Vice
Premier Zeng
Peiyan stressed the importance of a healthy mining industry to
the country's sustainable economy on Tuesday.
He was
speaking at the opening ceremony of China Mining 2004, an
international symposium that was held in Beijing.
Zeng
outlined four major tasks the mining industry has to focus on in
the years to come to improve the sector, which is central to the
country’s economic progress and social development.
The first
task, he said, is to encourage environmental protection and strict
economy in the use of resources.
The
government will slow construction projects that involve heavy
consumption of water and energy. Meanwhile, out-of-date production
technologies should be replaced with environmentally friendly ones,
he said.
Recycling
should increase while the production of clean coal and
environmental protection in mining areas must be encouraged, he
said.
The second
task is to strengthen domestic energy exploitation.
Zeng said
that China is planning a feasible energy strategy and strengthening
its mineral reserve survey and investigations into scarce
resources.
Existing
mines will be modernized, and the establishment of competitive
mining groups and development of small mines supported.
He assured
the more than 1,000 delegates present that the government will
deepen its reform on the pay-for-use system on mineral resources,
further regulate mining rights and tighten its management of the
business environment so as to better defend the interests of mining
enterprises.
China will
also double its efforts to boost international trade in mineral
products, encourage competitive domestic enterprises to join
overseas exploitation and weave a solid and secure energy supply
chain, he said.
Looking
back on the past five decades, Zeng said that the industry's
contribution to China's economic development could not be
overestimated.
Currently
about 92 percent of the country's energy, 80 percent of industrial
raw materials and 70 percent of agricultural production materials
come from its mineral resources.
To
alleviate the pressure of urbanization and industrialization on
demand, China will learn to make use of international markets and
technical innovation to seek sustained development, he said.
China
Mining 2004, the sixth of its kind, was initiated in 1999 and
hosted by the Ministry of Land and Resources. This year's theme is
"boosting the mining industry's common prosperity through global
exchange and cooperation."
There is a
huge demand for minerals in the country, but the average per capita
consumption is far less than the world average, said Vice Minister
of Land and Resources Wang Ming.
According
to the China Mining Association, average consumption of standard
coal was 1,011 kilograms per person in 2000. The world average is
double that and average Americans consume 10 times that much.
Describing
the nation's mineral and energy development as "very promising,"
Wang said the improvement of mining technologies and greater use of
natural gas will help alleviate energy shortages.
Progress
in oil exploitation and new findings in areas offshore and in
western China will increase mineral resources, he added.
A total of
108 exploration licenses and 332 mining licenses were issued to
foreign companies in 2003, representing a total investment of 1.45
billion yuan (US$175 million). Most focused on offshore oil, coal
bed gas, gold, lead and bentomite.
Experts
say the nation's mining industry may be driven to grow by the
contradiction between supply and demand.
The mining
industry should use a "two-way development strategy," said Zhu Xun,
chairman of the China Mining Association. “Equal attention should
be given to both exploitation and economizing with priority given
to the latter.”
Funds are
also being raised to finance the treatment of black lung, a disease
that claims at least 5,000 lives a year.
The black
lung therapy foundation has launched a project for miners
nationwide. The miners, who are most vulnerable to the disease,
will be able to receive timely treatment and prolong their lives,
according to sources with the foundation at its first council after
it was established in October 2003.
Black
lung, or pneumoconiosis, is caused by coal dust inhaled in
underground mines and is the severest occupational disease among
miners. Its patients suffer from acute pains in the chest, a bad
cough and often come down with colds. In the worst cases, people
die of respiratory failure.
Experts
say treatment has proven safe and effective in removing dust from
the patients' lungs and restoring lung function. However, at least
200,000 people with black lung disease cannot afford it.
The
foundation has started to raise funds at home and abroad, hoping to
offer treatment for free to patients from poverty-stricken areas at
a sanitarium in Beidaihe, a seaside resort in Hebei Province.
Six mining
conglomerates based in Shanxi, Henan and Anhui provinces have
promised to donate 5 million yuan each to the foundation.
According
to incomplete statistics from the Ministry of Health, by the end of
2002, the most recent year that data?are available, the number
of black lung patients in China had topped 580,000; 46 percent of
cases were from the coal mining industry. The ministry estimates
the figure is increasing by at least 10,000 every year, causing a
direct economic loss of 8 billion yuan (US$960 million).
(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency, China Daily
November 17, 2004)