Blind pursuit of GDP to be abandoned
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-03-05 15:27

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 per cent 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 fields, including medical care, education and cultural and environmental protection.

Threatened by worsening unbalanced development, 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 said the scientific development concept focused on co-ordinated and sustainable economic and social development, while pushing forward the reform and development drive to co-ordinate development 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, said 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, said Niu.

"A large part of China's GDP growth is achieved by exploiting resources and interests that should have belonged to our children," said Niu.

Statistics provided by Niu indicated the official average 8.7 per cent GDP growth rate from 1985 to 2000 should have been reduced to 6.5 per cent 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," said Niu.

"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," said Pan Yue, vice-director of the State Environmental Protection Administration.

Pan said his administration was 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 per cent this year in a bid to cultivate a "scientific approach" to social development.

Governments of some provincial-level regions, 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, under the new concept of "green" GDP.

The booming Guangdong Province has decided to lower its GDP growth target to 9 per cent this year from 13.6 per cent in 2003.

"We have to change our mind concerning economic growth," said 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."