Economic Policy News
- Nation to promote energy efficiency
Date: 20-Mar-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
CHINA'S senior government officials urged over the weekend that the country should move away from the energy-intensive economic growth by promoting greater energy efficiency.
The government faces great pressures to promote a more balanced economic structure after robust investment and export growth drove the gross domestic product to surge 10.7 percent last year.
A string of recent strong economic data prompted the central bank to raise benchmark interest rates by 27 basis points from Sunday, the third time in the past year that the country has raised interest rates.
At a senior development forum held over the weekend, Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said China will deepen the market-based resources price reform, improve the resources tax mechanism, amend the export rebate system, and implement fuel tax at 'an appropriate time.'
China is aiming to cut the energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by around 20 percent by 2010 from 2005. The country missed the target of a 4 percent reduction in energy use last year.
Zeng's remarks were echoed by Deputy Finance Minister Li Yong, who said at the same forum that tax preferential policy should help optimize industry development.
More fiscal revenues should be directed to support the production of basic energy and raw materials as well as the development of some high-tech industries, rather than to aid those energy-intensive but less efficient industries, said Li.
Ma Kai, the minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, also urged at the forum that China 'should abandon the method of simply chasing high GDP output while ignoring the environmental and resources costs.'
These comments were made after the government set a target to slow China's GDP growth to around 8 percent this year from the 10.7 percent last year.
Ma said the government should toughen the market access by setting higher standards for energy efficiency.
The government will focus on boosting energy efficiency in sectors including steel, non-ferrous metal, coal, power, crude, chemical engineering and construction materials, said Ma.
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