bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Frank Tang

China is investigating new ways to measure the performance of local government officials to better reflect President Xi Jinping’s vision for a cleaner and sustainable economic growth model, according to people involved in the studies.
Unlike the current assessment system, which is focused almost exclusively on bottom line economic growth, proposals for the new system are geared more towards the environment, sustainability and fairness.
Ma Guoxia, a researcher affiliated to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said that measures of green GDP – which factor the environmental consequences of growth into a country’s conventional GDP – already exist, but are seldom used because of their “sensitive” nature.
‘Xiconomics’: the one word set to define China’s long-term agenda
“Green GDP exists at the research level. It is rarely used in practice, however, and plays only a small role in the evaluation of local government performance,” he said.
“Some people question the calculation methodology,” he said, adding that the “availability and consistency of data also affect the final results”.

China actually published its first green GDP report in 2006, which found that pollution caused a loss of 511.8 billion yuan in 2004, equivalent to about 3 per cent of that year’s gross domestic product. The findings were so shocking that the publication of such figures was shelved until 2013, when it was reported that ecological degeneration, had it been included in the calculations, would have wiped 3.5 per cent off GDP for 2010.
The good, bad and ugly sides of Xi’s economic work conference
People who have worked on green GDP calculations told the South China Morning Post that the data continue to be produced, but only for reference purposes.
That could soon change, however, as teams are working on ways to improve the green GDP calculation system, especially in light of Xi’s order for the country to switch from a “high-speed” to a “high quality” growth model.
According to a statement released after this week’s central economic work conference, China must “build and improve mechanisms for pushing forward high-quality growth, including the necessary indicators, policy systems, measuring standards, and statistical and performance assessment systems”.
Xi Jinping uses new Mao-like status to outline longer-term economic blueprint for China
Lu Haiqi, an official with the National Bureau of Statistics, said his agency was currently working on a new “sustainability metric” but that it was still in the early stages.
Meanwhile, the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, a governmental think tank comprising retired economic policymakers, this week released a new sustainable development indicator system, which uses 26 criteria to measure the sustainability of 30 provincial economies.
Developed in cooperation with Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York, the system gives GDP growth a weighting of just 0.94 per cent, while prioritising such things as the amount of green space per capita each province has (17.77 per cent) and its sulphur dioxide emissions (8.42 per cent).
On that scale, China’s top performing jurisdictions in 2016 would have been Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. In the actual, GDP-only, charts, the top three places were occupied by Chongqing, Guizhou and Tibet.
Financial risk the ‘critical battle’ for Xi Jinping in next three years
Similarly, the rust belt province of Liaoning, which was bottom of last year’s performance tables – its economy contracted by 2.5 per cent – would have finished mid-table under the new measuring system.
Satyajit Bose, an associate director of Columbia University’s sustainability management programme, said the new system could enhance government decision-making and “hopefully will be used to appraise the performance of local officials”.
Although China “shines” when it comes to economic growth, it lags behind rich countries in terms of its environmental and social indicators, he said.


Diamonds are plunging in value around the world. Is China to blame?

Patience needed when it comes to managing the economic recovery

Chinese Premier Li Qiang makes new overtures to foreign firms, pledging more access and services

China sees surge in travel demand for extended Lunar New Year holiday

China economy

Can China realise Xi Jinping’s vision for a green measure of sustainable growth?

China is investigating new ways to measure the performance of local government officials to better reflect President Xi Jinping’s vision for a cleaner and sustainable economic growth model. Photo: AP

(FILES) This file photo taken on November 9, 2016 shows a man walking past a display showing bank notes of different currencies in Hong Kong. Global debt surged in the first nine months of 2016 to 325 percent of GDP, and debtors now face the burden of rising interest rates and a strong dollar, according to a new report on January 4, 2017. More than $1.3 trillion in bonds and loans fall due this year, including $48 billion in China and $32 billion in Mexico, the Institute of International Finance, a Washington-based banking group, said in its quarterly report. / AFP PHOTO / Anthony WALLACE

News

China

Politics

Economy

China Economy

Business

China Business

National Bureau of Statistics is working on a new “sustainability metric” but it remains in its early stages, official says


Xi Jinping

Environment