Addressing the gap affecting rural areas

Shanghai will encourage advanced industrial development in rural areas both to invigorate the city and to help integrate the growth of urban and rural areas, officials said yesterday.

While the city has made significant achievements in building up the urban region into an advanced metropolis, “great space remains in rural area development to bolster the city’s healthier and broader growth,” Chen Yin, secretary of the city’s political and legal commission, said at a panel discussion of local political advisers.

Rural areas have great potential for advanced industrial development, covering modern agricultural technology and advanced manufacturing, said Zhang Yunfeng, Party secretary of Shanghai Equity Exchange.

There is a large gap between Shanghai’s rural area and that of urban development, said He Zuhua, researcher at Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences.

Agricultural technologies are lagging neighboring provinces such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, while the city’s urban development, in contrast, has been leading nationwide, He added.

The city won’t concentrate on mass industrial production in rural areas as it eyes resource saving and environmental protection, but it will find more solutions on advanced technologies — such as digital agricultural technologies, advanced water treatment and building technologies — “thus helping invigorate the whole city by attracting talent worldwide in these areas,” Chen said.