Officials from China and Japan gathered Monday in Beijing to launch a training program with the aim of reducing acid rain and sulfur discharge in China.

Experts on acid rain and sulfur control from the two countries will teach latest knowledge and state-of-the-art techniques to roughly 750 trainees during the next five years, said a representative from the State Environmental Protection Administration.

The program’s trainees, most of whom are either environmental officials or technicians, will receive instruction on environmental management, control of pollution sources and methods to improve environmental monitoring.

More than 50 environmental officials and professionals will receive the first-phase training in Beijing and Shanghai in the next 21 days.

Sino-Japanese environmental co-operation has seen substantial development in the past decade, and the two countries have managed to tackle a number of problems together in that time.

China and Japan succeeded in carrying out a five-year training program which began in 1994 and focused on controlling China’s air pollution.

In March of 1999, China and Japan jointly launched a three-year training program to promote the construction of an environmental information network in 100 cities.

(China Daily 10/17/2000)