New growth pattern
(China Daily)Updated: 2006-12-08 14:15
A new focus not on sizzling growth but on the cost it incurs fully
demonstrated the Chinese authorities' resolve to make 2007 a big year in the
country's pursuit of sustainable development.
This message from the
Communist Party leadership's 2006 Economic Work Conference will surely have a
sobering effect.
It made clear that China's progress will no longer be
measured merely by the speed of its economic growth.
Instead, the cost of
high energy consumption and a deteriorating environment are among the key
problems Chinese policy-makers are keen to fix.
This year, the beginning
of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) period, has witnessed many encouraging
economic achievements.
The country's gross domestic product (GDP) rose by
10.7 per cent in the first three quarters, while inflation was kept at
bay.
Breakneck investment growth early this year gave rise to fears that
the economy might be in danger of overheating. But the rapid slowdown of urban
fixed-assets investment from an uncomfortably high level of 31.1 per cent for
the first half of the year to about 17 per cent in October shows that the
central government's tightening measures are gradually taking effect.
The
country's trade volume in the first 10 months has already surpassed that for the
whole of 2005, with an annual trade surplus predicted to hit US$150 billion,
nearly 50 per cent above the 2005 level.
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