Gold producer

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said the country produced 340.88 tons of gold in 2010, up 8.57 percent from 2009, making it the world's largest gold producer for the fourth consecutive year. The NDRC said China's gold industry saw an annual growth rate of 9.8 percent from 1978 to 2007. China became the top gold producer for the first time in 2007, with a production of 270.5 tons that year. It retained that status by producing 282.1 tons in 2008, 313.98 tons in 2009.

Online gaming

Online game operators in China will be required to provide services for parents to monitor their children's game-playing from March 1, according to new rules issued by eight central government departments, including the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Public Security. The move comes in a bid to prevent minors becoming addicted to Internet games. Internet addiction is growing among minors in recent years as statistics from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences suggest the number of teenage Internet addicts has reached 33 million.

Agro-priority

Chinese energy companies are called upon to ensure fertilizer producers get ample supplies of natural gas for the spring planting season. China National Petroleum Corp., China Petrochemical Corp. and CNOOC Ltd. are barred from selling gas to other customers until they fill farm-related orders, the National Development and Reform Commission said. According to Chen Xiaohua, Vice Minister of Agriculture, ensuring enough fertilizer for crops is a "precondition for the grain harvest" and "essential for stabilizing the prices of agricultural products and managing inflation."

Energy efficiency

Data revealed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that the energy consumption per unit of GDP for China's major energy intensive sectors decreased by more than 20 percent during the 2006-10 period. According to NBS statistics, a total of 400 million tons of standard coal have been saved, contributing more than 60 percent to the country's total energy savings. The energy intensive sectors accounted for about 77 percent of China's total industrial energy consumption and more than half of the country's total energy consumption, said the NBS.