Baotou, a city of rare earth in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, recently became a State-level sustainable community with approval from 19 national ministries and departments.

As a sustainable development community, Baotou will have more investment and preferential policies, and higher priorities in terms of special funds and policy implementation.

The city’s sustainable community is a model of transformation development of old industrial base and resource-based city. In conjunction with the city’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), the government has approved the city’s development plan with 35 high-priority projects covering industrial restructuring, modern agriculture, ecological environment, urban-rural balance development and livelihood.

The National Sustainable Communities program was launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology to promote local sustainable development through demonstration and piloting.

Baotou strives to build up local capacities and explore different mechanisms and models for sustainable development in terms of socioeconomic and resources conditions by 2020.