BEIJING — Vice-Premier Han Zheng on May 18 called for developing the Yangtze River Economic Belt to achieve high-quality growth.

Local governments and related departments should prioritize ecological conservation and green development, Han, also member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and head of the leading group for promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, said at a high-level meeting.

Han urged them to handle the five major relationships pointed out by President Xi Jinping in late April.

“In developing the economic belt, the key lies in properly dealing with the relationship between pressing ahead on the whole and making breakthroughs in key areas, between environmental protection and economic development, between making an overall plan and making unremitting efforts, between getting rid of old growth engines and cultivating new ones, and between developing individually and developing in a coordinated way,” Xi said at a symposium on the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in Central Chinese city of Wuhan on April 26.

Restoring the environment of the Yangtze River should be put in the dominant position, and all-out efforts should be made to protect the region while forbidding large-scale development, Han said.

Han called for more efforts to prevent and control pollution along the river such as introducing a negative-list management mechanism.

The river should be turned into a comprehensive and multimodal transport corridor with uniform shipping and ports management standards and cooperation with other means of transport, Han added.