China will try to resolve its current outstanding environmental problems and realize its environmental goals as set out in the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), says Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan.

Zeng told the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) that China also hopes to contribute to the world's sustainable development.

By 2010, China plans to improve the environment in major areas and cities. Initially it will attempt to curb the deterioration of the environment by reducing the amount of energy required to produce a unit GDP by 20 percent and total discharge of CO2 by 10 percent. It will maintain 120 million hectares of cultivated land; and increase forest coverage to 20 percent, up from the current 18.2 percent, said Zeng.

Since its founding 15 years ago the CCICED, has contributed to China's undertakings on sustainable development, said Zeng. He urged the organization to study environmental problems and give more and better proposals on the issue.

The meeting was chaired by Zhou Shengxian, minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration, and attended by officials and representatives from Chinese and foreign governments, the United Nations and other international bodies, and some domestic and international observers and scholars. Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) was also in attendance.

The CCICED was established in 1992, by the Chinese government, foreign governments, and international organizations.

(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2006)