BEIJING -- The energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) for China's major energy intensive industries decreased by more than 20 percent during the 2006-2010 period, the statistics authorities have reported.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) attributed the rising energy efficiency for the industries to the government's growing investment in energy savings, and the accelerated energy-saving technological upgrading for the sectors.

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The sectors include oil processing, coking and nuclear fuel processing, chemicals and chemical product manufacturing, non-metallic mineral product manufacturing, ferrous metal smelting and rolling, nonferrous metal smelting and rolling, and electricity and heat producing and supplying.

Data from the energy department of the NBS showed that the industries had saved a total of 400 million tonnes of standard coal, contributing more than 60 percent to the entire country's energy savings.

The performance of the energy intensive sectors is key to whether China can reach its energy efficiency goal, as the industries 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.

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said last month that China could basically meet its goal of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by about 20 percent from 2005 levels by the end of 2010.