The city's mayor Han Zheng yesterday pledged to fast-track the
development of the service industry and achieve the wider agenda of
a resource efficient and environmentally friendly economy.
At the 19th International Business Leaders' Advisory Council,
Han said the sector is gathering momentum to surpass its current
earning power.
Latest official figures show the outputs of the service industry
accounted for 51.7 percent of the city's GDP.
"More efforts should be made to change the economic growth model
by rapidly developing the financial service industry and
manufacturing industry with high value added," Han said.
Business leaders at the council agreed developing the sector
would ease environmental degradation.
The move is consistent with China's 11th Five-Year Plan for
2006-10, which advocates growth with resource conservation.
"The added benefit of cultivating the services industries is
that they don't add a great deal to an area's environmental woes, "
Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group, said.
"Shanghai has recognized the value of attracting more service
industry jobs and companies to locate and remain in the area."
Business leaders also agreed that economic growth could be a
major cause of environmental degradation if not managed within the
limits of the ecosystem.
In a related development, Shanghai plans to shut down another
three sets of coal-fired generating units to meet its annual
energy-saving target, sources with the local government said
yesterday.
The units have a total power capacity of 500,000 kilowatts.
In the next two months, two generating units at the Wujing power
plant in the city's Minhang district and a fuel unit in the Jinshan
petrochemical construction company will halt operation.
Last month, the city shut down all three generators at the
110-year-old Nanshi power plant along the Huangpu River to
transform the site into an exhibition area for the 2010 World
Expo.
Shanghai has heeded the nation's call to close energy-guzzling
coal-fired units.
According to the city's 11th Five-year Plan for the 2006-10
period, it will close about 2.1 million kilowatts of generating
units in seven power plants, saving about 1.1 million tons of coal
and cutting sulfur dioxide emissions by 80,000 tons per year.
(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2007)