Also, China could help resolve one of the biggest issues in the world today: Darfur. Sachs says China can use its close relations with Sudan to bring peace and prosperity in the Darfur regions. He is against imposing sanctions on the Sudanese Government, as proposed by some Western governments, to resolve the issue.

"At the core of the Darfur issue is extreme poverty. People are fighting in Sudan because they are impoverished. So if China helps with development programs in Darfur, it would be a very positive contribution to peace."

Though he praises China's success in economic development, he says the country still faces many challenges, including rural poverty, environmental crisis, the rich and poor divide and the lack of social services.

Environmental degradation in China, the world's second biggest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter, poses a great threat to its long-term development, he says. It has to take pro-active steps now, before it's too late.

Since China is a coal-based economy, it should try out "carbon sequestration" at several demonstration sites in the next three years to use coal in a safer and cleaner way. Carbon sequestration refers to long-term storage of carbon in the terrestrial biosphere, underground, or the oceans so that the build-up of CO2 (the principal greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere is reduced or slowed down.

"Carbon sequestration is a promising technology," Sachs says. But experts have never tried it on a large scale. Hence, it's important that China tries it on a wider scale and prepares a road map on how and where to use it.

Sachs is working on a reasonable and fair solution to strike a balance between China's economic development and its climate problems. "I'm trying to find a solution that wouldn't hurt any of the groups. And I believe that such a solution can be found."

China's rapid urbanization, however, will continue, he says. That actually would be a good thing, for it would help narrow the income gap with more people joining the "urban economy". But the urbanization strategy to deal with the increase in population and to make urban areas better places to live in is still a big issue.

In his new project, "China 2049", Sachs is trying to find the best strategies to meet the needs of the rising population by studying possible scenarios in the country 40 years from now. The idea is to view what the economy would look like 100 years after the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

The project is likely to be launched later this year, largely through a network of Chinese and American scholars. "Most of the time when we think ahead we don't think that far," he says. "Of course it is impossible to predict what would happen in 2049. But it is possible to try to gain some ideas."

Like any of his other ideas, this too is expected to help a lot of people - not immediately perhaps, but in the future.

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