and other equipment companies in surrounding areas have begun to choose to "ship out to sea" from Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port.

Today, Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port is writing a new chapter on the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt with its "green and intelligent integration". With the issuance of the "Three-Year Action Plan for Wuxi City to Strengthen the Intensive and Efficient Utilization of Port Coastline Resources and Promote Optimization and Improvement of Port Functions (2025-2027)", a beautiful picture of a modern port cluster is worth looking forward to: ports along the river are lined with specialized terminals of 50,000-150,000 tons, which are coordinated with the Yangtze River Delta port cluster; the port terminals are precisely aligned with surrounding industries, and the smart, green and safe port cluster resonates with the Taihu Bay Science and Technology Innovation Belt and advanced manufacturing clusters...

Between advancement and retreat, create new industrial advantages with higher-level green development

On the south bank of the Yangtze River, white "high towers" stand here, with giant blades rotating in the wind and making circular motions. Amidst the roar of the wind, these wind turbines generated hundreds of millions of kilowatt-hours of clean energy, while reducing more than 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and also demonstrated a clear background of green development.

Built and prospered along the river, Jiangyin developed more than two-thirds of the Yangtze River coastline during its peak period. In recent years, Wuxi has firmly adhered to the strategic policy of "joint efforts to protect the Yangtze River and not engage in large-scale development", insisting on implementing the "three advances and three retreats" strategy to protect the Yangtze River in Jiangyin, actively compressing the productive coastline, banning scattered polluting enterprises, shutting down chemical enterprises, In order to renovate the sewage outlets into the river, we have also completed the relocation of the Yangtze River Shipyard, China's largest private shipbuilding enterprise, and the Huangtian Port Ferry and Jiucai Port Ferry, which have been in operation for nearly half a century. This has changed the past embarrassing situation of being surrounded by docks and "nearing the river but not seeing the river".

While strengthening "retreat", we also pay attention to "construction". Jiangyin has used all these withdrawn productive shorelines for ecological restoration, coordinated the construction of wetlands along the Yangtze River and the protection and restoration of small wetlands, and comprehensively used land reserves, ecological restoration, wetland protection, old city renovation, comprehensive development and other measures to build an urban "ecological T-station" with "eight kilometers along the river and ten kilometers of canals", forming a rich and diverse supply area for high-quality ecological products such as riverside parks, suburban wetlands, forest belts around the city, and riverside greenways. Nowadays, the "crystal blue" that can be seen above has become a frequent visitor in the circle of friends. The riverside greenway that can be strolled connects the mountains, rivers, cities and forests. The beautiful life picture of "seeing the green through the window and going out to the garden" is becoming a daily life within the reach of citizens. The water quality of the Wuxi section of the Yangtze River has stably reached Class II, and the water quality of the nine first-level controlled tributaries to the river all reached Class II for the first time last year.

It is necessary to keep the boundaries of protection and stimulate the vitality of development. On the one hand, we will accelerate the elimination of backward production capacity and inefficient and low-end production capacity in the "two high" industries. On the other hand, we will lay out new tracks in new fields such as digital economy, synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, and aerospace industry. We will take the lead in realizing the transformation of the development model along the river from resource-driven and capital-driven to innovation-driven, and accelerate the formation of new quality productivity.

Entering the Jiangyin Carbon Neutral Technology Industrial Park located in Lingang Development Zone, a modern industrial development scene comes into view. The park has built platform carriers such as the Envision Power Intelligent Battery Project and the Wind Power Testing and Verification Center, building an integrated collaborative collaboration mechanism for upstream and downstream production, supply and marketing in the new energy industry chain, and promoting collaborative innovation, resource sharing, and integrated development between chain owners and supporting enterprises. In 2024, the park's revenue will exceed 58.91 billion yuan, it has cultivated 4 leading key enterprises with sales exceeding 1 billion yuan, and gathered 9 provincial-level specialized and new small and medium-sized enterprises, 7 provincial-level innovation platforms, etc., becoming an important growth pole for the innovation and development of Jiangyin's new energy industry.

"Quit" out of the old model and "enter" into the new future. Wuxi has reshaped its development momentum through green transformation, promoted the coordinated development of the ecological economy, and embarked on an inclusive path that takes into account the protection and development of the Yangtze River.

Linkage between top and bottom to create a "love between mountains and seas" with complementary advantages and win-win development

In June this year, at the 2025 "Jiangsu Famous Enterprises Tour in Qinghai" event and the Suqing Industrial Investment Fair, Envision Energy successfully signed a contract with the Haidong Industrial Park Management Committee to build the Envision Haidong/Independent Energy Storage Power Station Project in Haidong City. The project has a planned investment of 5 billion yuan and a planned land area of ​​approximately 550 acres. It will not only inject strong momentum into promoting the construction of Qinghai's zero-carbon industrial park and building a more competitive modern industrial system, but also demonstrate Wuxi's initiative to link upstream and downstream urban resources, drive the region with its own development, and contribute to the overall situation. It will forge a new high-quality development path of ecological industrialization and industrial ecology in the coordinated development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt region.

Wuxi, sitting on the tail of the Yangtze River and the head of the Yangtze River, has always been at the forefront of promoting the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt with its unique location advantages and active and enterprising urban spirit; Haidong, located at the "East Gate" of Qinghai, overlooks the source of the Yangtze River, where the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Loess Plateau meet, accumulating a majestic, heroic, tough and simple regional temperament.

The two cities with very different styles, located at the beginning and end of the Yangtze River, are using industrial collaboration as a link to achieve complementary advantages and win-win development. In this artery that improves the level of east-west openness, they jointly interpret a new chapter of high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in which ecological protection and economic growth are coordinated, and green transformation and industrial upgrading are promoted.

The tide of cooperation continues to surge. In July this year, new news came from the Industrial Park of Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County. The green electricity high-end aluminum-based material project invested by Wuxi enterprises with an investment of 450 million yuan entered the trial production stage. The project adopts an independent negative pressure internally guided casting process, which will comprehensively support the large-scale application of green high-end aluminum materials and lightweight components in multiple emerging fields. It is expected to produce 100,000 tons of high-end aluminum rods annually and achieve an annual output value of over 2 billion yuan, injecting new momentum into Haidong's industrial development.

In the past two years, Wuxi has focused on six leading industries including high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, and new materials. It has introduced a total of 24 enterprises based in the east, with an investment of 432 million yuan. It has signed 12 digital economy and industrial park-related cooperation projects with Haidong, which is the first batch of "data aid youth" projects in Jiangsu Province. From traditional industries to digitalization and intelligence, continuous cross-regional collaboration not only strengthens the economic connections and functional complementarities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, but also provides solid support for promoting ecological priority and green development.

This year, Wuxi has invested 268 million yuan in Haidong City's Suqing Collaboration Fund, and plans to implement 63 aid projects. It will promote the complementary advantages and in-depth integration of the two places with pragmatic measures, actively seek cooperation intersections, effectively combine Wuxi's industrial advantages with Haidong's resource endowments, break geographical restrictions on a wider scope and at a deeper level, and achieve "a game of chess" for coordinated regional development.

Integrating into and serving the country's major development strategies has always been an important factor in the city's energy level transition, with a multiplier effect of amplification, superposition, and multiplication. Practice has proved that any city’s pursuit of consciously serving the national strategy is as high as its own development stage.

"You run towards the future...promote a new era!" Just like the lyrics of "Song of the Yangtze River", the rolling Yangtze River surges forward, contributing lasting power to the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and creating a "Wuxi Chapter" of win-win development. It has reached a new starting point.

(Xu Jinghui, Zhu Wenjun, Gong Yan)