Editor's Note:  Hu Jimei is the vice president and professor of Zhejiang Ecological Civilization Executive Leadership Academy. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The coordinated and sustainable development of population, resources and environment is an eternal subject. It is also an important theoretical and practical problem to be discussed and solved through the discipline of economics. That's because compared with human needs and creativity, the resources on Earth are always scarce and the ecological environment  always fragile. Developed countries have taken the road of pollution first, treatment later, and economic growth at the expense of the environment. Although they have created unprecedented material wealth, they have also paid a huge environmental cost. The eight major pollution incidents that have shocked the world caused serious ecological damage and irreparable trauma. They also alerted us: How can a large country with a population of more than 1.4 billion avoid the same path of developed countries: pollution first and treatment later? The industrial structure formed over many years in China is characterized by high energy consumption, high pollution and high emissions. This extensive growth mode cannot solve the contradiction between limited resources and unlimited demand, nor can it meet the needs of contemporary people for a better ecological environment.

Clear waters and green mountains are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver. This important development concept from President Xi Jinping has profoundly expounded the relationship between economic development and environmental protection. It also revealed that protecting the ecological environment is to protect productivity, and improving the ecological environment is to develop productivity. Ecological environment protection and economic development are not contradictory, but dialectical and unified. Economic development does not mean draining resources and ecological environment, and ecological environment protection is not to abandon economic development.

Huzhou is the place where the concept of "clear waters and green mountains are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver" came up firstly. Since 2005, Huzhou has always kept President Xi Jinping's words in mind and adhered to ecological environment protection and the development of regional economy coordination. It has also constantly explored the channel for "clear waters and green mountains" to transform into "mountains of gold and silver", gradually formed the "ecological+" green development mode, and established a new path of "development" and "protection". It breaks the one-sided understanding that "to protect the ecological environment will inevitably drag down economic growth, and to achieve rapid economic growth will inevitably damage the ecological environment." It also better explains the concept that "clear waters and green mountains are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver." Huzhou's practices have proven that as long as they are firmly established on the concept that "clear waters and green mountains are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver" and adhere to the promotion of ecological protection and economic development, they will certainly bring green, gold and silver mountains as well. At the same time, the synergy of regional economic development and ecological environment protection also can be realized.