Faced with a growing gap between rich and poor and mounting
environmental problems, the Chinese government is set to abandon
its blind pursuit of gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
In the past 25 years, China has achieved an economic miracle
with average GDP growth of above 8 percent every year. However, as
GDP has become the main standard, or the only standard in some
regions, to evaluate the government's performance, many local
officials have turned a blind eye to development in other areas,
including medical care, education and cultural and environmental
protection.
Threatened by worsening imbalances, the central government has
proposed a scientific concept of development with more attention
being paid to rural and social development and environmental
protection.
Premier Wen Jiabao has said the scientific development concept
focused on coordinated and sustainable economic and social growth,
while pushing forward the reform and development drive to
coordinate advances in both urban and rural areas and in different
regions.
GDP cannot fully reflect the relationship between economic
development and the environment, and the environment and people,
says Niu Wenyuan, chief scientist on sustainable development
strategy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Some economic growth can bring about harmonious development of
the economy, society and environment, but it comes at a cost to the
environment and also leads to a waste of resources. However, GDP
always ignores the difference between high-cost and low-cost
outputs, Niu points out.
"A large part of China's GDP growth is achieved by exploiting
resources and interests that should have belonged to our children,"
says Niu.
Niu states that the official average 8.7 percent GDP growth rate
from 1985 to 2000 should have been reduced to 6.5 percent if social
and ecological costs were taken into account.
"The cost of one US dollar in output in China is four to 11
times that of developed countries," he says.
"If the current high-cost growth and serious pollution continue,
China will face a heavily polluted environment and a serious
shortage of natural resources in the near future, which would not
support its future development," agrees Pan Yue, vice director of
the State Environmental Protection Administration.
Pan says his administration is trying to include environmental
protection as a major factor to evaluate the performance of local
officials.
Ma Kai, minister of the National Development and Reform
Commission, has said the government is considering slowing the
country's GDP growth rate to 7 percent this year to cultivate a
scientific approach to social development.
Some municipality- and provincial-level governments, including
Beijing, Shanghai, south China's Guangdong and east China's
Zhejiang, have decided to take into account costs related to the
environment, natural resources and social development in their
reckoning of economic growth, using a new concept of “green
GDP.”
The booming Guangdong Province has decided to lower its GDP
growth target to 9 percent this year from 13.6 percent in 2003.
"We have to change our thinking concerning economic growth,"
says Jiao Yuejin, an official from central China's Henan Province.
"The shift will hopefully help the government spend more on this
society's weaker links."
(China Daily March 5, 2004)