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Government's Int'l Think Tank for Environmental Protection Starts Third Phase of Work
The China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) started its third phase of operations Monday as the second phase ended after five years of successful work.
As a think tank consisting of experts from China and abroad for the Chinese government, the CCICED will give more advice on specific problems that the administration faces while shaping policies for sustainable development in the next five years, said Director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), Xie Zhenhua, at a press conference held here. He is also the CCICED vice chairman.
And the organization will continue to provide far-sighted suggestions on overall policies of environmental protection, he added.
About 8 million U.S. dollars from Canada and 10 million yuan from China will go to the council as well as materials worth 22 million yuan, according to Leonard M. Good, president of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and another CCICED vice chairman.
The Canadian government will continue to work with China through the CCICED along with other donors including the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and the World Bank, he said.
The CCICED, founded in 1992, is the first organization of its kind and is regarded as a signal that the Chinese government is improving its transparency in decision-making. Its present chairman is Chinese Vice Premier Wen Jiabao.
During the second phase of cooperation, the council provided new ideas and valuable advice on how to implement policies to achieve sustainable growth, said Qu Geping, chairman of the Environment and Resources Protection Committee under the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.
The council greatly contributed to industrial pollution relief, rational consumption of energy and protection for forests and farms in China during the past five years, added Qu, who is also the CCICED vice chairman.
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