CAE president on China's balance economic growth with environmental protection

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 22, 2004

CAE president on China's balance economic growth with environmental protection

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China should balance economic growth with environmental protection to avoid repeating the "first pollute, then control" mode, said Xu Kuangdi, president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), on Monday.

Addressing the China Development Forum's 2004 annual meeting, Xu, also vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that the relationship between economy and environment could be described bya curve of the upside-down U curve shape.

The environment was kept relatively unpolluted in the initial stage of economic development, he acknowledged. However, he added,along with development, the situation would become increasingly more serious, and the pollution index would reach its climax when the country completely stepped into an industrialized phase.

After that, people in the post-industrialized times were aware of the pollution issue and would work very hard to improve or at least bring it under control, he said.

China hoped that the curve would be a gentle one as the economygrows, Xu said. Though it could entail a high cost, it was totallyworth doing from a long-term view.

China has set forth the goal of basically achieving industrialization by 2020 with a per capita GDP of over 3,000 US dollars.

China will quadruple its GDP with only doubled energy consumption by then and make itself a moderately developed country.

Thus China should follow a new-style development mode leading to industrialization with the core of reducing energy consumption,enunciated the expert, because the reduced consumption would curb the environmental pollution.

Xu went on to say that China ought to extensively apply information technology in energy exploitation and seek a most optimized design, manufacturing and management in industries.

Meanwhile, the digitized and computerized monitoring and adjustment to lifestyles and daily consumption processes would also help cut energy consumption, Xu said.

Besides, he added, the adoption of clean manufacturing techniques and the spread of the conception of recycled economy would be meaningful to check the environmental deterioration.

China must build an energy-saving-oriented society in the next 20 years, Xu said, not only because it faces the stark situation of energy shortage, but also because of the consequential choice affecting descendants and the human world as a whole.

At the sponsorship of the Development Research Center under theState Council, or the central Chinese government, the meeting has set "China's all-round, coordinated and sustainable development" as its theme.

Sources with the Development Research Center noted that the meeting has drawn more than 100 world renowned scholars, officialswith international organizations, entrepreneurs of global leading corporations as well as officials from the Chinese government.

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