State Councilor Hua Jianmin (center) pays a visit to the first China (Taiyuan) International Coal & Energy New Industry Expo yesterday. Guo Yingguang

In an interview with China Daily during the seminar session of China (Taiyuan) International Coal & Energy New Industry Expo 2007, the province's leading economic planner said Shanxi will continue to serve as China's major energy supplier for the next 30 or more years.

Shanxi Province yields 580 million tons of coal every year, or 75 percent of China's cross-province shipments of coal.

But that, Ling pointed out, refers to the yield from no more than 70 percent of Shanxi's land. Around 30 percent of the province is yet to undergo extensive geological surveying.

Even when the price of crude oil was around $10 per barrel, Ling said he was convinced that the day was not far when coal would gain more importance.

Now, when crude oil price has edged towards $80, he thinks Shanxi's hour has come. "The inevitable (as he foresaw in the 1980s) has happened," he said. "Across the globe, the coal-based chemical industry will begin to see some major development - whenever alternative energies are to be developed."

The role that the province can play at this historic juncture, said the Shanxi-born economist, is not just to serve as a supplier of raw energy materials, but more importantly, as an operator of an extended value chain based on its extraordinarily rich coal resources.

Before the end of China's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), Shanxi will witness an important breakthrough in the coal-based chemical industry, especially methanol-based and coke-based value-added processing, Ling said. "Shanxi's economic take-off would be just empty talk without such operations," he declared.

The present development focus will remain primarily confined to that scope, before it stretches beyond methanol to the more profitable industries, he added.

Although Shanxi has made substantial progress in coal mining, environmental protection and in shutting down the privately owned and often hazardous small mining companies, it still has major gaps to close to reach the level of developed countries in coal-based chemical industry, Ling admitted.

Fortunately, it has been a consensus among top provincial officials that changes must happen in that direction, and policies have been formulated to boost those new industries, he said.

Though it has only just been a couple of weeks since Meng Xuenong became the acting provincial governor of Shanxi, he has already exhibited great interest in such ideas as sustainable development for Shanxi's coal-based economy.

"So it is also inevitable that Shanxi will, beginning from this year, be the host of China's top coal industry expo," noted Ling.

(China Daily 09/18/2007 page5)