Special Report: NPC & CPPCC Sessions 2006

     BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhuanet) -- An increasing number of Chinese people are realizing that the practice of fueling rapid economic growth with excessive consumption of resources must be discarded since many kinds of resources are running short in the country.

    This could be seen from the listing of "resources conservation" and "environmental protection" as state policy in the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (Draft) (2006-2010).

    "China is a big country of resources in terms of total reserves, but it is a small one if its population of 1.3 billion is taken into consideration," said Wang Shusen, a deputy to the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, which convened its annual session on March 5.

    Official figures show that China's per capita possession of fresh water is only one fourth of the world average; arable land, less than 40 percent; proven coal reserves, 62 percent; proven oil reserves, 7 percent; natural gas, 4.5 percent; and forest one fifth of the world average.