China is looking to change its economic development model away from one characterized by excessive dependence on exports, cheap labor and high energy consumption.

The old model proved successful. It helped China sustain an average GDP growth rate of 9.8 percent over the past 30 years of reform and opening-up, and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

Changing the model to one promoting sustainable and green growth would make China's economy less export-driven and more innovation-led. And the world as a whole would benefit from such a drive.

A SHIFT FROM EXPORT TO DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION

For a long time China's economy has been excessively dependent on exports, a problem highlighted by the global downturn when international demand dropped sharply.

The government has decided that the old growth model needs urgently to be changed, and domestic consumption, especially in rural areas, must be promoted to provide a more reliable and stronger impetus for growth.

In the past year, the government implemented a series of measures to spur consumption in rural China, which has a total population of more than 700 million people. The government spent 45 billion yuan (6.6 billion U.S. dollars) on subsidies to help rural people buy home appliances, automobiles, motorcycles and farming equipment in 2009.

When the great potential demand from the rural people is realized, China's trade surplus which stood at 196 billion U.S. dollars last year will shrink.

A SHIFT FROM CHEAP LABOR TO HIGH TECHNOLOGY

To some extent, the competitiveness of Chinese manufacturers propped up by its vast and cheap labor, has placed it at the lower end of the global industrial value chain.

To upgrade its economy, China has been encouraging innovations in science and technology. According to the government work report, the central government spent a total of 151 billion yuan on scientific and technological projects last year, a jump of 30 percent from 2008.

China is already a world leader in technologies relating to solar power, heat and wind turbines and is rapidly developing key technologies for electric vehicles.

Progress has also been made in other areas. After building a total of 6,552 km of high-speed railways on which trains can reach an average speed of 350 km per hour, China is bracing to export its expertise.

Chinese rail authorities said last Friday that it had signed cooperation memos with authorities in the United States and Russia, and was planning to bid on a project in Brazil linking Rio de Janeiro with Sao Paulo.

A SHIFT FROM HIGH ENERGY CONSUMPTION TO LOW-CARBON DEVELOPMENT

For a long time, China's economic boom has come at the price of environmental pollution and high energy consumption, creating increasing bottlenecks for long-term development.

China must make a transition from depending on industries that consume high levels of materials and energy to those based on advanced technology and human innovation, President Hu Jintao said last month.

China announced in November last year that it aimed to reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent compared with 2005 levels.

In the first four years of the 11th Five-Year Plan ending this year, China had cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 14.38 percent.

To achieve the overall target of 20 percent cut, the government said it would enact a series of measures in 2010 to boost energy conservation, including the introduction of an accountability mechanism for provincial governments and tight control of projects of high energy consumption and high pollution.

The focus on energy efficiency and technology in a country with more than a fourth of the world population is conducive to making the world greener amid global efforts to cut emissions.