Mr.Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,
First of all, on behalf of State Planning Commission(SPC)and State Science and Technology Commission(SSTC),I would like to extend greetings to the Fifth Session of the China Council for International Coorporation on Environment and Development. During the third and fourth sessions, SPC and SSTC briefed Council members on the development and implementation of China's Agenda 21.For the past year, we have been making progress on the implementation of sustainable development strategy, I would like to give you a brief review and a perspective.
The Rio Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 pushed ahead with sustainable development thinking. Our government has attached great importance to the development and implementation of China's sustainable development strategy. China 's Agenda 21,formulated under the leadership of SPC and SSTC, was ratified and put into effect by the State Council in March 1994.
The sustainable development strategy advanced by China's Agenda 21 has been an integrtal part in the national economic and social development plan. The Ninth Five-Year Plan and the Long Term Objective Program to the year 2010 for the National Economy and Social Development of the People's Republic of China, approved by the Fourth Session of the Eighth National People's Congress, made it clear that sustainable development should be realized. During the recently finished Fourth National Environmental Protection Meeting, President Jiand Zemin confirmed that the implementation of a sustainable development strategy must be treated as a major issue. In other works, economic development should be considered together with population, environment and resources, and should not only be considered for development. So, the recent year's work has seen an awareness of the necessity of following the way of sustainable development among all social sectors in China.
Under the guidelines of China's Agenda 21, governmental sectors and localities such as provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions have taken the implementation of sustainable development strategy as an important objective when formulating their own development in their economic and social development plans, local governments have gone different ways according to local characteristics and conditions. The Beijing Municipality Planning Commission is studying policy measures to apply sustainable development strategy in major industries, which is a cooperation program with the UNDP Beijing Office. Hubei Province, in the preparation phase of its Ninth Five-Year Plan, worked out the Sustainable Development Plan of Hubei Province for the Ninth Five-Year Period, in which some policy measures were proposed. Six cities in Heilongjiang Province have proposed plans covering population, resources, environment and development. Sichuan Province, China's most populated province, and Shanxi Province, China's largest energy base, are drafting their own Agenda 21 texts.
The past year also saw more local governments at different levels, more enterprises, and more citizens expressing their interests and support towards the implementation of the sustainable development strategy. Pioneer cities like Nanyang of Henan Province and Benxi of Liaoning Province have finished their texts of Agenda 21, which they are now implementing. Many other localities are also deserving of our attention for their work in implementing sustainable development, such as Panzhihua City of Sichuan Province, Luliang County of Yunnan Province, and Nandan County of Guangxi Province, to mention only a few. These localities have either development strategy.
Ladies and gentlemen, as you may have noticed, China's Agenda 21 is a framework for a sustainable development strategy, which should be backed by many physical actions. Recently, the General Office of the State Council submitted a document written by SPC and SSTC throughout the country and to all ministries. The document, entitled" Opinion on Further Promoting the Implementation of China's Agenda 21", gave some detailed tasks. We are delighted to see that after been put into effect.
Some examples are as follows:
The SPC and relevant ministries have studied the methodologies of using economic instruments on environmental management, and have developed a regulation raising t he fee levied for waste water discharge, which will be put into effect after it is approved by State Council.
The Ministry of Water Resources, SPC, and NEPA have enriched the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure with a supplementary regulation based on the idea of Sustainable Development Impact Assessment coming from China's Agenda 21.The supplementary regulation establishes a compulsory item in the development project approval procedure such that all development projects located in ecologically fragile areas and vulnerable to soil erosion must prepare a water and soil conservation plan. This is a mandatory part of the project approval process.
The SPC, The State Economy and Trade Commission, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, in their documents entitled "Interim Provisions on Guiding Foreign Investment Direction" and "Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries", prohibit foreign investment projects that would pollute the environment, damage natural resources, or be directly harmful human health.
The Ministry of Finance(MOF)issued a document requiring finance departments at local level to further enforce their role in environmental protection. The MOF document also enunciates firm policy measures to encourage enterprises to commit them selves to control pollution.
The SSTC developed the National Plan of Science and Technology for Social Development, as part of the scientific and technical action plan for China's Agenda 21. The SSTC document, using the progress of science and technology as an important factor to promote the implementation of sustainable development strategy, established some major research projects in social development and selected some pilot areas for sustainable development, both at the regional and community level.
It can be said that with the formulation and implementation of various policies favorable to sustainable development, China has passed the phase of theoretical work and is advancing towards practice of sustainable development.
The Chinese government has made continuous efforts to raise the ability of all social sectors to implement sustainable development strategy.
Both SPC and SSTC, with the support of UNDP, have successfully organized a research and training program on incorporating China's Agenda 21 into the national economic and social development plan. In addition to incorporating sustainable development strategy into the national economic and social development plan, this program also formed a cadre team of 300 members from ministries under the State Council as well as local governments, with high quality communication and implementation skills, to explain sustainable development strategy throughout the country. Following this program, several provincial governments are organizing their own different kinds of training activities. These localities include Shanghai,Jiangsu,Tianjin,Beijing,Shanxi,Hubei,Zhejiang,Jiangxi,Guangdong, and Ningxia. A large number of local management personnel have also been trained as a result of these activities.
Communicating the sustainable development strategy to the general public is being widely carried out. Beijing TV Studio made a 30-episode TV series entitled" The 2 1 Century Is Not A Dream", which has been broadcast by many TV studios throughout the country. China National Radio and other news agencies have also carried programs on sustainable development.
In November 1995,in order to summarize the experiences of all localities in implementing China's Agenda 21, SPC, SSTC, and the UNDP Beijing Office organized a seminar on Shanghai entitled" Case Studies of Typical Local Practices in Implementing China's Agenda 21". In December of the same year, SPC and SSTC organized another conference, but this time at the national level, entitled" National Conference Reporting and Exchanging Experiences in Implementing China's Agenda 21", State Councillor Song Jian hosted the conference and gave an important speech.
All these activities have played very active role in promoting the implementation of sustainable development in China.
Theoretical research into sustainable development is also being carried out.
Supported by SSTC, some ministries and research institutes are undertaking studies to develop a sustainable development index system. The Administrative Center of China's Agenda 21 and other units have organized several seminars and forums on sustainable development. Some research institutes and universities have also established their own research centers or schools on sustainable development.
I would like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce you some activities that will be organized by SPC and SSTC in the near term:
1. The second high level international round table conference on China's Agenda 21 is being prepared. The conference, scheduled for October this year, is approved by the State Council and will be jointly chaired by SPC, SSTC. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, State Economic and Trade Commission, NEPA, and UNDP. The objective of this conference is to present to the international group the priority program of China's Agenda 21, and to seek cooperation from the international community.
2. The "National Report on China's implementation of Global Agenda 21" will be written. The State Council has agreed that SPC, SSTC, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Economic and Trade Commission, and NEPA will supervise the drafting process for the national report, and will be responsible for submitting the national report to the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly in June 1997,which will assess the implementation of Agenda 21. This national report will introduce both the achievements and the difficulties in the implementation of Agenda 21 in China, and will help the Chinese people further understand the importance of implementing sustainable development strategy in their own country.
3. Research work on sustainable development strategy, relevant laws, regulations and policies will provide further support for decision makers at different levels.
4. Implementing China's Agenda 21 by locality and ministry will be further encouraged and promoted, with an emphasis on local work. Detailed activities will include communication, training, formulating local language texts on sustainable development strategy or action plans, and implementing these action plans. Another task is to select some non-urban areas as pilot areas for sustainable development, and to expand their experience step by step. Enterprises will by mobilized to participate in the practice of sustainable development by exchanging their experiences, ideas and information on cleaner production.
5.Capacity building for implementing sustainable development should be further strengthened. Public awareness and public ability to participate in sustainable development should be improved. While this will require expanded and more organized communication work, we will need to continue with our training courses, seminars, and publication of popular science books.
Ladies and gentlemen, in a densely populated and economically weak, but developing, country like China, the realization of the shift of its economic and social development towards a sustainability will inevitably meet many new problems and difficulties. The Chinese government is determined to rely on its own initiative to achieve this difficult objective. But at the same time, we hope the international society will extend their help and support, so that we can shorten the time necessary to achieve the shift to sustainability.
Thank you for your attention.