Government Work Report (2006)
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-03-15 11:05

3. Intensifying efforts to restructure industries, conserve resources and protect the environment

Restructuring and upgrading industries, which are our major means for improving the pattern and quality of economic growth, constitute a pressing task. First, we need to upgrade industries and improve industrial technology. We will accelerate the development of advanced manufacturing, new and high technology industries, and modern services, while continuing to improve basic industries and infrastructure such as transportation, energy and water conservancy. We will promote the application of information technology in the economy and society. The key to improving the technology used in industries lies in comprehensively improving our capacity for independent innovation. We need to promptly develop core technologies and improve systems integration in some important industries and create technologies, products and standards for which we own intellectual property rights. The main measures we will adopt are: We will strengthen the role of enterprises to make them the main source of independent innovation and build a market-oriented system for technological innovation that integrates the efforts of enterprises, universities and research institutes. We will energetically pursue a name brand strategy by encouraging development of famous brands for which we hold intellectual property rights. We will strengthen the system for protecting intellectual property rights and intensify law enforcement in this area. We will improve the mechanisms for encouraging independent innovation and adopt fiscal, tax, banking and government procurement policies that support enterprise innovation. Finally, we will improve the market climate, promote risk investment for business startups, and help small and medium-sized enterprises improve their capacity for independent innovation. Second, we need to restructure some industries that have surplus production capacity. To do this, we will use a combination of economic, legal and necessary administrative means, and take full advantage of the role of market forces. The main measures we will adopt are: We will earnestly implement all industrial policies, make the requirements for market access more rigorous, and control expansion of production capacity. We will support corporate acquisition and reorganization and joint production agreements between enterprises, and encourage competitive enterprises to grow stronger and larger to increase concentration in industries. We will, in accordance with the law, shut down enterprises that use resources destructively, contaminate the environment, or do not meet production safety standards, and close down outmoded production facilities. We will make proper and efficient use of existing production capacity by restructuring investment and expanding consumption demand. This work has wide implications and involves policy considerations, and it needs to be done in an energetic yet orderly way.

We must conserve resources. First, we need to use a combination of means, particularly pricing and taxation, to promote the rational exploitation and economical use of resources. Second, we need to work quickly to establish or improve standards for conserving energy, water, land and materials in all industries, develop key projects that save energy and materials, and promote more intensive utilization of land. We will encourage development of products that save energy and resources and construction of buildings that conserve energy and land. Third, we need to strongly promote upgrading of equipment and technology, focusing on saving energy and decreasing consumption of materials, and more quickly eliminate production processes, technologies and equipment products that waste energy, water and raw materials. Fourth, we need to work hard to develop the circular economy. A number of circular economy pilot projects will be conducted in key industries, industrial zones, and urban and rural areas. We will improve preferential tax policies for comprehensive utilization of resources and recycling of recyclable waste, and promote comprehensive utilization of waste materials and recovery and recycling of used resources. Fifth, we need to improve all facets of management, include the amount of energy and materials saved when compiling statistics on and evaluating economic and social development, and set up a system for releasing information on a regular basis. Beginning this year, the energy consumption per unit of output for all regions and major industries will be made public on an annual basis. Sixth, we need to carry out an extensive and long-term resource conservation campaign throughout the country to heighten public awareness of the need to conserve resources.

We will accelerate the development of an environment-friendly society. We will strengthen ecological protection of water sources, land, forests, grassland, oceans and other natural resources, with emphasis on preventing and treating pollution in the watersheds of the Huai, Hai, Liao and Songhua rivers, Tai, Chao and Dianchi lakes, and the Three Gorges Reservoir area, and at the sources and along the routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. In addition, we will promote clean production and develop projects for treating industrial waste water. We will work hard to prevent and control air pollution nationwide and increase the proportion of sewage treated and household refuse safely disposed of in key cities. We will take comprehensive measures to control rural pollution from non-point sources and pollution from livestock and poultry farming. We will continue projects to protect the natural environment. We will promptly create a mechanism for ecological compensation. We will strengthen law enforcement and improve inspections to monitor environmental and ecological protection. We will improve the systems for monitoring and evaluating environmental protection and for determining accountability for environmental problems.

4. Continuing to promote balanced development among regions

We will carry forward the development of the western region and give special support to the development of key areas, cities and industries there. We will ensure that ongoing major projects such as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and the third phase of the Three Gorges Project are completed and put into operation, and launch a number of major construction projects. We will consolidate and build upon progress made in returning cultivated land to forests and returning grazing land to grassland, and quickly adopt follow-up policies. We will continue ecological projects such as those for protecting virgin forests, bringing sources of dust storms under control and preventing the spread of stony deserts. We will support the development of competitive industries and bases for producing products distinctive to the area. We will speed up the development of science, technology and education. We need to intensify policy support and increase transfer payments to accelerate establishment of long-term, stable funding channels for developing the western region.

We will continue to implement the strategy of rejuvenating northeast China and other old industrial bases. We will focus on developing large grain production bases, and on promoting reform, reorganization and technological upgrading in key industries. We need to successfully transform the economies of cities whose local natural resources have been exhausted, address the problem of sinkholes in coal mining areas, turn shantytowns into new housing areas, and promptly set up mechanisms to compensate for resource depletion and to aid declining industries. We will conduct pilot projects for reforming some collectively owned factories operated by state-owned enterprises and cities. We will fully implement policy measures for opening wider to the outside world and follow a new path of rejuvenation as we accelerate the reform and opening up process.

We will energetically promote the rise of the central region. We will take full advantage of its strengths based on its geographical position, resources, industries and manpower. We will focus on developing modern agriculture, in particular developing commercial grain bases in major grain-producing areas, developing bases for producing energy and important raw materials, and developing a comprehensive modern transportation system, a modern retail distribution system and a modern market system. We will support the rejuvenation of old industrial bases and transformation of resource-dependent cities and develop bases for modern equipment manufacturing and high technology industries. We will give major cities a greater role in stimulating the development of surrounding areas.

We will encourage the eastern region to lead the country in development. It should focus on improving international competitiveness, improve and upgrade its industrial structure and enhance its capacity for independent innovation and sustainable development. It needs to pay more attention to environmental protection and the economical use of land, water, energy and other resources, ensure that development is both fast and sound, and lead the country in scientific development. The special economic zones and the Pudong New Area of Shanghai should continue to play their proper role in stimulating development. We will promote the development and opening up of the Binhai New Area of Tianjin.

We will increase support to accelerate economic and social development in old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority regions, border areas, and poor areas. We will give more aid to ethnic groups with small populations and continue working to vitalize border areas and enrich the people living there. Developed regions should assist and stimulate the development of underdeveloped regions in various ways.