Green development is key to Belt and Road: Minister

Green development is the only way to achieve a promising future in the cooperation and social development of countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, China's environmental protection minister said on Saturday.

A big data service platform on ecological and environmental cooperation and management will be built, providing a supporting consultancy for boosting the synergy of the Belt and Road Initiative, said Li Ganjie, minister of environmental protection.

"A green, low-carbon, sustainable road is always our principle of development. To strengthen cooperation with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative through ecological protection is our joint effort to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030," Li said.

Together with three other departments, the ministry released a guideline for building a green Belt and Road last year.

It also issued some related policies, as well as cooperative plans to promote further communication on green development with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Li said Chinese enterprises always maintain a high standard of environmental protection in their overseas construction projects.

He cited the construction of a power plant that was finished in India in 2015 as an example.

"India upgraded its environmental protection standard before the project was finished. But our project still passed the new emission standard and even gained the country's gold medal of environmental protection that year," he said.

In the future, Li said the ministry will build a better cooperative mechanism, encouraging more sharing of technology and communication on environmental protection among the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

"China also will promote a 'Belt and Road embosser plan' to share our experiences and ideas with other countries and help them to enhance ecological protection and management ability," Li said.