Environmental concerns

Against the clarion call for the expansion of domestic demand, governments at various levels need to be reminded that this should never be at the cost of the environment. And neither should efforts in restoring the environment, badly damaged by economic growth in the past three decades, be compromised by an investment rush.

We have paid dearly for the lack of attention given to environmental protection during the early stages of our economic development - more than 70 percent of the country's major waterways have already been seriously polluted, threatening safe drinking water for people in some areas.

Even greater efforts are yet to be made to reduce the pollutants discharged by enterprises. Statistics show that major pollutants that are supposed to be reduced by 10 percent by the end of 2010 had only been cut by 2.3 percent by the end of 2003.