The Approved Stimulus and Adjustment Program for the Light Industry       

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT) issued the 2009-2011 stimulus and adjustment program for the light industry, which has been recently approved by the State Council.
    In 2008, the light industry achieved an industrial value added of RMB2.6235 trillion, accounting for 8.7% of the national GDP. The output of over 100 products in China's household appliances, leather, plastic articles, foodstuffs, furniture and minmetal products ranked first worldwide. The total exports of the light industry were US$309.2 billion, accounting for 21.7% of China's total. The industry employs 35 million workforces. 70% of its sectors and 50% of its production value are involved with agriculture, directly benefiting more than 200 million farmers. The sectors like pulp and paper, plastics and leather already had a strong ability of technical integration and innovation.
    The program also points out some drawbacks of the light industry. It does not have a strong capability of independent innovation. Its production capacities are mainly distributed in the coastal areas but have lagging development in the central and western regions. Its exports targeted mainly to Europe, USA and Japan and have not yet formed a diversified structure. Most of its products are of middle or low-end, few of them are of high-quality, high value-added. The overcapacity is very serious. It has lot of things to do in energy conservation and pollution reduction. Its chemical oxygen demand (COD) discharges account for 50% of China's total, and its wastewater discharge accounts for 28% of China's total.
     This program aims to keep a steady growth of the light industry and increase about three million jobs in three years. The emission of pollutants will reduce remarkably. Compared to 2007, the COD discharge of this industry will reduce 255 thousand tons by 2011, or 10%, of which the food sector will reduce 140 thousand tons, the paper sector 100 thousand tons, and the leather 15 thousand tons. Compared to 2007, the wastewater discharge will reduce 1.95 billion tons by 2011, or 29%, of which the food sector will reduce 1.0 billion tons, the paper sector 900 million tons, and the leather sector 0.5 million tons. Backward capacities of this industry, including more than 2 million t/a pulp and paper, 9 billion mercury-containing alkaline manganese button cells per year, 1 million t/a alcohol, 120 thousand t/a monosodium glutamate and 50 thousand t/a citric acid, will be eliminated.