China able to transform economic growth mode: WB

Still in the primary phase of industrialization, China has the potential to transform its economic growth mode marked by high energy consumption and pollution, said a senior official of the World Bank (WB) Saturday at the China Development Forum on Building Resource-Efficient Society being held from June 25 to 26.

Zhang Chengman, administrative vice-president of the BW, suggested China to use pricing and taxing tools to realize the reasonable and efficient use of resources.

According to Zhang, China's fee for fuel is only one-fourth of the US, three to five percent of Europe. The fee for farming water is nearly free and the fee for urban water use is only one-third of South Africa and one-tenth of Germany.

Despite great improvements in pricing reform of water and energy resources, China should make more efforts by using pricing and taxing tools, he said.

Zhang said China should raise its energy and water efficiency standards and to strengthen its legal supervision in energy use.

China's energy consumption in industrial, transporting and commercial sectors and people's daily use is 20 to 100 percent higher than developed countries. And the urban water recycling rate is only 30 percent of developed countries, he said.

Zhang suggested China to establish a green GDP system and to raise the ratio of the service sector in the GDP of the country as it will consume much less resources than the industrial sector.

Compared with most developed countries and some developing countries whose industrial sector only accounts for 20 to 40 percent of the national economy while the ratio of service sector is 50 to 70 percent, the ratio of China's industrial and service sector accounting for 53 percent and 34 percent respectively, he said.

Zhang said the WB is helping China to design its strategy in the 11th Five-Year Plan. With energy consumption and efficiency as the theme, the work will help China to build a resource-efficient society, said Zhang.

Source: Xinhua