East China's Jiangxi Province has decided to dissolve its firecracker industry in the wake of a series of disastrous fireworks explosions and pledged to help find new jobs for the 200,000 workers now employed in the industry, top provincial officials said yesterday.

"According to the current situation, we have decided to gradually withdraw in the industry, in a well-planned manner, as part of our economic restructuring," said Huang Liuquan, governor of the province.

"Our decision has upset the local people, but we can say for sure that we will not leave firecracker producers jobless, and we will prevent manufacturers to be closed from evading their debts. And we will subsidize counties and towns that may lose revenue during the process," said Huang at yesterday's press conference for the Fifth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress.

Huang's remarks came after a string of deadly explosions in the province in recent years, including a blast that claimed 14 dead last December in Wanzai County.

According to Huang, firecrackers are a sizable industry in the province, involving 200,000 workers in 21 counties.

The sector generates industrial output valued at 1.5 billion yuan (US$181 million) a year, or 5 percent of the province's total.

Meng Jianzhu, Party secretary of the province, said officials are confident about being able to re-employ the workers involved, but offered no information about how the government would accomplish that.

Officials also failed to give details regarding the date of the industry's dissolution. Earlier Xinhua news reports specified the timetable as two years.

Meng said the firecracker sector is a traditional industry that should be replaced by emerging new industries in the long term, as the province is seeking restructuring needed for economic revival.

The province's decision was approved by the central government, with Li Rongrong, minister of the State Economic and Trade Commission, stating "there is nothing wrong for them to do so" earlier last week at the NPC's press conference.

Huang said the government has been tough on those small workshops that fail to meet safety standards, shutting down over 10,600 such small operations and 385 large enterprises last year.

"For those qualified, we will allow them to exist for a time. But they must reinforce their safety supervision and management," Huang said.

Around 7,500 government workers have inspected fireworks production centers across the province, said Huang.

(China Daily March 14, 2002)