The full text of a key note speech by President Hu Jintao on the
country's strategies for population, resources and the environment
was made public Sunday, which calls for a comprehensive,
coordinated and sustainable approach to the country's economic and
social development with the people put before everything.
Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China (CPC), made the speech on March 10 in
Beijing at a national meeting on population, resources and the
environment, with the presence of major provincial Party and
government leaders.
Hu said China must follow the scientific concept of development,
which has been endorsed by the central authorities as the new
guidelines for the country's social and economic development.
Hu described the concept as an idea of strategic significance,
saying it is based on the country's experiences during the past two
decades, including the important lessons learned during the
country's fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS),
and those of other countries during their economic and social
development process.
China was found poorly prepared early last year when hit by the
sudden outbreak of SARS due to a lack of strategy on such a public
health crisis and a sound public health system.
The concept calls for the country to set all-round human
development as its target in economic and social development, and
to strive to safeguard the economic, political and cultural rights
and interests of the general public to make sure the economic and
social progress bring benefit to all of its people, said Hu.
The income gaps have been widened dramatically in China
alongside the double-digit economic expansion since 1978,
particularly between the prosperous industrializing coastal areas
and the impoverished western region.
Hu said the country should strive for all-round economic and
social progress, balance development between cities and the
countryside and between different regions, promote harmonious
development between mankind and nature, and coordinate domestic
development while opening to the outside world.
The president urged efforts to be dedicated to economic
development to enhance the national strength and on this basis to
promote an all-round progress of society and the people.
Efforts should be intensified to improve the quality and
efficiency of economic growth, coordinate economic development with
the population, resources and the environment, and protect and
improve the sustainability, he said.
Efforts are also needed to strive to improve the social
awareness of saving resources across the country and protecting the
environment to realize harmony between mankind and nature, he
added.
On challenges China faces, the Chinese leader listed the
increasing pressure of population growth, employment, education and
aging population, and the shortage of oil and other major natural
resources, and illegal and excessive exploitation of mineral
resources and depletion of farmland.
On the country's population and birth control work, Hu called
for efforts to formulate a medium- and long-term population
development strategy, and to stabilize the existing low birth rate,
while looking for ways to resolve the outstanding problems facing
its 1.3 billion population.
He urged the toughest measures to protect farmland and hard work
to develop maritime resources, and prevent and control geological
disasters, with emphasis placed on areas around the Three Gorges
Reservoir.
Officials who violate the laws and policies on population, the
environment and resources shall be punished according to law and
the Party's discipline, while market-oriented reforms will be
deepened to give full play to the fundamental role of markets in
distributing resources and pricing resources products to prompt the
corporate world to lower costs and reduce consumption of
resources.
The government will continue its intervention in areas of
population, resources and the environment, such as increasing
investment, regulating market supplies and demand for land and some
important mineral resources, and encouraging the development of
resources-efficient sectors, while restricting the expansion of
sectors that consume too many resources and produce too much
pollution with low technology.
Hu said China will continue to improve laws on population,
resources and the environment, and create better conditions for the
general public to take part in the undertakings of population,
resources and the environment.
(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2004)