China will issue new rules and regulations to deal with worsening automobile pollution in the 11th Five-Year (2006-2010) Program period, an official has said.

According to Li Xinmin, deputy director of the Pollution Control Department of the State Bureau of Environment Protection, the country will implement a new auto emission standard and encourage the use of clean energy.

Supervision on automobile pollution will be strengthened and fuel quality will be improved, Li said.

Meanwhile, the bureau will support the production and use of energy-saving cars with low gas emissions in order to ensure the sustained development of the industry.

Keeping a balance between pollution and the development of the auto industry will be a key issue in the next five years, Li noted.

He warned that China is now facing a serious pollution problem due to the fast growth of the auto industry.

He revealed that gas emission has become one of the main sources of urban pollution in China. It is estimated that by 2010, nearly 400 Chinese cities will face the problem of extreme car emission and coal pollution.

In the coming five years, China is expected to make great progress in developing environment-friendly cars and gradually complete the technological upgrading of the industry, said Chen Jiachang, an official from the New and High Technology Development and Industrialization Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

At present, China has about 5,800 auto-related enterprises which employ directly 2.2 million people, according to Chen Bin, deputy director of the Industrial Department of the State Development and Reform Commission.

The output value of the auto industry came to 1.1 trillion yuan (US$123 billion) last year, accounting for nearly 2 percent of China's GDP, compared with 1 percent of GDP at the end of the country's Ninth Five-year Plan period (1996-2000). The figure is estimated to rise to 2.5 percent at the end of 2010.

The increase of auto industry production as a proportion of GDP means that it has become a pillar industry of the country.

Chen predicted that China's domestic demand for cars will keep rising with the fast growth of the economy in the next five years, saying that the market demand will hit 8 to 9 million units by 2010, with the auto output standing at 10 million units.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2005)