The Urban Ecological Planning and Construction Symposium of China Urban Planning Society, along with first session of its academic committee, was convened in Suzhou on June 11 with the participation of experts in planning from various provinces and municipalities and universities. The meeting was designed to carry out exchanges in experience and theories on urban ecological planning and construction. The symposium was attended by Ma Minglong, Executive Member of CPC Suzhou Municipal Committee and Secretary of SIP Party Working Committee, and Zhu Jiansheng, Vice-mayor of Suzhou.

In the rapid advancement of urban economy, more and more attention is being paid to ecological planning and construction. As one of the first "national models of environmental protection", "national urban cluster of gardens", and "national ecological demonstration park", Suzhou Municipality has been actively conducting experiments in building ecological city.

Suzhou is a devoted advocator and promoter of cleaner production, green marketing for investment, recycled economy, and the integrated ecological industrialization. Both SIP and SND passed the inspection and approval procedure for national ecological industrial parks by Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Commerce, and Ministry of Science and Technology earlier this year. SIP has invested 30 billion RMB in the environmental infrastructure construction and ecological construction, and built up an environmental monitoring and warning system, while SND became the only national experimental base for recycled economy in addition to national ecological demonstration industrial park.

At present, Suzhou is aiming to build the city into a national garden city this year, and a national cluster of ecological gardens with 23.5% afforestation coverage by the year 2010.