China's Environmental Protection Industry Turned out a New Spotlight in Economic Growth

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 26, 2001

China's Environmental Protection Industry Turned out a New Spotlight in Economic Growth

The output value of China's environmental protection industry increased by 25 folds in 10 years time according to news from China Economic and Trade Commission, with a yearly output value hitting 10 million yuan, making the industry a new spotlight in China's economic growth.

10,000 Enterprises Engaged in Environmental Protection

According to statistics, by 2000, more than 10,000 enterprises engaged in environmental protection throughout the country had an employment of 1.8 million workers with the output value reaching 108 billion-yuan. Compared with that of 10 years ago, enterprises engaging in environmental protection increased by four folds and an involvement of workers rose by six folds, while the annual output value outstripped by 25 folds.

Since 1990s, China has devoted great efforts to the environmental protection, gave support and guidance to the development of the industry. Recent years have witnessed an annual growth rate of 15 to 20 percent in China's environmental protection with some years even exceeding 50 percent, much higher than the GDP growth rate over the same period.

Investment for Environmental Protection Further Increased

Due to the increase of investment in environmental protection, this industry promises huge business potentials ahead. China will input 700 billion yuan for ecological construction and environmental protection in coming five years with an annual growth rate to overtake 15 percent and the output value will be doubled to reach 200 million-yuan by 2005.

Meanwhile, though some aspects of the industry have already ranked at the world advanced level with some products forged into international market, as experts pointed out, the overall technology still lags relatively behind. Therefore, It is an urgent task for China to raise its competitiveness of the environmental industry as a whole in the world, develop technologies of our own intellectual property rights, while absorb and digest sophisticated technologies and equipment from overseas.

Prospects of China's Environmental Protection Industry

Companies hope that the state should manage effectively the Chinese environmental protection industry. There is already awareness that this industry needs to be developed, the catch will be in the implementation. The leaders of the Chinese environmental protection industry expect that the appropriate departments of the Chinese government will plan the development of the environmental protection industry, set industrial standards, regulate market behavior by the companies in the industry.

Companies hope that the state will provide policy support. The heart of policy support is capital, tax policy and capital to support the development of the industry. The capital problem is mostly a question of establishing channels for loans. Capital would be used for new technology development, for new, improved and expanded plant, and for improving technology.

Companies hope that the market will become planned. Companies in the environmental protection industry believe strongly that local government interferes too much in the local market. This is especially true at the city and county (district) level where the concerned departments use their authority in an improper manner for the advantage of a small group or a single individual. In these cases, a company is required by the local authorities a specified environmental product. As a result some environmental protection companies lose the chance to compete fairly in some local markets. Big state-owned enterprises are especially concerned about this problem.

By PD Online Staff Li Yan

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