North China's Hebei Province plans to improve the local environment by introducing overseas investment and advanced technologies to increase the proportion of cleaner energies in local energy consumption.

An official in charge of the provincial new energy office told Xinhua that by 2005, Hebei plans to make electricity and reproducible energies account for almost 40 percent and 30 percent, respectively, of the total amount of energy consumed by local residents and industries.

Foreign capital plans to accelerate backward equipment and technologies that consume more energy, are inefficient and pollute the environment, the official said. The province will try to find ways to boost the development of energy-efficient technologies, he added.

Local laws and policies will be issued to curb the excessive use of energy, the official noted.

According to the official, raw coal currently accounts for 88.47 percent of energies consumed by local users, 10 percentage points more than the national average.

(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2003)