Governor of South China's Guangdong Province Huang Huahua (second from right), gestures at a press conference in Guangzhou, capital of the province, December 18, 2006. [chinadaily.com.cn]

The improvement of the environment is equally important for the sustainability of economic development, said Huang, adding that whether Guangdong can realize the sustainability of its economic development in the long run depends on the improvement of its environment, he said.

"Officials at different levels in the province's 21 cities have been given energy-saving targets and performance measures in environment protection. These two factors will be taken into account when evaluating their administrative performance," said Chen Bing, director of the provincial economy and trade committee, at the press conference. "They were required to sign a responsibility agreement last Friday. "

To lower energy consumption and improve the environment, Guangdong has been highlighting high-tech industries and the service sector, encouraging independent innovation and existing enterprises to revamp equipment with energy-saving devices. In the meantime, the province has placed strict controls on heavy energy-consuming industries and some of them have been forced to close down said Chen.

Guangdong, the economic powerhouse of China, has continuously had the lowest energy consumption per 10,000 yuan (US$1,233) GDP among other regions in the country from last year to the first half of this year, Huang said.

The province lowered the emissions of two key pollutants, sulphur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand, to 6,000 tons and 19,000 tons respectively in the first half of this year, representing a difference of 1.1 percent and 2.9 percent over the same period a year earlier. While emissions of the two pollutants in China increased by 3.7 percent and 4.2 percent as a whole, Huang said.

By the end of October, the province had a total of 90 sewage treatment plants. The current daily capacity of sewage disposal has reached 6.74 million tons, he said.

The use of land was reduced to 12 hectares last year from 35 hectares in 2002 for every 100 million added to the GDP, Huang said.

The province still needs to find out effective ways to lower its energy consumption rate as it lacks its own energy resources, said Huang, adding that more than 90 percent of its energy is imported from other provinces and regions of the country.

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