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GDP growth has for years been a hot topic of discussion among
officials, experts and common people alike in the run-up to China's
annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the
National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC).
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But things have turned out different this year. The temperature
of the hot discussions seems to have been cooling down as people
are more and more taking to a scientific approach to
development.
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"We must have a scientific approach to the current accounting
system of GDP, a comprehensive indicator of the economy," said Zeng
Qinghong, Chinese vice president and president of the Party School
of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at a
a recent seminar on the subject. "There is a drawback that cannot
be ignored in paying too much attention to GDP alone."
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The recent trends in the country show that the GDP
growth-consciousness is being weakened throughout the country. The
local people's congresses and local CPPCC committee sessions across
the country have all echoed the calls by top Chinese leaders to
tone down 2004 GDP growth anticipations and re-evaluate the
existing GDP accounting system that focuses too much on economic
development to the neglect of environmental protection and the
economical and multiple use of resources.
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Guangdong Province in south China, which has taken the lead in
entering into a new round of rapid growth, has set its 2004 GDP
growth target at 9 percent, 4.6 percentage points lower than last
year. Huzhou City in Zhejiang Province has declared that the GDP
growth target would not be made part of the criteria for judging
the performance its leading cadres.
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Meanwhile, Chinese media have started a campaign for
re-evaluating economic figures, people's living standards and
environmental conditions.
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It is the first time for the world's most populous nation to
review its GDP system since the country started using GDP as a
major indicator from the mid-1980s, said observers.
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In fact, all these boil down to a "new approach to development,"
which stresses harmonious and human-based sustainable
development.
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Hu Angang, a noted economist and policy expert, termed the "new
approach" as "China's second-generation development strategy" in
contrast to the "fast development and allowing part of the people
to get rich first" approach developed by the late Chinese leader
Deng Xiaoping.
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The second-generation development strategy has made it clear for
the first time that social and economic development should serve
the people and enable them to live a better life, said Hu during an
exclusive interview with Xinhua.
The 2003 SARS crisis revealed the flaws of China's public health
system. The excessive expansion of the steel, cement and
electrolytic aluminum has strained energy and raw material supply.
The dwindling of farmland will pose a serious threat to China's
food security.
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Other problems China has to tackle include an increasingly
widening gap between the urban and rural areas and among different
regions and a worsening environment, said Wu Jinglian, a well-known
economist and member of the CPPCC National Committee.
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According to Hu Angang, the second-generation development
strategy and the "human-based" approach show that the CPC is
becoming mature as a party. Once established as a guiding principle
in the country, Hu said, it will help resolve many problems, such
as promoting employment and increasing the income of peasants. The
criteria for judging the performance of leading officials will
change and those who make much ado about GDP with the ulterior
motives of getting promotion will be curtailed.
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Xu Xianchun, an official from the National Bureau of Statistics,
told Xinhua that related government departments are now calculating
the environmental costs China had paid for its robust economic
growth over the past two decades, and a new "green GDP system,"
taking into consideration environmental cost, is in the
pipeline.
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"This year's NPC and CPPCC sessions will be the best place
for
such discussions," said Xu.
(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2004)
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