On Monday, the State Council released its detailed restructuring and revitalization plan for the light industry for the next three years (2009-2011) .  The plan sets the following objective:

1. Maintain stable export, increase domestic demand, improve efficiency, and create three million new jobs.
2. Develop new technologies in the areas of inverter air conditioner compressors, new batteries, new farming plastic materials, new energy saving and environmental protection.  Achieve high rate of self-sufficiency and self-reliance in key industrial machine and equipment.
3. Optimize industrial structure.  Form 10 large-scale light industry enterprise groups with yearly sales of more than15 billion yuan each, 100 industrial clusters with special characteristics; coordinate the development of eastern, central and western regions.  Add 100 or so independent brands.
4. By 2011, realize chemical oxygen demand (COD) emission reduction 255,000 tons, or 10% of 2007's total emission, of which the food industry realizes reduction 140,000 tons, paper industry 100,000 tons, the leather industry 15,000 tons; reduce wastewater discharge of 1.95 billion tons, 29% lower than the 2007 level, of which the food industry achieves reduction 1 billion tons, paper industry 900 million tons, leather industry 50 million tons.
5. Shut down out-dated inefficient production capacity: pulp and paper production of two million tons, refrigerators (including freezers) 30 million units, standard leather 30 million units, mercury-containing button cell alkaline manganese battery 9 billion units, incandescent bulb 600 million units, alcohol one million tons, monosodium glutamate 120,000 tons, citric acid 50,000 tons.
6. Improve safety and quality.

The industrial output of the light industry stood at 2.62 trillion last year, accounting for 8.7 percent of GDP. Total exports reached 309.2 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 21.7 percent of the national total last year. The industry employed around 35 million workers by the end of 2008.