More than 100 Chinese solvent manufacturers yesterday began a three-day training program offered by foreign experts to learn about substitutes for ozone-depleting substances.

Experts from the United Nations Development Program and solvent giants such as Micro Care and Ultronix updated the Chinese firms on the latest developments in the world of cleaning agents and equipment.

Some of the Chinese companies have already received international grants to improve their equipment.

William Kwan, the UN program co-ordinator for China, yesterday told the workshop's opening ceremony: "Protecting our ozone layer is not only the business of government departments and international organizations. Enterprises will also play a decisive role. The training is aimed at providing practical choices for China's enterprises."

Officials from the State Environmental Protection Administration said that the ongoing training was another substantial step in the Chinese Government's realizing its promise to protect the damaged ozone layer.

China started a nine-year program in 2000 to phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances as cleaning agents in order to protect the environment, said Xiong Kang, division director of the administration's Foreign Economic Co-operation Office.

"This was part of China's package of action plans to protect the ozone layer," said Xiong.

To implement the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, China has taken concrete steps on the way to achieving the zero target for such substances in seven sectors, such as tobacco, solvents and industrial and commercial refrigeration.

The international community also strongly backs China's action, Xiong said.

To date, China has received US$700 million for this endeavor from the Montreal Protocol's Multilateral Fund.

The nine-year program targets industrial enterprises that have traditionally used ozone-depleting substances as cleaning agents during production.

The industrial sectors include aerospace, aviation, electronics, machinery, medical appliances, motor manufacturing, post and telecommunications, precision instruments and textiles.

About half of Chinese enterprises that use ozone-depleting substances are in the categories mentioned above.

The program is expected to finish by late 2009, said Xiong.

Carbon tetrachloride (CTC) use will be banned after 2004.

By the end of the program, there will be a complete ban on the production and consumption of the other two major ozone-depleting cleaning agents in China - the chlorofluorocarbon CFC-113 and the chlorothene NU.

All of them will be gradually replaced by substances that do not hurt the ozone layer and the environment as a whole, said Xiong.

The Montreal Protocol was agreed upon in 1987 and came into force in 1989. It applies only to those countries that have ratified it.

(China Daily August 15, 2002)