Zhou Dadi, deputy director of China Energy Research Society, said recently that growing demand for energy has seen a rapid increase in its supply. This is a call to the government to strengthen research and development (R&D) in the new energy sector, says an article in Guangming Daily. Excerpts:

The 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) aims to hasten the reform of the energy sector by optimizing traditional energy production and use, and strengthening R&D in new energy.

As some experts have said, the energy industry has to take the lead in the new industrial revolution in China - even the world - and the new energy sector has to facilitate new economic growth. The United States, European countries and Japan, too, have targeted the new energy sector as their future economic engine to continue their domination of the global industrial chain.

China is undergoing rapid industrialization and urbanization, and facing grave economic structural problems. It also has to deepen its industrial reform to change its role as the "world's factory". To do that, China should draft a blueprint for the development of emerging industries, including the new energy sector. From the global as well as domestic perspective, China has to expedite the strategic development of the new energy sector, or it will lose its competitive advantage.