On April 16th, the municipal party committee held a bimonthly symposium to have the representatives of the municipal non-communist parties, federations of industry and commerce and personages without party affiliation informed of the development of Yichang’s characteristic agriculture in the aspect of improvement of quality and beneficial result, requiring all parties and groups to unite to promote agricultural development for a solid foundation of transformation of Yichang into a modern megacity.

　　Wang Guobin, deputy mayor of Yichang City, made a report on behalf of the municipal government that the high-quality rate of characteristic agricultural products had obviously improved on the basis of the strategy of emphasizing good quality of the products and promoting the construction of the parks of three local agricultural products including citrus fruits, tea and vegetables and standardization of all kinds of agricultural parks. At present, Yichang owns over 40 thousand hectares of fruit production bases with a high-quality rate of over 80%, about 20 thousand hectares of tea production bases with a high-quality rate of over 50% and over 13,000 hectares of vegetable production bases which fulfills 70% self-sufficient demand of vegetables of Yichang.

　　It was suggested at the symposium that characteristic agriculture of Yichang will be further developed through construction of three experimental demonstration zones of recycle agriculture, integrated rural and urban agricultural base and urban agriculture respectively in Yiling District, Yidu County and Dianjun District, to promote comprehensive utilization and development of eco-agriculture, recreational agriculture and bio-agriculture; and Yichang will strive to receive the title of “National Modern Agricultural Demonstration City” in 2015.

　　Xiong Wei, a member of municipal party standing committee and minister of municipal United Front Work Department, pointed out that, in recent years, the characteristic agriculture of Yichang has been enjoying profitable advantages with rapid progress and inviting future. The representatives of municipal non-communist parties, federations of industry and commerce and personages without party affiliation, making much account of the development of characteristic agriculture, on the basis of a thorough survey and preparation, presented their valuable proposals and suggestions and expressed their wishes that the relevant departments in charge adopt the proposals and suggestions that can give impetus to further development of characteristic agriculture in the future.

　　The leaders from the relevant municipal departments attended the symposium, such as Chen Hechun, Wu Weixing, Li Decai and so on.