china is a role model for africa in high-quality economic development
2024-09-08
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at the beijing summit of the forum on china-africa cooperation, "green development" and "high-quality development" were high-frequency words. participants and media reporters from african countries said that china is a role model for africa in this field. according to the outcome document adopted by the summit, china is willing to implement 30 clean energy projects in africa in the next three years to help africa achieve green development.
hans, former economic and commercial counselor of the embassy of mauritius in china and former chief representative of the shanghai representative office of the mauritius economic development board, has deep understanding of this topic.
hans from mauritius set foot on chinese soil for the first time in november 2003. the futuristic skyscrapers and the highways under construction... after just one day in shenzhen, hans was attracted by this modern city.
after studying abroad at wuhan university, hans served as the economic and commercial counselor of the embassy of mauritius in china. in 2021, the mauritius economic development board established a shanghai representative office, and he served as the chief representative of the representative office. "after staying in china for a long time, i gradually realized that in the early winter of that year, my journey of high-quality economic development had just begun."
photo caption: chinese technology has brought new life to the coral reefs of mauritius.
the same green development dream
hans has been thinking about shenzhen for many years after he first came to china. in the days that followed, he always paid attention to the development of this city. a small fishing village that was once backward has now become a metropolis with 16 subway lines and a population of 13.3 million. it has been ranked second in the list of the world's top 100 technology clusters for five consecutive years, along with hong kong and guangzhou. hans was amazed by the rapid development of shenzhen.
like many other cities in the world, shenzhen, as a "test field" of reform and opening up, has also taken detours in the process of rapid economic development and dense population growth, and faced severe ecological challenges such as garbage siege and river pollution. "but now shenzhen is known as the 'city of a thousand parks' because of its emphasis on park construction. people can stroll and take photos in the riverside parks composed of riverbeds, forests and wetlands, and socialize and exercise in urban green spaces." hans said that in his opinion, mauritius and shenzhen have many similarities in terms of area, geographical environment, and choice of development path.
sweet and juicy sugar cane is a gift from nature to the mauritians. in the last century, people's huge demand for sugar made sugar cane planting and sugar production the mainstay of mauritius' economy. but relying solely on "god's favor" is not enough to support economic development. hans said that over the past few decades, thanks to the economic diversification policy, mauritius has developed from a low-income country based on single-crop agriculture to an upper-middle-income country with diversified industries such as tourism, textiles and clothing, and fisheries. the financial services industry and information technology industry have also started in recent years. while the economy is developing, people living in this island country also hope to protect the natural environment on which they depend for survival and achieve the goal of "green mauritius".
photo caption: shenzhen, which attaches great importance to park construction, is known as the "city of thousands of parks". gj
hope to learn from china's "model"
however, in reality, the influx of tourists and the rapid development of real estate projects have exacerbated the local water problem. "yes, it may be difficult for people to imagine that this island country surrounded by the sea will be short of water, but this is the severe situation that mauritians are facing, which contradicts the goal of 'green mauritius'," hans said. climate change and rising sea levels have also forced mauritians to seize the time to think about the future development direction.
how does shenzhen resolve this contradiction?
in 2014, shenzhen took the lead in developing the gross ecosystem product (gep) of the city, and implemented the ecological compensation system the following year, beginning to explore the development path of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. "in many ways, shenzhen is ahead. for example, in june 2013, shenzhen piloted china's first carbon emission rights exchange." through shenzhen, hans saw china's efforts, "urban development is no longer a single choice between the environment and economic growth."
"my last visit to shenzhen was in january this year. that visit allowed me to see that china has explored a high-quality economic development model that adapts to its own needs and focuses on the green economy." hans said that china is a role model for african countries such as mauritius. he hopes that mauritius can learn from the practices of chinese cities represented by shenzhen, so that mauritians can get closer to the dream of green development.
don't want to lose endangered species
hans said that in recent years, china and mauritius have also carried out a lot of cooperation in green development. in the early years, the chinese embassy in mauritius cooperated with local non-governmental organizations on endangered animal and plant protection projects. by setting up automatic irrigation systems and plant cultivation systems, endangered plants invaded by foreign plants were protected and had space for growth and reproduction. it also provided a habitat for rare birds such as the mauritius pink pigeon. in recent years, thanks to the technical support of huawei mauritius technology co., ltd., the degraded coral reefs in the eastern waters of mauritius have been reborn.
"i hope that through the framework of the forum on china-africa cooperation, mauritius and other african countries will continue to support each other and work together to promote high-quality economic development in the future." hans said that mauritius has an exclusive economic zone of 2.3 million square kilometers and hopes to have more in-depth exchanges with china in the field of protecting marine ecology in the future. "i admire china's efforts to protect giant pandas." he said that mauritius has lost the dodo, so he hopes to learn from china's experience so that the local national treasure-level endangered species, the pink pigeon, will no longer become the "second dodo." "and my biggest dream is that a green mauritius will become the first home of chinese giant pandas in africa."
xinmin evening news reporter qi xu
