A view of Huzhou in East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: huzhoufabu]

Huzhou will stick to the green and low-carbon development path, and better use its well-preserved ecology to achieve common prosperity, according to Wang Gang, Party chief of Huzhou.

Wang also pledged that the city in East China's Zhejiang province will within the next three years play a global role in ecological protection as well as become a national model in green and low-carbon development and a window to display China's beautiful landscapes.

On March 30, Huzhou reached a strategic agreement with the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment to achieve these goals.

Huzhou has in recent years reaped huge dividends from green development, with its rural residents being the prime beneficiaries.

The per capita disposable income of local rural residents was 41,303 yuan ($6,354), up 10.9 percent, in 2021, according to official data from the Huzhou branch of the National Bureau of Statistics.

The income ratio between urban and rural residents in Huzhou stood at 1.65, 0.01 lower than the previous year. This was the ninth year in a row that the city's urban-rural income gap had narrowed.

In addition, the city has made strides in green manufacturing and industrial digitalization.

Huzhou has been ranked 29th on the 2021 list of top 100 advanced manufacturing cities in China, up 16 slots over the previous year. 

The ranking was done by CCID Consulting, a firm affiliated with a think tank under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The firm evaluated the advanced manufacturing sectors of 293 prefecture-level cities nationwide based on factors such as innovation capacity, integrated development, economic strength, and brand quality.