56.2 percent, and innovation's role in powering development grew markedly.
Fifth, we promoted more balanced development between regions and between rural and urban areas, and saw faster emergence of new growth poles and growth belts.
We stepped up work to implement the three strategic initiatives (the Belt and Road, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration, and the Yangtze Economic Belt), and began construction on a number of key projects. We formulated the plan for the 13th Five-Year Plan period for large-scale development in the western region, launched a new round of initiatives as part of the Northeast revitalization strategy, drove progress in the rise of the central region, and supported the eastern region in leading the rest of the country in pursuing development. We sped up efforts to promote new types of urbanization, deepened reform of the household registration system, introduced the residence card system nationwide, and granted urban residency to another 16 million people from rural areas. The synergy building through coordinated development became more and more evident.
Sixth, we strengthened ecological conservation and made fresh progress in pursuing green development.
We formulated and introduced measures for assessing progress made in ecological improvement, and established national pilot zones for ecological conservation. We took stronger measures against air pollution and, as a result, saw a 5.6-percent decline in sulfur dioxide emissions, a 4-percent cut in nitrogen oxide emissions, and a 9.1-percent drop in the annual average density of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in 74 key cities. We continued to improve the energy mix, increasing the share of clean energy consumption by 1.7 percentage points and cutting the share of coal consumption by 2 percentage points.
We continued efforts to prevent and control water pollution, and adopted an action plan for preventing and controlling soil pollution. Central government inspections on environmental protection accountability were launched and violations of environmental protection laws were investigated and prosecuted, giving impetus to deeper efforts to protect the environment.
Seventh, we gave particular attention to ensuring and improving living standards, helping Chinese people gain a stronger sense of benefit.
Despite growing pressure from fiscal imbalance, we continued to increase inputs in areas related to living standards. We launched new policies on employment and business startups, and carried out solid work on increasing employment for key target groups and priority regions. We made all-around progress in key battles to eradicate poverty and earmarked over 100 billion yuan
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