General-Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central
Committee Hu Jintao said in Beijing yesterday that the increasing
imbalances in China's population, resources and environment
deserved more attention.
Hu
told a symposium held by the Central Committee of the CPC that it
was vital to do better in managing the country's population,
resources and environment if China was to develop a healthy,
fast-growing national economy and build a well-off society in an
all-around way.
He
asked all officials at various levels to enhance their awareness of
sustainable development, which will be a long-term challenge in
China, a developing country with the world's biggest
population.
The main tasks in population and family planning are to keep the
birth rate low and improve the health of newborns.
Meanwhile, more should be done to tackle the problems of the
growing number of jobseekers, the elderly (who now account for more
than one-tenth of the population) and the transient population of
more than 90 million.
Hu
noted that people should also give priority to conserving, rather
than exploiting, resources, using them only for their most
profitable purposes.
"By protecting the environment, people should be able to drink
cleaner water, breath less polluted air, and eat higher quality
foods," Hu said.
Water conservation was another key point in Hu's speech.
He
called for better measures to combat floods, droughts and water
pollution.
Various laws and regulations managing the three fields of
population, resources and the environment must be strictly enforced
and any illegal activities severely punished, Hu added.
Hu's views were echoed by Premier Zhu Rongji, who said that
governments should work with the public and media towards better
population, resource and environmental planning.
Public awareness of sustainable development should also be
strengthened through publicity campaigns.
(China Daily March 10, 2003)