Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin commented on the WTA Best Practices of Rural Revitalization through Tourism 2021
2021.11.03
Editorial Note:
On October 20, 2021, the World Tourism Alliance (WTA), the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC), and the World Bank (WB) jointly released the WTA Best Practices of Rural Revitalization through Tourism 2021. The release of the report is part of the series of activities to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the lawful seat of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations. On November 2, the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin answered press questions and gave comments on the report at the regular press conference.
CRI: The WTA Best Practices of Rural Revitalization through Tourism 2021 was released in Beijing recently. Do you have any comment?
Wang Wenbin: The World Tourism Alliance (WTA) recently released the WTA Best Practices of Rural Revitalization through Tourism 2021. This report fully demonstrates the excellent achievements of China’s rural revitalization through tourism, and puts forward suggestions on rural revitalization based on in-depth analysis, summary and research. The release of the report is part of the series of activities to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the lawful seat of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations. It is also an important measure taken by China to implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in tourism and promote mutual learning among countries in this area.
The Communist Party of China and the Chinese government always attach great importance to rural work. We have introduced a host of policies and measures to accelerate rural infrastructure construction and public service improvement and stated clearly that we must continue to make solving problems relating to agriculture, rural areas and farmers the top priority in the Party’s work, make comprehensively promoting rural revitalization a major task of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and mobilize the efforts of the whole Party and society to accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas so that farmers can live a better life. This 50 cases from 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China compiled in this report are a vivid illustration of the achievements of the path of socialist rural revitalization with Chinese characteristics and China’s unique contribution to global poverty reduction and development.
In this report, there are many success stories of achieving development and revitalization through ecological progress. You can find the inspiring stories of how villages achieved prosperity by implementing the strategy of “village development through ecology” and developing featured tourism of the local ecology, how they converted land once used for industries with heavy pollution to scenic spots through ecological upgrading, and how they made full use of the endowment of local world natural heritages to find ways for heritage protection, rural tourism and sustainable livelihood to integrate with and reinforce one another. These cases are positive outcomes of China’s commitment to prioritizing ecological conservation and promoting green and low-carbon development and its effort to build a beautiful country with the harmonious coexistence of man and Nature.
We believe that if we humanity do not fail Nature, Nature will not fail us. Rural revitalization cannot be achieved until the vision of blue sky, green land and clear water is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Similarly, the development of China and the world at large cannot be achieved without taking good care of our planet. In the future, we will make unremitting efforts to firmly implement the new development philosophy featuring innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, continue to follow through on the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and work with other countries to build a world of harmonious coexistence between man and Nature and a community with a shared future for mankind featuring zero poverty, zero hunger, and common development. We sincerely hope you will look around in China’s beautiful rural areas.
