China issues white paper on mineral resources policy ( 2003-12-23 15:17) (Xinhua)
The Information Office of the State Council issued a
white paper titled China's Policy on Mineral Resources Tuesday. (Full text of the white
paper
)
The 12,500-Chinese character document, the first of its kind, says China will
depend mainly on the exploitation of its own mineral resources to guarantee the
needs of its modernization drive.
It also points to the importance of sustainable development and the rational
utilization of mineral resources while increasing international cooperation in
this regard.
The white paper, consisting of seven parts, says that over the past more than
five decades since the founding of New China, "a great number of mineral
resources have been verified, and a fairly complete system for the supply of
mineral products has been established, providing an important guarantee for the
sustained, rapid and healthy development of the Chinese economy."
At present, over 92 percent of the country's primary energy, 80percent of the
industrial raw and processed materials and more than 70 percent of the
agricultural means of production come from mineral resources.
China has discovered 171 varieties of minerals, 158 of them with proved
reserves. There are 10 energy-related minerals, including oil, natural gas, coal
and uranium, 54 metallic minerals,91 non-metallic minerals and three liquid
minerals.
There are nearly 18,000 sites with mineral deposits in China, including more
than 7,000 big and medium-sized ones.
In China, it says, the total quantity of the resources is fairly big and
there is a fairly complete variety of minerals. However, the per-capita quantity
of the resources is small, and there is an imbalance between supply and demand
for some of the resources.
"China attaches great importance to sustainable development and the rational
utilization of mineral resources, and has made sustainable development a
national strategy and the protection of resources an important part of this
strategy."
To build a well-off society in an all-round way is China's objective in the
first 20 years of the new century, it says, adding that China will depend mainly
on the exploitation of its own mineral resources to guarantee the needs of its
modernization program.
"The Chinese government encourages the exploration and exploitation of the
mineral resources in market demand, especially the dominant resources in the
western regions, to increase its domestic capability of mineral resources
supply," its says.
It is an important government policy to import foreign capital and technology
to exploit the country's mineral resources while making use of foreign markets
and foreign mineral resources.
"The Chinese government holds that to have foreign mining companies enter
China and Chinese mining enterprises enter other countries to make different
countries mutually complementary in resources is of great significance for the
common prosperity and healthy development of world mineral resources prospecting
and exploitation," the white paper says.
