In south China's Guangdong Province industrial corporations will face tighter energy standards in the next five years under a province-wide effort to improve efficiency and lower consumption.

Speaking at a forum on recycling yesterday in Guangzhou, Tong Xing, deputy governor of Guangdong Province, said 1,000 large industrial corporations had been enlisted in an "energy-saving project" to coincide with the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) period.

"The annual energy consumption of each unit of added industrial value in these corporations is set to decrease by 16 percent in the next five years compared to the amount in 2005," Tong explained.

Tong said 1,000 corporations from a variety of industrial sectors including power generation, oil and chemical production, building materials, iron and steel, textiles and paper mills consumed more than 77 million tons of standard coal last year. This accounted for 43.4 percent of the province's overall energy consumption.

"By reducing industrial energy consumption the project aims at improving efficiency, reducing environmental pollution and alleviating energy shortages in the province," Tong said.

Energy shortfalls have been a recurring challenge for Guangdong, an economic powerhouse in South China, hampering the province's economic development, said Chen Jian, an official from the Guangdong Provincial Committee of Economy and Trade.

Guangdong also signed an energy-saving agreement with the National Development and Reform Commission earlier this year under which the province promised to trim energy consumption at 26 large-scale industrial corporations by 2.3 million tons of standard coal by the end of 2010.

Guangdong has been working to reduce energy consumption in recent years, Chen said.

"Having a strict system to monitor energy consumption at large industrial corporations is the key to saving energy and improving energy using efficiency," Chen said in an interview with China Daily yesterday.

Chen said the 1,000 industrial corporations enlisted in the "energy-saving project" were expected to save 12.33 million tons of standard coal in the five years ahead.

According to the Guangdong Provincial Statistics Bureau the province consumed 0.79 tons of standard coal for every 10,000 yuan (US$1,250) of GDP last year.

Chen said to achieve the goal of reducing the amount of energy consumed per unit of gross domestic product by 16 percent Guangdong would work closely with international organizations in the energy sector to develop and promote more state-of-the-art energy-saving technology.

(China Daily December 15, 2006)