The views expressed in this paper are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views or
policies of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), its Board of
Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this
paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily

Shen Rao
Guo Fengyuan
PRC

be consistent with ADB official terms.

Seminar on Eco-Industry Cluster - PRC Report

1. Current situations of the green industry and
eco-industry park in Peoples Republic of China
Over the past decade, PRC industrial added value of the enterprises
above designated size grew 14.9% per year averagely, of which proportion in
the GDP and contribution rate of economic growth have been kept at around
40%; In 2012, the national industrial added value reached more than RMB
19.98 trillion, accounting for about 40% of GDP, which directly provided about
a quarter of national employment opportunities. Since 2009, the positive
progress has been made for green industry in PRC. The energy consumption
of national enterprises above designated size cumulatively fell up to 30% in
view of the industrial added value; water consumption per RMB 10 000 of
industrial added value cumulatively declined over 40%, COD emissions
declined over 20%, and the comprehensive utilization rate of large industrial
solid wastes increased about 9.2% cumulatively.
As an important spatial carrier and practices of eco-industry, the
eco-industry park has played a very important role in development of
eco-industry in PRC. Since 1999, PRC began to explore the eco-industry park
construction. With numerous efforts over ten years, PRC has promulgated a
series of policies, regulations and standards to promote development of
eco-industry park, such as Several Opinions of the State Council on

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Speeding up the Development of Circular Economy, and Guide for
Eco-industry Demonstration Park Planning (trial) (2003), basically formed
a management structure of "necessary standards available for implementation,
construction and examination". As of Jan 2013, totally 20 industrial parks in
PRC has been officially ranked as national eco-industrial demonstration parks,
and another 62 are under construction according to the criteria of national
eco-industrial demonstration park. Eco-industry demonstration parks have
achieved positive outcomes in environmental performance with emission
reduction lowered 21% and 39% for COD and SO2 respectively, which
decreasing amplitudes are far higher than national average levels during the
period of "11th Five-Year Plan". Nearly 10 eco-industry symbiosis chains, such
as sugar, electrolytic aluminum, and salt chemical industry, as well as waste
resources recycling chains have been formed in such Parks; in addition, low
carbon industry is also developing in the industrial parks.

2. Main Challenges
At present, PRC is still in the middle of industrialization, the industry
accounts for a considerable proportion of the national economy, which is a
major area consuming resources and generating discharges. The industrial
energy efficiency has been improved in certain degree, the cleaner production
has been implemented gradually, and the environmental protection has been
further strengthened with numerous efforts in recent years, however, the
extensive growth mode formed for long-term has not been fundamentally
transformed, the industrial energy consumption and emissions are still too

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higher on the whole; Especially under the impact of international financial
crisis, some problems were highlighted, such as the extensive growth pattern
of some enterprises, high energy and material consumptions, poor
independent innovation, low industrial concentration and overcapacity of some
industries. According to the statistics of PRC, total primary energy
consumption in 2012 was equal to 3.62 billion tons of standard coal, among
which the industrial energy consumption has accounted for over 73% and
main industrial pollutants, such as NOx and SO2 emissions accounted for
about 70% and 90% respectively. In particularly, with the accelerating
industrialization and urbanization, the energy consumption is rapidly increased
still in the energy-intensive industries with its proportion of the industrial
energy consumption increasing constantly, which further intensifies some
issues, such as security of energy resources, haze weather and environmental
governance.
In view of development of eco-industry park, its construction is still facing
some issues. For development mechanism: different development zones are
managed

by

the

respective

administrative

agencies,

which

brings

considerable uncertainty to the construction of eco-industry park; some

industrial parks have inadequate response to pressure from the public or
intermediaries; no stable and sustainable funding mechanism has been
established for construction of the eco-industry park; the related incentive
mechanism is also not sound; so the enterprises are lack of enthusiasm during
construction of the eco-industrial park. For the industrial symbiosis pattern: the

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concept and elements of eco-industry park havent been incorporated into the
mainstream of industrial park construction, and the eco-industry chain hasnt
been formed completely; The sharing of information between enterprises in
the park is not so smoothly, and the industrial chain is insufficiently extended
and linked. For technology innovation, technologies for energy comprehensive
utilization and water reuse are not yet mature with difficult application; the
technical supports is insufficient for ecological transformation of material flow
and production process in the eco-industry chain, which limits the reduction,
recycling and reuse of materials.

3. Key Tasks to Promote Development of Eco-industry

PRC will accelerate development of the eco-industry and green industry
with focusing on energy conservation and emissions reduction to construct the
eco-industry park.
3.1 Promote the upgrading of industrial structure: According to the
principle of "phasing out backward energy-intensive production capacity,
transforming the existing production capacity with advanced suitable
technology, and building new production capacity according to the higher
energy efficient criteria", the optimization, adjustment or upgrade of industrial
structure will be speed up. The backward production capacity shall be
resolutely phased out; the establishment of mechanism shall be promoted to
equivalent or regressive displacement of backward capacity with new capacity.
The criteria for energy efficiency and environmental protection shall be
ensured for new projects in the industries with high pollution and energy

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consumption, as well as excess capacity; the space layout shall be optimized
to promote the intensive development of industrial projects; the planning and
construction shall be carried out in accordance with the concept of circular
economy, so as to economize land utilization, co-construct and share
electricity, gas, water and pollution treatment facilities; the assessment &
review system on energy conservation shall be implemented for investment
projects on the industrial fixed assets with energy consumption as a
mandatory threshold for approval and registration of a project, so as to
enhance energy efficiency of new projects.
3.2 Further strengthen energy conservation and emissions reduction: (1)
The industry management shall be strengthened: It is to promote the
energy

efficiency

benchmarking

and

enterprise

evaluation

on

key

energy-using products in the iron & steel and chemical industries; organize to
formulate the industrial guideline on energy efficiency; promote the enterprises
to carry out the energy-saving diagnosis and energy efficiency benchmarking;
strengthen

energy

conservation

management;

improve

the

energy

consumption-metering facilities and energy-saving management system of the

enterprises; strengthen construction of energy management system; define
the responsible person for energy management, set the posts of energy
management and carry out energy audit; implement motor efficiency plan,
encourage to form enterprise energy management center; organize to carry
out on-line monitoring pilot of industrial energy consumption; implement the
obligatory water-saving targets of the industry, and promote more

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PRC
water-saving enterprise to emerge. (2) The standard systems shall be
established and improved: it is to establish the tougher access criteria for
key industries with focus on energy efficiency, environmental protection and
safety; prepare or revise the quota criteria for energy consumption of each
industry; and strengthen management for the quota criteria of energy
consumption; supervise and verify execution of quota criteria of energy
consumption; research on how to establish industry standards for water, land
and materials conservation, so as to promote low-carbon transformation and
green development through constraint, guide and orientation of such
standards. By 2015, the industrial water consumption and energy consumption
per unit added value shall fall 30% and about 21% respectively; in 2013, it is to
strive for the industrial and energy consumption and CO2 emissions per unit
added value to fall over 5%; and (3) The technological progress shall be
promoted: the technical transformation project of the enterprises must be
strictly reviewed with focus on energy conservation and consumption
reduction, manage pollution emissions, and promote green development
during the enterprise technical innovation. The mechanism to select advanced
and applicable technology shall be established to promote energy
conservation and emission reduction for key industries; and the technology
information platform shall be constructed for industrial energy conservation
and emissions reduction. The following files shall be prepared, including
directories of the process or technology with high water consumption and
water-saving technology and equipment, plan of clean production technology

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Guo Fengyuan
PRC
for key industries, directory of advanced and applicable technologies for
comprehensive utilization of renewable resources, directory of low-carbon
technology promotion for key industries, and implementation plan of major
low-carbon technology application and promotion.
3.3 Constantly enhance the level of eco-industry park: (1) a good policy
and institutional context shall be built: a complete set of green institutional
systems shall be constructed, including resource and environment property
right system, green producer responsibility system, green resource pricing
system,

green

finance

system,

green

procurement

system,

green

consumption system, green investment system, and green accounting system,

so as to fully stimulate the intrinsic motivation of eco-industry parks and
overcome the external diseconomy from the nature of environmental public
goods. (2) The green composite industrial chain shall be established, so
that it combines a series of green industrial chain for seamless link, including
green supply chain, green sales chain, green production chain, and green
consumption chain. (3) The unified planning and guidance shall be
strengthened: For the management level, the unified planning and
specification shall be applied for development of eco-industry park; the
construction guideline shall be formulated for the specific regions and type of
eco-industry park. For the construction level, comprehensive guidance and
supports shall be provided from the site section of park to screen of projects to
access the park, design of ecological chain or network, integration of logistics
flow, energy flow, water flow, waste flow and information flow, business

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incubators, education & training and research & application, application of
clean production technology and establishment of environmental management
system, etc. and (4) The publicity and training shall fully guaranteed: it is
to cultivate awareness of eco-industry and ecological culture of the park
managers, enterprise and staff, so that all stakeholders of eco-industry park
can aware its economic efficiency and market competitiveness.
3.4 Accelerate establishment of the resource-recycling system: it is to
promote construction of demonstration base for comprehensive utilization of
industrial solid waste, carry out pilot works for comprehensive utilization of
bulk industrial solid wastes; further push forward major industrial circular
economy demonstration project; strengthen the upstream and downstream
circulation link within the industry; promote transformation of key industries to
implement circular economy, such as iron & steel, nonferrous metal, chemical
industry, building materials, and sugar etc. enhance the industry access for
Iron and steel scrap, junked tire and secondary lead, etc; carry out the
extended responsibility system for the producers of electric and electronic
products, automotive and lead-acid battery, etc; vigorously promote to
remanufacture the mechanical and electrical products; organize to implement
the remanufacturing pilot of electromechanical products; and build a batch of
remanufacturing demonstrative project and bases.
3.5 Actively promote clean production: it is to organize and implement
demonstration projects of key clean production technology; encourage to
make technical breakthrough of key clean production technology and

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PRC
popularize its application; speed up R&D of new energy-saving and
environment-friendly materials and clean production technology; formulate
and release the catalogue of clean production technologies, equipment and
products, accelerate implementation of clean production in key industries and
enterprises; strengthen key industrial pollution source management; intensify
the industrial wastewater pollution control in key river basins and regions, such
as three rivers and three lakes; research establishment of the incentive
mechanism for ecological design and carry out ecological design pilots for
automotive products, etc. and promote substitution of the poisonous or
harmful materials (products).
3.6 Strive to develop the energy-saving and environment-friendly
industry: Based on key projects and focusing on enhancing the level of
technical equipment, products and services, it is to speed up development of
energy-saving, environment-friendly or resource recycling technology and
equipment,

and

promote

development

of

energy-saving

and

environment-friendly service industry; select the leading enterprises of some

industries with better foundation, high starting point and high potentiality to
carry out the pilot works of resource conservation and environment-friendly
enterprises; and formulate the evaluation criteria and incentive policy for two
types of enterprises; cultivate and build a batch of energy-saving and
environment-friendly

industry

parks;

create

an

energy-saving

and

environment-friendly technology platform; establish the evaluation system on

green

industrial

development,

prepare

the

national

green industrial

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development indexes, develop green engineering and science & technology
development strategy and countermeasures, and guide the local industry
development model.