ChinaWatch: Food, Autos, Tech

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What’s On Tap

The Chinese government plans to invest $30 billion in 2011 on water conservation projects, with the announcement made in the wake of Greenpeace report that China's food supply would be inadequate by 2030.

In 2010, China experienced widespread floods and draughts – and the net effect on the Chinese population was severe inflationary pressure on basic food prices.

Additionally, a recent report by Greenpeace concludes China's food supply “would be insufficient by 2030 and its overall food production could fall by 23 percent by 2050,” according to Digital Journal.

As the world's most populous country – more than 1.3 billion people – China has struggled to feed its people without assistance from other food producing nations.

China also faces challenges posed by desertification – as 20 percent of the nation's land mass is currently desert, according to the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The desertification question is considered China's most important environmental concern.

“We have to accelerate the construction of water conservation facilities as one of the key infrastructures the country needs to secure increasing grain production,” water resources minister Chen Lei says.

Autos Drive Promotion

China will actively promote auto imports over the next five years to help the country restructure and upgrade its auto industry, an official from the Ministry of Commerce says.

Qian Jingfen, in charge of imports at the MOC's Industrial Department, told an auto imports forum in Beijing that the auto import-promotion strategy will be implemented from 2011 through 2015 via corresponding financial, taxation and trade policies.

Qian said China will encourage the imports of advanced auto equipment, key technologies and components of energy-saving and new-energy vehicles in the period, according to crienglish.com.

The MOC decided to transfer to provincial-level government departments its power of granting automatic import licensing of 16 auto components, including automotive chassis, brakes and drive axles beginning 2011.

China's auto sales in the first 11 months hit 16.4 million units and were expected to reach 18 million units this year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

China overtook the United States last year to become the world's largest auto market by selling 13.65 million vehicles, up 46 percent year on year, while production that year jumped 48 percent to reach 13.79 million units.

Despite the auto sales surge in China, imports of completely built units account for less than 5 percent of market share as world's major automakers set up joint ventures with Chinese partners to satisfy the vast Chinese market.

Flexing Industrial Muscle?

China is targeting growth in industrial output of 11 percent next year, slowing from an expected 15 percent pace in 2010, the official Xinhua news agency reports, citing Li Yizhong, minister for industry and information technology.

Li also estimates that investment in industries under the ministry, including information technology, will rise 19 percent next year, according to Bloomberg News.

The MIIT is targeting a 4 percent reduction in energy consumption per unit of industrial output next year, reports say.

The ministry also aims for an average 10 percent growth in industrial output over the next five years, and a 16 percent cut in energy use and emissions per unit of output, Xinhua says.