China says good-bye to blind pursuit of GDP growth
www.chinaview.cn 2004-03-04 21:05:40
BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Faced with a growing gap between rich
and poor and mounting environmental problems, the Chinese government is set
to abandon its blind pursuit of gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
In the past 25 years, China has achieved an economic miracle with average
GDP growth at above 8 percent every year. However, as GDP has become the
main standard, or the only standard in some regions, to evaluate the
government's performance, many local officials have turned a blind eye to
development in other fields, including medical care, education, culture and
environmental protection.
Threatened by worsening unbalanced development, the government has
proposed a scientific concept of development with more attention on rural and
social development and environmental protection in a bid to correct the
disparities.
Premier Wen Jiabao said the scientific development concept focused on
coordinated and sustainable economic and social development, while pushing
forward the reform and development drive, to coordinate development in both
urban and rural areas andin different regions, and achieve harmonious
development between man and nature.
GDP could not fully reflect the relationship between economic development
and the environment, the environment and people, said Niu Wenyuan, chief
scientist on sustainable development strategy at the Chinese Academy of
Sciences.
Some economic growth could bring about harmonious development of the
economy, society and the environment, and some meant sacrificing the
environment and wasting resources. But GDP always ignored to the difference
between high-cost and low-cost outputs, said Niu.
"A large part of China's GDP growth is achieved by exploiting resources
and interests that should have belonged to our children," said Niu.
Statistics provided by Niu indicated the official average 8.7 percent GDP
growth rate from 1985 to 2000 should have been reducedto 6.5 percent if
social and ecological costs were taken into account.
"The cost of one US dollar in output in China is four to 11 times that of
developed countries," said Niu.
"If the current high-cost growth and serious pollution continues, China will
face a heavily polluted environment and a serious shortage of natural resources
in the near future, which would not support its future development," said Pan
Yue, vice-director of the State Environmental Protection Administration.
Pan said his administration was trying to include environmentalprotection as
a major factor to evaluate the performance of local officials.
Ma Kai, Minister of the State Development and Reform Commission, has
said the government was considering slowing the country's GDP growth rate to
7 percent this year in a bid to cultivate a "scientific approach" to social
development.
Governments of some provincial-level regions, including Beijing, Shanghai,
south China's Guangdong and east China's Zhejiang, have decided to take into
account costs in environment, natural resources and social development in their
reckoning of economic growth, under the new concept of "green" GDP.
The booming Guangdong Province has decided to lower its GDP growth
target 9 percent this year from 13.6 percent in 2003.
"We have to change our mind concerning economic growth," said Jiao
Yuejin, an official from central China's Henan Province. "Theshift will
hopefully help the government to spend more on this society's weaker links."
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