HONG
KONG - In an effort to crack down on the
falsification of economic figures, the Chinese
government will deny regional governments the
right to calculate local gross domestic
product (GDP) data independently, after many figures
were found to be fabricated.
"Provincial
survey teams have been put under the direct
leadership of the National Bureau of Statistics
[NBS] so that they will not encounter interference
from local governments," NBS director Xie Fuzhan
was quoted by state-run Xinhua News Agency as
saying.
Provincial GDP statistics have
notoriously not matched the
national figure, arousing
suspicions that either the NBS or the provincial
authorities are cooking the books.
For
example, the total provincial GDP figure in 2004
was 2.66 trillion yuan (US$334.6 billion) more
than the national figure calculated by the NBS,
which outraged former NBS chief Li Deshui.
China's GDP grew 10.9% in the first half
of last year. But all the provinces reported
two-digit GDP growth in the first half, with 23 of
them above12%.
GDP growth remains the most
important yardstick for measuring the performance
of local officials. Under the current system,
local statistics bureaus are run by local
governments.
"It often happens that local
governments interfere with the accounting to make
them look better than they are," Cai Zhizhou, an
expert in the field at Beijing University, was
quoted by Xinhua as saying.
From the
beginning of 2004, Beijing has been trying to
persuade local officials to shift their focus from
pursuing GDP growth to improving the quality and
efficiency of economic development, urging them to
seek more "balanced growth" and pay more attention
to the environment.
By the end of 2006,
the NBS had formed its own survey teams in 30
provinces. "The NBS will improve unified
accounting of added value in the agriculture and
construction industries and speed up local GDP
accounting by central government," said Xie.
According to Xinhua, Xie also
called for authentic statistics to be provided in
the second agricultural census, following the submission
of a large amount of falsified information.
The remarks came after more than 40 cases of
false information were uncovered since the census started
on January 1.
Some census takers did not
follow the collection procedures and fabricated
figures to make sure official targets were
reached, Xie said.
The national
investigation is aimed at laying the foundation
for improving the country's rural policies, but
once again it is being undermined by official
corruption. Xie urged local authorities to perform
their duties faithfully, adding that those who
were responsible for fictitious data would be
punished.
The census, which covers 30,000
townships and more than 200 million rural
households, will collect information about farm
production, employment, migration, environmental
conditions, land use, fixed-asset investment and
quality of life in rural areas. China's first
agricultural census was conducted in 1996.
Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan
said on Thursday that China should improve its
evaluation of energy consumption per unit of GDP
and emission of major pollutants.
Statistics concerning the energy and
environmental sectors did not cover enough
indices, said Zeng after hearing NBS reports on
last year's work. Figures from these two sectors
were not released in a timely manner either, he
said.
Zeng said China should improve
statistics collection on energy production,
circulation and consumption this year to gain a
better understanding of local governments' work on
cutting energy use. China should also continue
with reforms on statistics collection, said Zeng.
In a related development, a top official
with China's environmental watchdog said that
reports that green GDP accounting could be ditched
because of local resistance were grossly
exaggerated. In fact, the project will be expanded
to the entire Chinese mainland, the official was
quoted by China Daily as saying.
Despite
reports that some provinces were dropping out of
the green accounting project to protect their own
interests, the official told China Daily that the
2005 report would "actually expand to cover 31
provinces and municipalities", showing "a great
leap forward for the concept of green GDP".
Officially called the Environmentally
Adjusted GDP Accounting Report,
the green GDP report is intended to drive home to
the public and officials the waste created, and
environmental damage done, in the process of
economic growth.
Simply put, green GDP is
calculated by deducting the cost of
natural-resource depletion and environmental
degradation from traditional GDP.
The
report for 2005 will be released next month, said
Pan Yue, vice minister of the State Environmental
Protection Administration (SEPA).
The first report, for 2004, was
published last September. Officials told China Daily that the
green GDP report is a complex accounting project
which takes about two years longer than the
compilation of conventional GDP figures for a
fiscal year.
The 2004 report showed that
the financial loss caused by environmental
pollution totaled as much as 511.8 billion yuan
($64 billion), or 3.05% of the nation's economy,
based on the traditional GDP accounting method.
The new report would include two more
indices to make the evaluation of environmental
losses more accurate, Pan said. One will compute
the cost caused by transportation pollution; and
the other, the cost of pollution cleanup.
The effort was launched in March 2004 by
SEPA and the NBS. In the past two years, an
accounting analysis has been made of physical
quantification of environmental pollution, imputed
treatment cost and the environmental degradation
cost for 42 industries.
Pilot projects
were launched in the three municipalities of
Beijing, Tianjin and Chongqing, and the seven
provinces of Hebei, Liaoning, Anhui, Zhejiang,
Sichuan, Guangdong and Hainan.
Pan
admitted that initially, SEPA met with many
difficulties, ranging from technical problems to
resistance from regional and industrial officials.
But much to his relief, SEPA had managed to work
successfully with the 10 regional governments, Pan
said.
The general environmental situation
remains bleak, as a result of what Pan called
catering to immediate interests and reckless
energy consumption. Last year, China flunked its
target of cutting major pollutants by 2%, which
instead witnessed a growth of 2%.
John Ng is a Hong Kong-based
freelance journalist.
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