Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan Sunday appealed to the whole society to develop and spread energy-saving technologies and enhance the awareness of energy conservation, saying that China's electricity strain has not been relieved.

When inspecting an energy-saving products showcase booth in Beijing, Zeng carefully asked about the market prospect of energy-saving products and watched a performance played by children on energy conservation.

He said China has 1.3 billion people. If one citizen saves one kilowatt-hour of electricity every day, the country will reduce 200 million tons of coal consumption for one year. Therefore, great efforts should be made to encourage every citizen and every family to use electricity-saving products.

Recently, students from 10 Beijing's primary schools made a proposal, calling for students nationwide to save electricity. Zeng wrote back to the students, hoping in his letter that primary school students all over the country could respond to the call to save energy from childhood.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2004)