China is pursuing a scientific energy planning to maintain its sustainable development, according to Chinese officials at the Boao Forum for Asia, which was closed on Sunday.

China's need of energy soars as the economy grows. Energy shortages are one of the biggest challenges that China faces in its development.

"However, the growing need of energy will not bring negative impacts to other countries, as China is not only an energy-consuming country, but also an energy-producing country," said Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

In a speech Saturday at the 2005 annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, Jia said China's domestic energy supply can meet most of its economy's needs. Energy import is only a small proportion in the total.

According to the national energy planning, the Chinese government tackles the issue of energy on the basis of domestic capability. Its goal is to build a energy-saving society with energy saving as a priority and adjusting structure and strengthening management as measures.

"It is the resource layout and energy structure that enables China to tackle the issue of energy by itself," said Ma Kai, minister in charge of the State Development and Reform Commission, at the forum.

China's gross detected coal reserves is estimated to exceed 1 trillion tons and the exploitable quantity has reached 114.5 billion tons. Coal accounts for 67 percent of the total energy consumption and 76 percent of the total energy production.

"Therefore, we are able to rely our energy need mostly on domestic supply. It is China's basic guideline in energy planning," said Ma.

In the meantime, China is also eyeing energy cooperation with other countries. The cooperation between China and Australia has been highlighted at this year's Boao Forum.

Australian Prime Minister John Winston Howard said at the forum that Australia and China are complementary in economy and energy cooperation.

At a theme session, he promised that Australia will be a long-term, stable energy supplier to China in the future. China can import natural gas from Australia to improve its energy consumption structure and make up the shortage of clean energies.

Ma also revealed at the same occasion that both sides had set up a dialogue mechanism on partnership and cooperation.

He said the key cooperation fields include governmental exchanges and dialogues on energy policies, liquefied natural gas projects, mutual investment and cooperation in reproducible and new energy resources. Both will also work together in improving energy efficiency.

Energy suppliers from Australia showed great interest at the forum. The chief executive officer of Woodside Energy Ltd. Don Voelte said currently the supply has exceeded demand of liquefied natural gas worldwide, but China is the largest consumption market of liquefied natural gas.

It is estimated that the total capacity of natural gas in Australia is about 4.25 trillion cubic meters. This amount can supply natural gas for 100 years to 10 stations which have an annual storage of 3 million tons, said Voelte.

Besides Australia, Russia is another partner of China in energy cooperation. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in March 2005 that China and Russia had reached important common understanding in energy cooperation.

Russia has exported oil to China by railway at the quantity of 9 million tons in 2004, and will hopefully reach 10 million tons this year and 15 million tons next year. The two countries will enhance cooperation in gas and oil prospecting and exploration in the future as well.

Moreover, China's cooperation with other neighboring countries has also been accelerating. Last month, China, the Philippines and Vietnam signed an agreement in jointly working on oceanic earthquakes in South China Sea. In the agreement, the three countries expressed their willingness in researching oil in the area, which was the first substantial step toward a joint exploration of South China Sea.

China has been actively pursuing international cooperation in energy on the basis of mutual benefit and common development in recent years. With the guideline of a comprehensive and scientific planning, China's sustainable and rapid growth does not, and will not cause shortage of energy worldwide, said insiders.

(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2005)