Chemical and polluting companies in the Guangdong provincial
capital will be moved out of urban areas over the next eight years,
the deputy mayor of Guangzhou City?said yesterday.
"In total, 279 firms will be moved, 119 of which will go before
2010," Gan Xin said.
The move is part of the city's urban reconstruction plan
launched in December, he said.
Most of the relocated companies will be replaced by service
industries.
Those to be moved include a number of large-scale, State-owned
firms such as the Guangzhou Paper Group Ltd and the Guangzhou
Baiyunshan Jigong Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, Gan said.
The companies to be moved were named by the municipal government
after more than two years of study.
They were chosen for violating national and local environmental
protection regulations relating to emissions, sewage, noise and
solid waste, and seriously affecting people's living conditions,
the deputy mayor said.
Companies that correct their polluting habits within a set
period of time will be exempted, he said.
Chemical factories and warehouses in urban areas that are unable
to meet work safety and urban planning regulations have also been
included in the scheme.
Of the 119 firms to be relocated by 2010, 48 of them are
chemical companies, while 53 are State-owned enterprises.
A further 160 companies will be moved out of the urban district
by 2015, 59 of them chemical firms.
Gan said the government will provide about 200 million yuan ($28
million) to help the firms relocate and build new factories for
them in 11 industrial development zones in Zengcheng, Huadu,
Conghua and Nansha districts, which are far from the city's urban
areas.
The area vacated by the firms will be used for developing the
service industry, Gan said, with the real estate industry excluded
from using the land.
"The urban district has expanded significantly over the past two
decades, so that factories and chemical plants that were once
located outside it are now included within it," Li Xin, deputy
director of the Guangzhou municipal environment protection bureau,
said.
He said the relocated factories in the industrial development
zones should be managed to prevent polluting their new
environment.
(China Daily February 19, 2008)