China vows to rebalance economy, nurse environment

Mon Oct 15, 2007 3:59am EDT

By Jason Subler and Zhou Xin

BEIJING, Oct 15 (Reuters) - China will promote more consumer spending to trim its bulging trade surplus and redouble efforts to limit damage to the environment inflicted by breakneck growth, President Hu Jintao said on Monday.

In his keynote address to the ruling Communist Party's five-yearly Congress, Hu also reaffirmed China's commitment to let the yuan move more freely and gradually dismantle the country's capital controls.

Hu said climbing faster up the technology ladder and weaning the economy off exports and investment were key to rebalancing an economy that for the first time will contribute more to global growth this year than the United States.

"This is a pressing strategic task vital to the national economy as a whole," he said.

Hu reserved the most dramatic language of his 2-1/2-hour speech for the need to protect the environment and conserve resources, which he said was vital to "the survival and development of the Chinese nation".

"Our economic growth is realised at an excessively high cost of resources and the environment," he said.

Read whole article ....