A series of specific indicators of Green GDP will be developed as a major means to assess government officials' administrative performances.

Green GDP is a modification of gross domestic product by deducting the damage to the environment caused by various economic activities.

Pan Yue, vice director general of the State Environmental Protection Administration, made the announcement in a keynote address Saturday at the opening of the 16th Congress of the Asia-Pacific Forum of Environmental Journalists in Shenzhen.

"We will take into account all these indicators, such as local air quality, drinking water quality, forest coverage rate and environmental protection investment, when assessing the performance of government officials," he said.

The traditional statistical method of defining GDP, which only shows the general economic output, failed to reflect the environmental cost, Pan said.

His administration and the State Statistics Bureau had launched a joint task force to pilot projects for this new assessment method late this year or early next year.

Moreover, an ecological compensation mechanism was also being considered to compensate those suffering from worsening environmental conditions caused by others. Under this mechanism, more taxes would be collected from people with higher incomes than those with lower incomes.

According to statistics for 2003, the latest available, 90 percent of the river sections running through cities were contaminated, 300 million rural people suffered poor quality drinking water and one third of the urban population lived in serious air pollution.

Editor: Olivia