新闻资讯
新闻资讯

How the third largest gold-producing county in the country breaks the curse of "mining depletion and urban decline".

Time

2021-10-14 13:19

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Tongguan is the third largest gold-producing county in the country, known as the "Gold City of Huaxia". It is also a resource-based city that heavily relies on the development of the gold industry. Since the 1970s, it has delivered a total of 4.5 million taels of finished gold and paid nearly 2.5 billion yuan in taxes. After decades of intensive development, the gold resources in Tongguan County have been increasingly depleted since the beginning of this century, leading to a rapid decline in industrial efficiency and a significant shrinkage in fiscal revenue. As a result, there is a huge gap in livelihood investment, low public service capacity, serious ecological debt, and urgent geological hazards that need to be addressed. How to break the curse of "mining depletion and urban decline"? As a national pilot county for resource transformation, Tongguan County has begun its practical exploration.
 
 
▲ Tongguan is the third largest gold-producing county in the country, and since the beginning of this century, the gold resources in Tongguan County have been increasingly depleted. Ning Yatu / Photo
 
In 2011, Tongguan County was designated as the third batch of resource-depleted city transformation pilot by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Ministry of Finance. How to break the curse of "mining depletion and urban decline" and move away from the path dependence on the gold industry? Tongguan County has begun its exploration and practice of transformation and development.
 
Start the transformation from the leadership structure and working institutions, actively planning and exploring the path of transformation and development.
 
Establish a strong transformation working organization. Tongguan County has formed a leadership group for the transformation of resource-depleted cities, led by the county party secretary as the group leader, the county mayor as the executive deputy leader, the responsible deputy county mayor as the deputy leader, and heads of relevant functional departments as members, responsible for the organization and implementation of transformation work. A transformation office has been set up in the county development and reform bureau, with personnel drawn to form a daily working group, and the responsible bureau chief stationed to take charge, providing strong organizational leadership support for the county's transformation work.
 
Establish a consulting committee to carry out research on transformation and development. In order to improve the scientific and implementable nature of the transformation plan, Tongguan County commissioned experts from well-known research institutions in Shaanxi Province, such as Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology and the Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences, to compile the "Transformation Plan for Resource-Depleted Cities in Tongguan County, Shaanxi Province", and invited experts and scholars to establish the Tongguan County Resource-Based City Transformation and Sustainable Development Research Consulting Committee, responsible for consulting and verifying the transformation plan.
 
Mobilize and integrate various forces to initially clarify the ideas for transformation and development. After the release of the "Transformation Plan for Resource-Depleted Cities in Tongguan County" compiled by the county consulting committee, various levels of party and government cadres, representatives of the people's congress, members of the political consultative conference, and business leaders were mobilized multiple times to hold seminars, verification meetings, and symposiums, widely soliciting opinions and suggestions from provincial and municipal leaders and relevant parties, formulating the overall idea of "enhancing and extending the gold industry chain, developing and expanding the cultural tourism industry, cultivating and nurturing the commercial logistics industry, and consolidating and expanding the fruit and livestock industry", clarifying the direction and goals for transformation and development.
 
Make good use of the financial transfer payment funds for resource-depleted cities at all levels, and start to establish a long-term promotion mechanism. Tongguan County actively addresses the systemic drawbacks and institutional contradictions in economic and social development, closely follows the ideas for transformation development, and combines them with the actual industrial development, successively formulating and issuing more than 10 supporting policies such as the "Five-Year Development Plan for the Gold Industry in Tongguan County" and the "Overall Plan for the Development of Tongguan Logistics Port", led by relevant departments for organization and implementation, establishing a long-term mechanism conducive to sustainable development. At the same time, the financial transfer payment investment of 980 million yuan for resource-depleted cities from various levels has been allocated to the development of replacement industries.
 
After years of exploration and practice in transformation, Tongguan County has achieved orderly development of the mining industry, coordinated development of the tertiary industry, harmonious social development, and coordinated urban-rural development. Currently, the replacement industries for transformation development have taken solid steps, and a preliminary development pattern of diversified pillar industries has formed. Since the implementation of the transformation strategy, the structure of the three major industries in Tongguan County has adjusted from 9.13:55.35:35.52 in 2012 to 12.2:30.9:56.9 in 2019, gradually narrowing the gap with the overall level of Shaanxi Province.
 
Shift from production-oriented to marketing-oriented, making an important step in extending the gold industry chain and improving the quality of the gold industry.
 
Formulate and issue the "Five-Year Development Plan for the Gold Industry in Tongguan County", focusing on promoting the construction of gold industry projects and vigorously advancing the upgrading and transformation of the gold industry. In accordance with the norms of mineral development order, the "Interim Measures for Mediation and Handling of Mining Disputes in Tongguan County" and the "Implementation Plan for the Integration of Mineral Resources in Tongguan County" have been continuously issued, integrating 5 gold enterprises and reducing 24 mining rights, thereby improving the utilization rate of gold resources. An investment of over 130 million yuan has been made to renovate and upgrade the Tongguan Jewelry City, enhancing the "Tongguan Gold" brand, transforming the Tongguan gold jewelry street from serving surrounding cities and counties into a distribution center for gold jewelry in Northwest China.
 
 
▲ An investment of over 130 million yuan has been made to renovate and upgrade the Tongguan Jewelry City, enhancing the "Tongguan Gold" brand. Wang Huiying / Photo
 
Currently, the annual sales amount to about 1 billion yuan, with an annual profit of about 40 million yuan. In 2020, the output value of the gold industry reached 9 billion yuan, and the output value and added value of non-gold industries increased rapidly, raising their proportion in the total industrial output value and added value of the county by more than 20 percentage points. In 2012, a "Tongguan Model" was created in the fight against illegal mining and violations, receiving high praise from the State Council inspection team and provincial government leaders, with typical experiences promoted nationwide.
 
Increase the weight of the "ecological county and tourism-promoting county" strategy, and comprehensively develop and strengthen the cultural tourism industry.
 
Tongguan County has successively issued ecological environment governance plans, allowing green to become the vivid background of transformation and development. Tongguan County has established the idea of governing while developing, successively issuing documents such as the "Implementation Plan for Ecological Benefit Compensation Work for National Key Public Welfare Forests in Tongguan County" and the "Opinions on Comprehensive Implementation of Heavy Metal Pollution Prevention and Control Work in Tongguan County", gradually resolving historical issues such as land and water pollution in mining areas, effectively preventing geological disasters in mining areas, and significantly improving the ecological environment quality in the county. The progress of energy conservation and emission reduction has fully met standards, with energy consumption per 10,000 GDP reduced from 0.6 tons of standard coal in 2012 to 0.1 tons of standard coal in 2018, an average annual decrease of 34.8%. The total emissions of major pollutants have decreased from 3,081 tons in 2012 to 1,317 tons in 2018, with an average annual decrease of 15.2%. The forest coverage rate and tree greening rate have increased to 46% and 46.2%, respectively. In addition, the "Double Beauty Project" has been vigorously implemented, carrying out comprehensive rural environmental remediation work, promoting a new level of coordinated urban-rural integrated development, and revitalizing the urban and rural landscape.
 
 
▲ The total emissions of major pollutants have decreased from 3,081 tons in 2012 to 1,317 tons in 2018, with an average annual decrease of 15.2%. Fan Tongshun / Photo
 
Formulate and issue the "Overall Plan for Tourism Development in Tongguan County", with strong momentum for the integration and development of the "tourism +" industry. Focusing on the tourism industry gathering belt along the Yellow River and Weihe River, deeply excavating and promoting the cultural potential of "Yellow River, Gold, Yellow Land, Ancient City, Ancient Pass, Ancient Battlefield", prioritizing protection and scientific development, and focusing on the two major tourism systems of "One City, Three Parks, One Street" and "Ten-Mile Gallery: Slow Travel in Tongguan", vigorously developing ecological sightseeing tours, leisure health tours, wetland style tours, and Guanzhong folk tours, creating high-quality tourism scenic spots and routes that embody "people on the road, immersed in the painting", solidly protecting and inheriting Yellow River culture, building the Yellow River cultural tourism brand "Tongguan Model", and telling the wonderful "Yellow River Story".
 
Relying on the advantages of wind energy resources, the "green economy" is emerging. Firmly establish the concept of green development, and successively introduced projects such as China General Nuclear Power Group and China Resources Wind Power for construction, leveraging the unique geographical landscape and the integration of wind power generation, bringing dual benefits of tourism and new energy industries. (The author is the Deputy Director of the Reform Office of the Tongguan County Committee of the Communist Party of China)
 
Source: Mining Exchange

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