HAMBURG -- China mainly relied on domestic supply to meet its energy needs
and had taken an active part in international energy development cooperation on
the basis of mutual benefit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here on Wednesday
at a Sino-European economic summit.
China was a major energy consumer, but more importantly, it was a major
energy producer, Wen said in a speech at the 2nd Hamburg Summit entitled "China
meets Europe."
China was rich in coal deposits and two thirds of its hydropower potential
remained untapped, while the development of nuclear, wind and biomass power had
just started, said Wen.
In short, it had huge potential in terms of domestic energy supply, said the
Premier.
China's energy policy called for integrating energy development and
conservation while giving priority to energy conservation, said Wen.
"Our goal is to build a stable, economical and clean energy supply system,"
he said.
China had set the target of cutting its energy consumption per unit of GDP
for 2005 by 20 percent - by 2010, Wen added.
To safeguard global energy security, China had called on the international
community to develop a new energy security concept featuring
"mutually-beneficial cooperation, diversified development and coordinated
guarantee," he said.
China would use the global energy market as necessary and strengthen
cooperation with other energy producers and consumers, including the European
countries, on the basis of equality and mutual benefit in a common effort to
enhance global energy security, said the premier.
The Chamber of Commerce Hamburg, which initiated the summit, expected more
than 350 economic, political and scientific leaders from both China and Europe
to attend the event which will run until Friday.
German Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Michael Glos, Mayor of
Hamburg Ole von Beust, and former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt were among
the German leaders who attended the summit on Wednesday.
Wen arrived in Germany on Wednesday for a two-day visit, the third leg of his
four-nation tour which took him to Finland and Britain and will also include a
visit to Tajikistan.
The Chinese premier will meet German President Horst Koehler and Chancellor
Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday.
