We should have an aptitude for energy-saving in making policies, as the government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) showed, says an article in Beijing News. The following is an excerpt:

In order to deal with surging oil prices, the ROK government has planned to launch a traffic limit of odd-even matching, between license plate numbers and date, to keep official vehicles off the road on alternate days.

Thirty percent of the official vehicles will be gradually cut, and another 50 percent - 15,000 cars - will be replaced by small or energy-saving ones, Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said.

The ROK's example in taking precautions is worth learning for us to avoid the national economy being hit by climbing oil prices. Yet many officials in China, unmindful of the oil shortage, would like to use only luxury and high fuel-consuming vehicles for transportation.

In energy-saving, it is good for the government to set an example at first. Only then the policy can be implemented smoothly.

The policy of the ROK has specifically regulated or numbered goals. "Odd-even", "30 percent", both are concrete and convenient for the ordinary people to supervise, thus yielding a high capability for operation. The Chinese government, however, has long been troubled by difficulties in carrying out some of its ambiguous decrees. And many well-intentioned policies thus fail to achieve their original targets.

The ROK will cut 30 percent of its 30,000 official vehicles. What we should do to our millions of government cars, many of which are SUVs, is worthy of serious consideration.

In the face of a challenge, actions by the government, rather than its slogans, are far more effective. To handle the energy shortage situation, we need to establish both short-term measures and a long-term strategy, of which the reduction of government vehicles must be a top priority.

(China Daily July 14, 2008)