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Beijing Strengthens Environment Protection
Investment in environmental protection in this Chinese capital is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan (12 billion U.S. dollars) between 1998 and 2007, accounting for more than four percent of the city's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the ten-year period.
For the first five years during the ten-year period, Beijing will inject 46.6 billion yuan into the environmental protection endeavor, to reduce pollution in air and water, and facilitate garbage disposal and industrial restructuring, said Yu Xiaoxuan, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Administration.
To this end, the city has already taken 82 concrete measures to bring clean rivers and blue sky back to the capital.
Clean energies such as natural gas have been put into household use in the downtown area, while the city started as of 1999 to adopt a higher standard for automobile emissions, phasing out about 50,000 outdated automobiles.
A comprehensive project aimed at reducing water pollution has also been completed, disposing of 1.784 million cubic meters of silt, laying out 45.3 kilometers of sewage pipes, and greatly improving the water quality in the rivers.
Statistics show that Beijing invested more than ten billion yuan in environmental protection in 1999 alone, accounting for 4.5 percent of the city's GDP. The city has put on a much-improved look as a result of the intensified pollution control efforts.
Beijing will focus its environmental protection efforts on air pollution reduction in the future, according to Yu Xiaoxuan. To meet the goal, the city plans to increase its investment in that regard to 56 billion yuan between 2003 and 2007.
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