This will provide the momentum for China auto industry to leap, said economists and will bring about changes in consumption pattern of the Chinese people.

Prof. Yu Zuyao, at the economic research institute affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that sustainable and healthy economic development and the establishment of personal credit system constitute the preconditions for private purchase of cars.

Yu, a member of the Financial and Economic Committee under the NPC, predicted that this change will give a push to structural upgrading of related industries and the concomitant economic efficiency is immeasurable.

According to the latest statistics, China's GDP was more than US$1 trillion in 2000, and the disposable income of urbanites reached 6,280 yuan (US$756.2). A recent survey shows that 26 million or 20 percent of China's total urban households are intended to buy cars, equal to the annual global automobile output.

China manufactured more than 2.7 million motor vehicles and sold 650,000 cars in 2000.

Statistics show that China's highways open to traffic have totaled 1.3 million kilometers, including 1.5 kilometers of expressways.

Beijing's NPC deputies said that the private car population in the Chinese capital is over 400,000 and its private cars have outnumbered public vehicles.

However, some deputies were not so upbeat about the prospects of private purchase of cars as there are many stumbling blocks such as the levy of too high surcharges, shortage of energy sources and environmental concerns.

(Xinhua 03/06/2001)