The 4th Meeting of the CCICED Phase III was held in Beijing from Nov. 18-20, 2005. The theme for this Annual General Meeting (AGM) is sustainable urbanization. Participants of the meeting include 40 Chinese and International Council Members, 16 Task Force Co-Chairs, 10 special guests and 16 observers. The meeting was chaired by the Bureau of CCICED.
On the afternoon of Nov. 20, 2005, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with International Members of CCICED and listened to the Council's policy recommendations to the Chinese government presented by Mr. Greenhill, the Vice Executive Chair of CCICED and President of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Premier Wen had a discussion and exchanged views with International Council Members on such issues as sustainable urbanization, correct city planning, establishment of incentive mechanism that coordinates urban construction and economy and the pricing mechanism for major resources, implementation of strict standard for energy-saving buildings, making more investments in the infrastructure construction of small and medium sized cities, preserving urban historical civilization and buildings and curbing the sprawling of cities and the impact of climate change. Premier Wen pointed out that, it was very instructive for CCICED to make research on the relationship between urban development and environment. We must uphold correct guiding principles in building environmental friendly society and energy-saving cities, developing resource-conserving economy and circular economy, and formulating effective policies, measures and rule of law to guarantee the achievement of our targets. CCICED has advanced many good recommendations to the Chinese government. We would make a careful study on them.
The International Council Members spoke highly of the meeting with the state leader. They expressed respect for Chinese leaders for their deep concern and knowledge about the issue of global environment and development. And they also sang high praise for Chinese government's steadfast resolution to implement the strategy of sustainable development, to advocate circular economy and to establish a resource-saving and environmental friendly society for harmonious social development. The International Council Members were also greatly inspired that Chinese government has fully recognized the significance of the job done by CCICED.
On the morning of Nov. 18, 2005, Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan attended the opening ceremony of the 4th meeting of CCICED Phase III and addressed the meeting. He explained China's objectives, tasks, policies and measures to implement the strategy of sustainable development in the next five years guided by the outlook on scientific development. Vice Premier Zeng also highlighted the major tasks to build a resource-saving and environmental friendly society and introduced the key areas for international cooperation leading to mutual benefit and win-win results. He noted that the Proposal for Planning of Socio-economic Development of China in the Next Five Years was adopted at the fifth plenary session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC). The Proposal sets forth the general requirement, namely to concentrate efforts on self-reliance and innovation, improve institutions and mechanisms and promote social harmony in light of scientific development. Two main objectives are included in the Proposal. One is to double the per capita GDP of the year 2000 by 2010 while optimizing industrial structure, enhancing benefits and reducing energy consumption. The second is to improve resource use efficiency markedly and to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20% so that the trend of eco-environmental degradation would be basically brought under control and over-reduction of farmland be ameliorated.
Vice Premier Zeng stressed that the next five years would be a critical period for China to build an overall well-off society and to strengthen environmental protection. We will accelerate the transformation of economic growth pattern, take resource conservation as a basic national policy and step up efforts to protect environment. We will spare no pains to speed up the building of a resource-saving and environmental friendly society and to facilitate the coordination among economic development, population, resource and environment. Serving as a bridge and tie for China to international cooperation in the field of environment and development, CCICED should play a larger role in the historical process of transforming economic growth pattern and building a resource-saving and environmental friendly society.
Mr. Xu Kuangdi, Vice Chair of National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and President of Chinese Academy of Engineering, was invited to give a keynote speech at the meeting. He summarized the basic information on the development of urbanization in China, pointing out existing problems and putting forward general thought and measures to solve these problems. Ms. Mona Sahlin, Swedish Minister for Sustainable Development, was also invited to make a keynote speech. She outlined Sino-Sweden cooperation in the field of sustainable development and particularly briefed the audience on the rich experience and practice of Sweden in terms of sustainable development. She provided useful tips by proposing the direction for China to coordinate urban development and regional development. Mayor of Kitakyoshu, Sueyoshi, made a special guest speech at the meeting, expounding instructive explorations made by Kitakyoshu City in pursuing sustainable development, promoting circular economy and establishing a recycling-based society. He also presented the positive results achieved by the city in solving the conflict among economic and social development as well as environment during the process of urbanization.
The scheme of adjusting council members was adopted by the meeting. Robert Greenhill, President of CIDA, and Jiangwei Xin, Vice Director of NDRC, would take the posts of International Vice Executive Chair and Chinese Vice Executive Chair respectively. Li Jiayang, Vice President of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Brende, former Norwegian Minister for Trade and Industry, were added as Council Members.
A thorough discussion was made centering the theme of "Sustainable Urbanization". Members and experts suggested that China was at an important stage to develop urbanization. Experience of foreign countries showed that the status of urbanization might impact the pattern of a city in the following 50 years. If urbanization was not properly developed, such problems as degradation of environment, sprawling of city and widening gap between the rich and the poor would undermine our efforts to achieve GDP growth. In the next 15 years, urbanization rate of China would increase from 42% to 57%, and 300 million farmers would move into cities. This would be a grand but challenging task with no precedent in history. In addition, the fast development of urbanization in China was bound to exert big influence onto the whole world.
Members and experts made in-depth analysis of existing problems of China's urbanization. They set forth some ideas and suggestions by learning experience and lessons of other countries in their practice of urbanization. First, we should improve the performance assessment system on city officials. Second, we should identify the direction and scale of development as well as layout of cities according to their population density, environmental carrying capacity and resource availability. Third, we need to coordinate the development between cities and urban areas to make small-and-medium sized cities more attractive. Fourth, we should strengthen environmental legislation and improve financial and taxation policies concerning environmental protection. Fifth, we need to promote innovation of environmental sound technologies and foster international cooperation. Sixth, we should enhance publicity and human resource training and mobilize the public to participate in the process of decision-making, implementation and supervision of city planning.
The Lead Experts of CCICED presented issues paper on sustainable urbanization, and five other Task Forces also presented their work reports. Specifically, the five are Task Force on Sustainable Urbanization Strategy, Task Force on Environmental and Natural Resource Pricing and Taxation, Task Force on Circular Economy, Task Force on Sustainable Transportation and Task Force on Economic Growth and Environment. Participants of the meeting had a heated and in-depth discussion on the policy recommendations proposed by above TFs. Based on the recommendations made by Lead Experts and TFs, the meeting adopted policy recommendations to the Chinese government of the 4th meeting of CCICED Phase III.
The Council Members also discussed the future of CCICED during the meeting. They believe that CCICED is an important platform and bridge for China to demonstrate peaceful development and conduct international cooperation in the field of environment and development. Hence, they all agree that CCICED should be extended to the fourth phase. It was expected that the Chinese government and governments of foreign countries as well as international organizations would continue to offer their support to CCICED.
It was decided that the 5th Meeting of CCICED Phase III would be held in Beijing from Nov. 10-12, 2006 on the theme of "Outlook on Scientific Development and the Objective of Well-off Society".
