Heavy Industrial Base Promotes Clean ProductionLiaoning Province, a heavy industrial base located in northeast China, is actively promoting clean production as a means to check pollution at its point of origin.Already involved in cleaning up their production are 200 local enterprises mainly located in heavy industrial cities such as Shenyang, Anshan and Fushun, according to a provincial official in charge of environmental protection in Liaoning. The province started to enforce clean production in 1995, when the provincial bureau of environmental protection and the State Economic and Trade Commission jointly launched a production project characterized by low consumption, low pollution and high return. Ten enterprises were selected for the experiment, which helped generate economic returns of 34 million yuan during the first year while saving 3.9 million tons of water and reducing exhaust emission by 7.7 billion cubic meters. To popularize the practice, the provincial government has mandated that local governments use more than ten percent of the charges collected from local enterprises for generating pollution to enforce clean production, and set up a clean production center providing technical support and information in the area. The clean production endeavor received a good boost when the province launched an ambitious environmental protection project in late 1999, with 37 million euros of funding from European Union. Of the total, 13.1 million euros will be used on clean production. Zhao Xinliang, deputy governor of Liaoning, said the provincial government will continue to guide more enterprises to engage in clean production in the future. |
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