China yesterday issued a green products inventory for government procurement and signaled the start of a more environment-friendly purchasing policy.

From January 1 2007 the central and provincial-level governments are asked to give priority to products proven to be environment-friendly. The policy will be further implemented at all government levels from 2008.

The policy would promote green manufacturing and consumption and be significant in building an environment-friendly society, Wu Xiaoqing, deputy director of the SEPA, told Xinhua News Agency.

The Ministry of Finance and the SEPA released the inventory and a circular on implementing the green procurement policy at a press conference yesterday in Beijing.

The circular stressed that products with China Environmental Labeling should be the principal part of government procurement and products which threaten the environment and public health shouldn’t be purchased. 

For example the once-common Volkswagen Santana car doesn't meet environmental standards and governments should buy greener autos.

In 2005 a total of 292.76 billion yuan (US$36.6 billion) was spent on government procurement. This is an increase of 37 percent year-on-year. Official statistics show this accounted for 1.6 percent of the country's GDP last year.

Purchased goods include cars, office equipment and building materials. The newly issued inventory for green procurement includes 856 products with China Environmental Labeling.

(China Daily November 23, 2006)