Construction on most of the projects ordered to freeze by
environmental authorities last week has since stopped, according to
State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) officials
Monday.
Last Tuesday, the administration announced that 30
large projects across the country had begun construction before
their environmental impact assessment reports were approved by the
administration, and should cease work.
Most of the projects, involving billions of US
dollars and in 13 provinces and municipalities, are related to
electricity-generation.
Pan Yue, vice minister of the administration, said
in a statement that 22 of the projects have now ceased
construction.
An administration source added that the 22 have
paid fines of 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) each, the maximum stipulated
by the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment.
The Taicang Port Power-generating Company, in the
eastern province of Jiangsu,
is one of those whose work has been frozen.
"Last Tuesday, we stopped construction
immediately," Su, a company staffer, said by telephone yesterday,
adding that they will wait for approval before resuming work.
According to Pan's statement, many provincial and
municipal governments have attached great importance to last week's
announcement.
But eight projects have shown no sign of following
the administration's order, and no indication has yet been given as
to how this will be dealt with.
Hu Tao, chief economist at SEPA's Policy Research
Center for Environment and Economy, said the move should force
companies to pay more attention to environmental management.
He also suggested that environmental concerns have
become a new way, in addition to measures like interest rate
adjustments, to cool the economy down when it is too hot, he
said.
Late last week, 56 non-governmental environmental
protection organizations issued a statement of support for the
administration's endeavors.
(China Daily January 25, 2005)