Expert: Green transition, high-tech key to China's land management

Land management, green transition and comprehensive innovation were among the key agendas at the fourth meeting of China's central commission for deepening overall reform of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held on Monday.

Qu Qiang, a research fellow at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told CGTN that efficient land usage is crucial to the country's food security while technology development helps to raise people's living standards.

China has emphasized land management as the country is feeding about 20 percent of the world's population with less than 10 percent of global arable land, he explained.

China aims to better guarantee food security and supply with more efficient use of the land and better allocation of the land resources, he said.

Monday's meeting also adopted guidelines regarding land administration system reform, promoting the overall green transition of China's economic and social development, and accelerating the formation of fundamental systems that support comprehensive innovation. 

Green transition is both the target and answer to the better use of the land, Qu said, adding that high-tech development is the best answer to issues such as shortage of land supply.

China is experiencing a transition in economic structure and upgrading of the technology, heading toward more science-oriented development, he noted.

With the help of 3D printers, Qu said he had visited factories where "everything is not spreading out in a horizontal way, but more built in a vertical way," which enhances land usage efficiency.

Regarding the innovation development, he pointed out that enterprises are key player in innovation and "academic institutions also need to be elevated in the role of fundamental and theoretical researches."

He suggested more emphasize on enterprises, private sectors, nurture more market-oriented funding system and financial system to further support innovation.

(Cover: A farmer puts fertilizer into a crop protection drone in Fenghua County, Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, March 7, 2023. /Xinhua)