World Bank officials offered
a series of recommendations Friday on China's environmental
protection work at a news conference in Beijing, focusing on the
full mobilization of governmental resources.
Jemal-ud-din Kassum, vice-president of the World Bank for the East
Asia and Pacific Region, noted at the conference that the country's
governmental departments concerned with the environment, water
resources, agriculture, forestry, finance, education and
construction should further enhance cross-department
co-ordination.
Overlaps and contradictions in responsibilities among governmental
departments remains a big obstacle for the country's environmental
protection work, according to Kassum.
The country's environmental problem "won't be resolved by the State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) working on its
own."
"There needs to be a national mobilization involving all main
government agencies, as well as social institutes and
individuals,'' added Kassum.
Xie Zhenhua, minister of SEPA agreed that different governmental
departments need to co-ordinate their work to "balance the
economic, social and ecological benefits" while accelerating the
country's development.
The recommendation is based on the latest World Bank report on the
country's environment: "China: Air, Land, and Water --
Environmental Priorities for a New Millennium."
The report, the result of a collaborative effort by the World Bank
and SEPA, provides a wide range of suggestions to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of the government's environmental
work.
The report also urged the central government to allocate more power
of supervision to SEPA, as well as to local environmental
protection bureaux, and to reinforce the law enforcement
accordingly.
Kassum, on behalf of the World Bank, promised to enhance
co-operation with the country's concerned governmental departments
over the coming years.
Officials of the World Bank also encouraged the Chinese Government
to increase its environmental expenditures when introducing some of
the developed countries' environmental investment strategies.
They reminded the Chinese Government to pay more attention to the
investment in "software" such as environmental education,
environmental research and feasibility studies of environmental
projects.
Ju
Kuilin, director of the Ministry of Finance, echoed these
suggestions, promising that the central government will inject some
700 billion yuan (US$85 billion) into environmental protection
during the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05).
The World Bank report speaks highly of the achievements made by
China in the environmental arena over the past decade, particularly
in three areas: reduction of the emission of industrial pollutants,
afforestation and control of soil erosion.
The World Bank released a similar report on China's environment in
1992.
At
present, the World Bank provides China with some US$1 billion in
loans annually for projects covering the country's environmental
protection, agriculture and poverty alleviation projects. It also
offers a great deal of support in technology and human resources in
these fields.
(China
Daily November 17, 2001)