Huzhou in East China's Zhejiang province will ramp up efforts to build a pilot zone for environmentally friendly construction and finance industries. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Huzhou, a city surrounded by mountains and lakes, was recently approved to build China's first pilot city for the coordinated development of environmentally friendly construction and finance industries, local media reported on March 29.

The approval, jointly granted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the People's Bank of China, and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, will explore an exemplary "Huzhou model" of green development for the entire country.

According to local authorities, Huzhou has formulated a series of policies to build the above-mentioned pilot zone. The city has launched over 100 eco-friendly construction material and financial service projects worth over 30 billion yuan ($4.24 billion) in total.

Known as the birthplace of the "Two Mountains" theory – which states that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets – Huzhou has been striving to find a new way to achieve sustainable and high-quality development while keeping the environment green.

The province of Zhejiang aims to build the city into a national example of both green and integrated development of urban and rural areas by 2022.

Local media reported that the city will seize this opportunity to expand the scale of construction-related credit loans to at least 10 billion yuan and increase the ratio of eco-friendly construction projects to at least 25 percentage points.