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Protecting the environment or economic growth?

That is no longer a question for south China's Guangdong Province.

"If we have to choose one of the two, we choose the environment," said Zhou Quan, director of the Guangdong Environmental Protection Administration's supervision and administration department, yesterday.

Zhou's remark was made to explain why the authorities did not approve 26 new projects in the first half of this year. They would have used large amounts of energy and caused heavy pollution.

The figure represents about 10 percent of the total projects that were subject to the approval of the provincial environmental watchdog during that period.

A total of 7,135 new projects between 2002 and 2005 which did not meet environmental protection requirements or were not in line with related industrial policies were not approved by environmental watchdogs in the province.

That accounted for 2.74 percent of all projects applying for the go-ahead, official statistics indicate.

"We need a new economic growth mode that balances the environment and economic development," said Zhou.

The official added that the province's efforts to develop a green economy are five years ahead of many other parts of the country.

"We have drawn a very important lesson from the former practice of luring investments in but turning a blind eye to potential pollution," he said.

There are also measures to deal with existing enterprises known to be heavy polluters.

Environmental protection administrations have been monitoring such enterprises. They have launched special campaigns to find and close down heavy polluters, especially those located near water resource protection zones.

They fine such polluters or urge them to decrease emissions, giving them ideas on how to do so.

(China Daily August 31, 2006)