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State Council Stresses Production Safety
The General Office of the State Council, China's highest governing body, issued an urgent circular Saturday, ordering local governments and related departments to take stricter, immediate measures to ensure industrial safety.
The circular came in the wake of several severe accidents, including the June 22 shipwreck in southwest China's Sichuan Province which claimed 130 lives and a bus plunge in southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region that killed at least 31 people Friday night.
The circular called for immediately conducting a thorough investigation into production safety and checking safety loopholes. Priority should be given to such areas as transport, coal, power, petro-chemicals and construction, as well as enterprises manufacturing fireworks and poisonous and dangerous products. The results of the investigation should be reported to the office before the end of July, the circular said.
According to the circular, severe punishment will be given to those directly responsible for major safety-related accidents in accordance with the law. Leading officials of the localities, departments or units where major accidents occur will be held responsible and punished. And departments of supervision and law enforcement whose dereliction of duty and abuse of power lead to the occurrence of accidents will be dealt with.
The State Economic and Trade Commission will take charge of supervising production safety, the circular said, asking all related departments to coordinate in the investigation of major safety-related cases.
It also stressed the importance of promoting publicity on industrial safety measures and regulations nationwide.
Production safety is of great importance and has drawn the concerns of President Jiang Zemin and other top leaders, the circular said, urging all localities and departments concerned to take effective measures to curb the occurrence of major accidents.
Following the severe shipwreck accident in Yantai on November 24 last year which killed over 100 and the deadly explosion in a firecracker factory in Jiangxi Province on March 11 this year, the State Council held national teleconferences in December last year and in April this year calling for doing a good job of production safety.
Despite considerable progress, China faces a "grim situation" in ensuring production safety, the circular warned.
This summer, a string of new, major accidents have occurred, resulting in heavy casualties and property damage, it said, attributing the causes of the accidents mainly to poor implementation of safety precautions and related officials' neglect of duty.
Focuses of the upcoming nationwide safety check-up will also be placed on enterprises producing boilers, pressure vessels and elevators, and those managing cableways. Safety in public places, including schools, gyms, hospitals, shopping malls, bus terminals, ports, and recreational facilities, scenic spots and hotels will also be a priority.
The circular said those fireworks manufacturers, lighter plants and small oil refineries that fail to meet safety requirements will be ordered to move out of urban areas or shut down during the check-up.
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