From the Readers

Sustainable development

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-11 07:53

Comments on "GDP ranking no reason to celebrate" (China Daily, Aug 6)

There is nothing wrong in China admiring the development in the West.

But it is more important for it to learn from Western experiences.

True, the government has been doing its best to improve people's living standards, but it should pay more attention to the quality of economic growth.

The country should follow an economic growth model that not only takes into consideration economic growth patterns, resources efficiency, environmental impact and sustainability, but also reduce the use of resources, including land.

It should shed its tag of being the world workshop for cheap goods and causing environmental damage at home.

China today has $2.45 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, the largest in the world. It's another matter that the assets still face risk.

In contrast, the income level of the people is relatively low, and domestic consumption contributes only a small percentage of GDP.

We can be proud of the country for producing a great proportion of the world's social goods and for its GDP.

But can we be proud of its economic growth model, which is still not advanced?

Now that China's capita GDP is more than $3,000, it is time to seek a more advanced growth model.

In another words, we should strive to become a knowledge-based society producing high value added products.

When we select our development strategy, structure and growth rate, we should balance the benefit relationship between short-term and long-term development to move toward sustainable development.

Ge Xiong, via e-mail

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(China Daily 08/11/2010 page9)