Jiujiang, Jiangxi： Financial efforts to promote the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt
The Yangtze River is the mother river of the Chinese nation and an important support for the development of the Chinese nation. The construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is a major strategy related to the overall development of the country. In January 2016, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader presided over a symposium to promote the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and clearly put forward the development orientation of "jointly protecting and not developing" for the first time, which laid the ecological priority tone for the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
As an important node city in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, is surrounded by great rivers, great lakes and famous mountains, with a coastline of 152 kilometers along the Yangtze River. At the same time, it is also a traditional industrial base, which is both a national key ecological function area and an eco-environment sensitive area. In recent years, Jiujiang City has focused on the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, paid close attention to ecological protection and restoration, promoted industrial green development and energy transformation, achieved high-quality development and high-level protection, and achieved a series of turning changes. In this process, innovations in systems and tools such as green finance and transitional finance, and breakthroughs in technological empowerment have explored a new path for the green, low-carbon and high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
Deeply integrated into the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the local financial system, while guarding "one lake with clear water flowing into the river" and "one Qing Jiang with water flowing eastward", sang a magnificent new era "Song of the Yangtze River".
Harmony between man and nature.
Whenever the Yangtze River enters the wet season in summer, you can see the strange natural landscape at the intersection of the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake on the water when you board Shi Zhongshan. As the last pass before the Yangtze River enters the downstream plain, it is also the throat of Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, which flows into the Yangtze River. Poyang Lake is rich in water resources and aquatic life supply, which makes it the main habitat of endangered species such as Yangtze finless porpoise and the communication channel between rivers and lakes.
In order to protect, research and develop the finless porpoise and fish germplasm resources, in 2020, Hukou County started the construction of China finless porpoise Bay (Hukou) aquatic biological protection base. The project was strongly supported by the financial system. Jiujiang Branch of Agricultural Development Bank made a 17-year loan of 1.06 billion yuan, and innovatively adopted the financing mode of future income rights pledge, which not only effectively managed the living environment of finless porpoises, but also opened the way for the financing of public welfare biodiversity conservation projects.
The person in charge of the base told the Financial Times reporter that after the base was completed, the number of finless porpoises increased from more than 800 at the minimum to 1,249 at present, and the effect of biological protection was fully demonstrated. At the same time, the first comprehensive freshwater fish science museum in China, which integrates teaching, scientific research and popularization of science, has received more than 230,000 visitors for two years, and achieved an annual income of 164 million yuan.
The finless porpoise frequently writes the most vivid footnotes for the great protection of the Yangtze River, and the awakening of people’s awareness of biodiversity protection has also made the finless porpoise Bay the most intuitive embodiment of the transformation of ecological achievements in the great protection of the Yangtze River.
Financial plan for Yangtze River protection
Fully supporting Jiujiang to build the "most beautiful coastline" of 152 kilometers and promoting the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt with high standards and high quality is a mission entrusted by the times for the local financial system.
"In supporting the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, finance has always adhered to the strategic positioning of" jointly protecting and not developing ",preventing" one size fits all "and putting an end to" rushing headlong into it ",focusing on ecological priority and green development." Wu Jun, president of Jiujiang Branch of China People’s Bank, told reporters.
Under the guidance of Jiangxi Branch of the People’s Bank of China, Jiujiang Branch of the People’s Bank of China put the protection and restoration of the Yangtze River ecological environment at the top of financial support, and together with the transformation and upgrading of key industries and exploring effective ways to realize the transformation of ecological value, it was jointly identified as the three core tasks for Jiujiang financial system to promote the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and promoted Jiujiang Municipal Government to issue the "Three-year Action Plan of Jiujiang Financial Support for the High-quality Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt". The "Program" involves more than 40 relevant departments, counties and districts, and more than 10 bank insurance institutions, with clear responsibilities and responsibilities.
Financial support is not only reflected in expanding capital supply, optimizing financial service mode and financial product innovation, but also in improving financing policy guarantee system and risk prevention mechanism and optimizing financial ecological environment. Wu Jun told reporters that the practice in recent years shows that building a multi-level policy coordination framework is the institutional basis for the landing of green finance. The innovation of market-oriented financial instruments has promoted the transformation of ecological value, and the empowerment of science and technology has further cracked the efficiency bottleneck of traditional finance in the environmental field. At the same time, green finance and transitional finance have been effectively linked and coordinated, and a "double pillar" of green and low-carbon development has been built. The data shows that by the end of June 2025, the balance of green loans in Jiujiang was 99.015 billion yuan, up 23.25% year-on-year, which was 16.34 percentage points higher than the growth rate of various loans in the same period. The proportion of new green loans in the whole year reached 54.4%.
Environmental governance remoulds new ecology
In the bustling old city of Jiujiang, there are two waters covering a total area of more than 1,500 mu. In the midsummer night, people enjoy the cool water by the water in twos and threes … It’s hard to imagine that this place was criticized by the public for its serious water pollution in the past. This change benefited from the comprehensive improvement of the water environment of the Yangtze River.
97% of the surface water in Jiangxi Province flows into the Yangtze River through Jiujiang, and the water area under the jurisdiction of Jiujiang accounts for 17.6% of the total land area, about 4.95 million mu, and the water system resources are very rich. Therefore, for Jiujiang, the Yangtze River should be treated first.
Water environment treatment projects are characterized by long cycle, large capital demand and high investment risk. In view of the first two characteristics, Jiujiang local banking institutions mainly adopt syndicated loans to solve them. In order to reduce investment risks, Jiujiang Branch of the People’s Bank of China took the initiative to "bridge the gap" between banking institutions and the Bureau of Eco-environment, set up a normalized communication mechanism, help banking institutions to find out the governance policies of rivers and lakes in Jiujiang, and set up a green project library covering the protection and restoration of rivers and lakes and wetlands, comprehensive improvement of rural land, ecological restoration of mines, etc., to plan the feasibility of the project in advance and provide convenience for bank loan review.
Considering the complexity of various sub-projects involved in water environment control projects, it is very important to sort out the projects in the early stage of loan. Financial institutions take the initiative to sort out various sub-projects with enterprises when establishing projects, and develop suitable credit products according to local conditions. The reporter learned that in the renovation project of Binjiang section of Jiujiang historical and cultural city, Jiujiang Branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China intervened in advance in the preparatory stage of the project, provided full-process financial counseling, and flexibly applied franchising and pledge of income rights through the customized scheme of "one project, one policy", effectively solving the financing problems of public welfare projects such as ecological restoration, flood control and disaster reduction, and successfully breaking the financing deadlock of Yangtze River shoreline protection projects in the region.
According to the data provided by Jiujiang Branch of the People’s Bank of China, the local financial system has invested a total of 19.37 billion yuan in credit funds to support the water environment management in Jiujiang. Through the combination of engineering water control and ecological management, the pollution reduction rate of Jiujiang city’s pollution indicators into the lake reached more than 80%, and the water quality was greatly improved. Ten sections of Jiujiang Yangtze River have maintained Class II water quality for seven consecutive years, and the excellent rate of water environment national examination sections reached 100%.
Green and low carbon activate new kinetic energy
Boarding from Madang Ferry, pengze county, Jiujiang City, it takes ten minutes to reach Mianchuan Town, Gudao, Jiangxin. As far as the island is concerned, there are large cotton fields and wind turbines standing in the fields. The annual output of 18 "big windmills" can reach 244 million kWh, which is equivalent to saving 96,000 tons of standard coal and reducing 240,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. On May 27th, the project was connected to the grid at full capacity, and the cotton boat became the first "zero carbon island" in the Yangtze River basin to realize large-scale renewable energy power supply.
"No big development" does not mean no development, but a road of high-quality development and green and low-carbon development. This coincides with the concept of green finance. The "Zero Carbon Island" project can not only significantly increase the proportion of clean energy use in pengze county, but also realize ecological optimization through low-carbon application. Therefore, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of pengze county adopts the way of green credit superimposed on agricultural loans, and cooperates with the local Agricultural Bank to extend the loan amount to 600 million yuan, so as to provide all-round financial guarantee for the project construction.
As an old industrial base in Jiangxi, Jiujiang once produced the first match, the first TV set and the first ship in Jiangxi. It can be said that "Made in Jiujiang" is synonymous with Jiangxi industry. In the tide of great protection of the Yangtze River, the survival and development of traditional industrial enterprises have also pushed the transitional finance into the public’s field of vision. In 2023, Jiujiang Branch of the People’s Bank of China selected Hukou County Industrial Park to carry out the pilot project of transitional finance, and formulated the Green and Low-carbon Transitional Service Framework of Hukou County to evaluate the classified management of environmental and social risks of 147 regulated industrial enterprises. Jiujiang Bank innovatively launched the "carbon-efficient loan", which linked the loan pricing with the comprehensive performance of carbon emission reduction of enterprises. By the end of 2024, a total of 535 million yuan of "carbon efficiency loans" had been issued, and the interest rate was more than 1 percentage point lower than that of corporate loans in the same period.
In pengze county’s Jishan Industrial Park, financial support for the transformation of chemical enterprises has also made new progress. In 2024, Bank of Communications Jiujiang Branch approved a syndicated loan of 1.8 billion yuan for Xinlianxin Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. on the basis of existing credit, which was used for comprehensive utilization and transformation of cleaner production. It is understood that this coal chemical enterprise along the Yangtze River has achieved ultra-low emissions far below the national standards by continuously optimizing production processes and processes, and has also been awarded the "National Green Factory" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The residual pressure power generation project of methanol low-temperature washing carbon dioxide in this financial support transformation project not only won the double top ten awards of "Best Energy-saving Technology and Best Energy-saving Practice" in China, but also provided reference data and reports for the establishment of transformation financial standards for chemical enterprises in Jiujiang.
Open a new channel for ecological value transformation
Emission rights can not only be traded but also mortgaged. In May this year, Jiujiang’s first mortgage loan for emission rights landed in Jiujiang Bank, with a loan of 4 million yuan, which helped Wuzhou Special Paper Group Co., Ltd. "turn pollution into gold". This financial product innovation benefited from the "pilot trading of emission rights reserve" initiated by Jiujiang City. In the pilot, Jiujiang positioned the emission rights as "the right to use environmental capacity owned by the whole people", which not only adhered to the institutional foundation of public ownership of ecological resources, but also realized the marketization of environmental resources elements through the separation of the right to use, turning "dead indicators" into "living capital" and environmental capacity into a value-added development factor.
With the continuous improvement of Jiujiang’s ecological environment quality, market-oriented operation began to enter the field of ecological resources, and the awareness that "environmental capacity is a scarce resource, and environmental resources are limited, valuable and paid" reached a consensus on a wider level.
Only half a month after the mortgage loan of emission rights was issued, Jiujiang City issued a "double-first-order" syndicated loan linked to biodiversity protection indicators for national manufacturing and foreign-funded enterprises. The syndicated loan was 500 million yuan for three years, and the interest rate was linked to the biodiversity protection objectives of Poyang Lake, namely, the effective protection and management area of Poyang Lake Basin increased by 4,000 hectares, the number of beneficiaries of biodiversity protection education increased by 100,000, and the total nitrogen emission concentration in discharged wastewater was controlled at 1.3mg/L or below. If any two items are achieved, they will be lowered by 3 basis points; If any item is lowered by 2 basis points, the interest rate will remain unchanged if the target is not achieved. According to estimates, if all three objectives are achieved, it will reduce the financing cost for enterprises by about 250,000 yuan per year, which will play a positive role in promoting enterprises’ continuous investment in biodiversity protection.
From the realization of emission rights to linking enterprises’ participation in biodiversity protection with interest rates, it is not difficult to see that in order to realize the value of ecological products and even the value that can be brought in the future, Jiujiang financial system strives to separate quantifiable and tradable objects from abstract ecological values, balance the contradiction between protection and development through risk pricing mechanism, and finally form a positive cycle of "capital inflow-environmental improvement-value promotion". "It is difficult to see the benefits of ecological projects at present, but we hope that with the support of finance, we can become a new economic growth pole in the future." Luo deping, president of ICBC Jiujiang Branch, said.
"The most beautiful coastline" shows a new look
With the in-depth implementation of a series of financial measures to support the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, both the ecological environment of the Yangtze River and the development of industrial enterprises have undergone significant changes. The water is clear, the trees are green, the pollution discharge of enterprises is reduced, and the unit energy consumption is reduced, and the low-carbon environmental protection concept thus set off has a profound impact on Jiujiang’s economic, financial and social development as a "brainstorming".
In March 2024, Wuzhou Special Paper set up a separate energy and environmental protection department within the enterprise, which was responsible for the sewage control of the whole production process. During the interview, the person in charge of the heart-to-heart enterprise told reporters that at this stage, they don’t want the largest scale, but they want to use energy to the extreme and minimize pollution to change the inherent impression of the society on coal chemical enterprises. In fact, they did. Ding Zidan, president of Bank of Communications Jiujiang Branch, said frankly that in the process of cooperation with enterprises, his greatest experience is that banks should judge enterprises not by the industry, but by the enterprises themselves, not only by looking at the statements of enterprises, but also by on-the-spot visits. "Coal chemical industry is a credit-restricted industry. If we simply made loans according to the standards, Bank of Communications would miss this industry leader."
Regarding the transformation of enterprises from "passive emission reduction" to "active efficiency creation", Xiao Jing, president of Jiujiang Bank, believes that this is also an opportunity for banks to set indicators related to energy consumption intensity or environment according to the carbon reduction effect brought by unit loans, so as to better improve financial quality and efficiency and help enterprises achieve a win-win situation of "energy saving and cost reduction" and "low-carbon development". In this regard, Wu Jun also said that the current pilot work of transitional finance is accelerating the "green turn" of high-carbon industries, which will undoubtedly provide more opportunities for financial assistance to the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The People’s Bank of China will also continue to increase policy support and guide financial institutions to help qualified industrial enterprises become bigger and stronger through price leverage, and complete the clearance of backward production capacity, thus achieving another overall upgrade of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.