China's top authorities will unleash a storm in government departments next
year by obliging officials to control GDP growth and pay much closer attention to the environment.
Local officials should make protection of the environment a key
priority. They no longer have to vie for GDP growth to the exclusion of all
else. That is the message the Central Authorities sent during last week's
national meeting mapping out economic policies for 2007.
The Central
Government listed eight economic priorities for next year, and environmental
protection came in in third place, just after economic macro-control measures
and agricultural development.
"(All officials) must understand the new
priorities, take them on board and do everything they can to achieve a practical
improvement in reducing energy consumption and pollution," a statement issued at
the conclusion of the Central Economic Work Conference said in unusually stern
language.
To prevent further deterioration of the environment, China
last year set an energy consumption reduction target of 20 percent in the five
years from 2006 to 2010. The 2006 target is four percent down on the previous
year.
But officials have failed to fulfil the four percent quota this
year. A survey conducted in the first half of the year found that energy
consumption was rising instead of tumbling.
Authorities used the words
"very hard" to describe the difficulties they are facing in reducing energy
consumption to the target level.
China's economy is expected to steam
ahead at more than 10 percent in 2006.
The Central Government has
decided to make the reduction of energy consumption and pollution the key to
restructuring its economy in 2007.
"Cutting energy consumption and
pollution is the most effective approach to restructuring our economy and
improving our economic efficiency," said Ma Kai, minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Analysts said the year 2007 will be vital to achieving the five-year
target, and one that must yield visible results.
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