Guangdong Province has focused on green efforts to develop an
energy-saving economy, as thousands of high-energy consumption
enterprises that generate heavy pollution and low yields have
closed down or gone bankrupt in the last two months.
"Some small companies have moved out or closed down since the
end of last year," a local resident in Foshan, Guangdong, told the
21st Century Business Herald. The city is one of the main
industrial bases in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) Area, which is home
to many processing and manufacturing companies.
In fact, noticeable depressions have occurred in the entire
delta region.
But the province has not been too anxious about the recession.
To promote the development of an energy-saving and clean economy,
the provincial government and many professional associations have
declared that they would support migrations of manufacturing
industries.
Huang Huahua, Governor of Guangdong, highlighted restructuring
and updating of processing business as well as industrial gradient
transfer at a conference in January.?
Most of the migrations have occurred in the high-energy
consumption enterprises that generate heavy pollution and low
yields.
The province is the first in China to embark on a practice of
making energy consumption a compulsory index for officials' career
assessments in 2008.
"Many enterprises will face challenges confronting possible
global recession, appreciation of the Renminbi and increasing labor
costs, especially some small and medium-sized enterprises, but
national policies will be the most influential, Guo Weiwen, head of
the Guangzhou-based Wanbang Shoe Industry Co., Ltd., told the
21st Century Business Herald.
"Most of the enterprises do not want to move out. But they have
to immigrate or close down if governments won't provide any policy
support for the processing and manufacturing industry,"said
Guo.
"The energy consumption per 10,000 yuan (US$1,390) of gross
domestic product should reach a annual decrease of 4.61 percent
from 2007 to 2010. The consumption for unit gross domestic product
of the district should be reduced to 0.9 ton of standard coal by
the end of 2008,"Feng Yongkang, deputy head of the Nanhai District
Government in Foshan, said.
This means that the processing and manufacturing enterprises
located in the district will face severe trials and they will have
to either move out or declare bankruptcy.
The Pearl River Delta Area is in a transition period of rapid
industrial growth. Without upgrading, the area cannot realize the
growth of labor-intensive industries in step with increasing
profits, said Lu Kaiyin, Vice President of the Guangdong Institute
of Socialism.
The area should shift from an extensive economy to an intensive
economy, and focus on technological innovations, said Lu.
"Some a thousand small and medium-sized companies have gone
bankrupt in the last two months in Guangdong, at a conservative
estimate," said the Guo.
(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, February 5, 2008)