On Apr. 9, Minister Li Ganjie presided over a ministerial executive meeting in Beijing, which considered and adopted in principle the Program of Action for Containing the Illegal Transfer and Dumping of Solid Wastes in Yangtze Economic Belt (hereinafter referred to as the Program), and the 2018-2020 Plan for the IT-based Development of the Ecological and Environmental Sector (hereinafter referred to as the Plan).
The meeting held that General Secretary Xi Jinping and other central leaders have made important instructions on the multiple cases of illegal transfer and dumping of solid wastes recently. The ecological and environmental departments should act upon Xi’s instructions and the guiding principles of the 19th National Congress of the CPC, and severely crack down on illegal transfer and dumping of solid wastes especially along the banks of the Yangtze River.
The inspection should highlight the priority areas and treat the symptoms and causes of the illegal transfer and dumping. The priority areas are the 11 provinces (municipalities) in the Yangtze economic belt, where the inspectors will canvass the solid wastes along the banks of the river and urge the local governments to have them properly treated. They will also trace the sources of the solid wastes that are illegally moved about or dumped, hold the generators and local governments concerned accountable, and urge the latter to establish sound waste disposal mechanisms and eliminate environmental hazards. The problems revealed in the inspection will be handed over to the municipal and county/district governments to rectify within a prescribed period of time. The central environmental inspectors will double check those rectifications later. In the process, the public will be updated on the inspection progress and public supervision is welcome.
The meeting believed that information technology is the leading force behind the modernization drive in China. The 19th National Congress of the CPC has regarded the internet technology as one of the elements that constitute an innovation-driven country. General Secretary Xi Jinping has presided over multiple meetings to study and promote the development and application of big data. The big data, Internet, artificial intelligence and other information technologies have become instrumental tools for promoting the ecological and environmental governance and the modernization of governance capacities. The development of information technology in the ecological and environmental sector is very important to taking the ecological and environmental protection up to new levels, and to putting up the tough fight against pollution.
The meeting emphasized that it is imperative to set up an overarching system that serves as the platform of big data in the ecological and environmental sector, and gather the ecological and environmental information in “One Map”. The key is to improving the schemes and mechanisms for the information technology in this sector and making overall plans for the major tasks.
We will race against time to implement the plan, break down and allocate the annual tasks, and identify the responsible departments, timelines, and objectives of major programs. We will promote the inter-departmental ecological and environmental information sharing and strengthen the data analysis and application. Moreover, we will work harder at safeguarding internet security.
Vice Ministers Zhai Qing, Zhao Yingmin, and Liu Hua, Leader of the Discipline Inspection Group Wu Haiying, and Vice Minister Zhuang Guotai presented at the meeting.
Directors general of the internal departments observed the meeting.
