Updated: 2005-06-27
China will not pose a threat to the world as a result of its shortage of resources, as the world's most-populous nation is expected to sustain its economic growth through improving efficiency.
A group of high-ranking officials, including Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan, delivered this message at a forum held over the weekend that aimed to seek advice from international experts on how to build a society that makes more efficient use of its resources.
Zeng said in the first two decades of this century, China would pursue a new model of industrialization that features reduced consumption of resources and minimized pollution.
Zeng said the government had already planned to restructure the economy to reduce the pressure on resources.
"The task will top our economic development agenda in the years ahead," Zeng.
Industry currently accounts for 63 per cent of China's total economy, with heavy industry making up three-quarters of this sector.
The weekend's discussion attracted more than 200 ministerial officials and heavyweight international experts.
While expressing concern over China's development and its demand for resources, Daniel Dudek, the chief economist of US-based Environmental Defense, praised the government for its sober-minded attitude towards the problem.
"Our country (the United States) should organize such a open forum on saving resources," said Dudek. "Borrowing international ideas is a very encouraging start to solve the problem in a country with such a big population.
That rapid development of heavy industry is a major reason why China's energy and resource problems have recently become so prominent," according to a background report provided to the forum by the State Council's Development Research Centre.
Zeng said China continued to face a shortage of resources. Since it has a population of 1.3 billion, the nation's per capita resources are far less than the global average, he said, adding that the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization demand people to save resources.
"But we are not going to pose a threat to the world; instead, we are trying hard to find a resource-efficient way to quadruple its economy by 2020," said Lu Mai, secretary-general of the China Development Research Foundation.
