The State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) announced Wednesday that China will step up efforts to promote environment-friendly building materials in the next five years.
China will promote the use of energy-saving technology in producing building materials and the average energy use is expected to drop by 20 percent by 2005.
As a result, the building material industry will save 19 million tons of standard coal and reduce 2.1 million tons of dust annually.
In recent years, the industry has developed rapidly. Now, the output of Chinese cement, glass and ceramics ranks first in the world.
However, the industry still faces problems, such as how to handle the environmental pollution it creates and how to curb waste of resources, according to insiders of the industry.
(Xinhua 07/12/2001)
