The reform on resource product prices should speed up so as to make water, power, heat and natural gas prices fluctuate in accordance with the change in supply and demand.

Jiang Weixin, vice minister of the State Development and Reform Commission, was quoted by the China Securities Journal as saying on Wednesday.

Although China has started its market economy construction long ago, the prices on many resource products including water, electricity, heat and natural gas are still set by the government, and do not reflect the supply-demand relations in the market.

The government is formulating relevant fiscal and tax policies to develop recycling economy and encourage energy saving, said Jiang.

"The urban water price in China is low in general," Vice Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Urban water price only includes costs for water project and disposal, but excludes costs of water resources, water management and disposal of polluted water, Qiu said.

There is still room for water prices to go up, said he, noting that ordinary people's enduring capacity will be considered when adjusting water prices.

The Ministry of Construction recently required local authorities to speed up the price reform on water, heat and natural gas supply, the newspaper reported.

According to a circular recently issued by the Ministry, relevant fee-collection policies concerning polluted water and garbage disposal should be improved in a bid to raise the recycling rates.

Qiu estimated that China has a polluted water disposal market worth at least 500 billion yuan (61.7 billion US dollars), saying the Chinese government encourages social fund and foreign fund to enter such market.

Source: Xinhua