China will establish a national system of work safety indexes this year, so as to strengthen control of the numbers and appraisal of the work safety conditions of the country.

Zhao Tiechui, deputy administrator of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), told a press conference here Tuesday that the work safety indexes for 2004 will be distributed to the governments of all Chinese provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government.

According to Zhao, the indexes comprise seven groups of figures concerning work safety, namely the national death toll from accidents, the death rate per 100 million yuan of GDP (gross domestic product), the death rate per 100,000 people, the death toll of industrial enterprises, the death rate per 100,000 people in industrial enterprises, the death toll of mines, and the death rate per one million tons of coal.

The SAWS will release these figures collected at state and local levels every quarter, in the form of press conferences, government communiqués and government briefings, said Zhao.

Zhao said international experience shows that when a country's per capita GDP is between 1,000 US dollars and 3,000 dollars, the country will come into the peak period for work accidents, and China is right in such a period.

Zhao said in 2004, China also plans to set up the National Command Center for Work Safety-related Emergency Rescue Operations, and build up professional quick-response rescue teams and increase the capability of emergency rescue and disaster relief against very severe work accidents.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2004)