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China to Curb Environmental Deterioration in Five Years
China is to reverse the trend of deterioration of its ecological systems on land, in rivers and seas, and make some noticeable headway in cleaning up its environment in the next five years, sources from the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC) said Friday.
According to the commission's special plan for ecological environment protection, China will step up environmental protection in the Tenth Five-Year Plan period (2000-2005).
The country's extensive move in ecological environment protection will offer many opportunities for overseas investment, the SDPC said.
China will offer favorable policies to attract more overseas investment in such projects as manufacturing of advanced environmental equipment, technology development, information service and major ecological improvement and pollution control projects.
In the next five years, the country will launch a nation-wide afforestation program along major waterways, in coastal areas and inland mountainous areas. It will circle the capital city of Beijing with ecological protection zones.
In the same time, the country will spread eco-friendly farming to all rural areas, while reducing city and industrial pollution greatly.
As it takes an all-inclusive effort to repair the damage of pollution, the country will establish a comprehensive monitoring system to prevent further ecological and natural disasters from occurring.
According to a World Bank report, the fast development of the country in the past 20 years has harmed the environment. The State Development Planning Commission said that cases like the 1998 flood disaster, the sandstorms and serious water shortage in recent years all indicated that China's ecological environment is still facing serious problems.
To this end, the country has put ecological environment protection as the main focus for China's modernization drive. According to the plan, in the next five years China will increase afforestation areas to 11.5 million hectare, with the forest coverage rate up to 18.2 percent. In cities the tree coverage rate will soar to 35 percent.
In addition, the country will take measures to save energy resources and reduce the pollutant emissions, which also will improve the global eco-environment.
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