China will continue its effort to build and reinforce energy
infrastructure to ensure it's friendly to the economy and the
environment over the next five years.
And the state will
focus more on policies and measures that will help with energy
development in central and western China.
A national energy
official in Beijing released these promises as part of the
draft tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-05).
"Energy development
will be an important part of the national plan," said
Song Chaoyi, deputy director of the Department of Basic Industries
of the State Development Planning Commission.
Song said that
for the next five years, assuming the total energy output
meets the needs of development, the government will work to
adjust the energy consumption structure.
"An inadequate
structure has become an obstacle to further energy development,"
Song told the 2001 Sino-German New Technology Workshop on
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Song said China's
energy production and consumption for the next five years
will be based on two principles.
First, China's
energy consumption will mainly depend on domestic supply.
Second, clean energy development will be a top priority.
The following are
some of the highlights of the draft tenth Five-Year development
program in energy sector:
-- China will focus
on the construction of coal mines and coal processing plants,
promoting the development of clean coal technology.
-- On oil and natural
gas, the country will build sea oil and gas supply bases and
establish a domestic oil storage programme.
-- For electric
power, the state will strengthen construction and restructuring
of distribution networks in both urban and rural areas as
well as transmission networks. It will also speed up construction
of facilities to transmit electricity from the western parts
of the country to the east.
-- For new and
renewable energy, China will accelerate localization of production
of wind-power equipment and find a solution for those people
living in regions without power supply.
-- For energy efficiency,
China will implement pilot projects on energy conservation
in large energy consuming industries.
(China Daily 02/22/2001)
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