China will maintain fast economic growth relying mainly on its own mineral resources, the country's first white paper on the subject says.

Released yesterday, the white paper says to fulfill that goal, China needs a more efficient mining sector.

Shao Juenian, director of the Mineral Reserve Department of the Ministry of Land and Resources, said the white paper delivers a clear-cut message that the country will continue its opening-up efforts by introducing more private investment, along with foreign capital and technologies, into the mining sector.

"One ultimate purpose of the white paper is to introduce to the world the current situation of the Chinese mining sector. Foreign investment and advanced mining technologies are welcomed,'' Shao said.

In addition to preferential policies encouraging investment into the cash-pinched Chinese mining sector, Shao said the country's on-going revision of the Law on Mineral Resources expects to provide more clear-cut protection of the proper rights of investors.

Although details are not yet available, Shao did say that the revised version of the law will spell out the rights of prospectors and miners and safeguard the rights on a unified basis throughout the country.

Liu Yikang, an official with the China Mining Industries Federation, said varying policies of different Chinese regions have puzzled foreign investors.

"Although the huge Chinese market has proved too irresistible to foreign investors, we still need to improve our investment environment in order to nourish their investment interest into real moves,'' he said.

But before the revision can be complete in three to five years, the ministry has already geared up to improve its mining order. "One solid step in the regard, we are going to close down hundreds of small mines in the near future,'' said Shao.

For many local mining authorities in China, poor mining orders, especially irregularities in small illegal mines, have made it difficult to attract foreign investment.

Li Jindong, a leading mining official in Central China's Hunan Province, said the province has pledged greater-than-ever efforts to sort out local mining orders and shut down small mines.

"We have lost large amounts of foreign investment to that already,'' he said.

Shao strongly believes in the potential of Chinese minerals. Statistics in a report of the World Mineral Resource Strategy Research Centre of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences indicate that of the 200,000-odd spots worth mining in the country, only 20 per cent have undergone preliminary evaluation, the very foundation for exploitation operations.

Shao refuted some reports that the country expects to import as many as 500 million tons of crude oil by the year 2020.

"Our estimate of the number is roughly between 300 million tons and 400 million tons, and expect it to shrink further due to improved utilization technologies,'' he said.

However, he said China will play a bigger role in the international mineral market, because "no country can develop on its own mineral resources only.''

Therefore, the country will produce a special regulation in the near future to especially encourage Chinese mining companies to develop business overseas, while co-ordinating competition with each other.

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