Distinguished Mr. Chair, Members, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to express my warm welcome to the members and friends at the fourth meeting of the second phase CCICED. We are glad to see that researches of CCICED is conducted deeper, with the key points at more important positions and the work more effective than before, which is of more important role in promoting the environment and development in China.
Ever since the last meeting , new progress has been made in the environmental protection in China. It is expected that the environmental protection tasks designated by the government in the ninth Five-Year Plan period could be basically completed. In accordance with the laws, there are over 234000 enterprises that have conducted deadline treatment in the whole country. Up till now, there are 90% of the enterprises that have completed the tasks of attaining the discharge standards. The discharge of 12 major pollutants will reduce by 15% compared with 1995. New progress has been made in the "33211" engineering projects. The degrading trend of "three rivers" and"three lakes" has been controlled to certain extent, with the water quality of some waters turns better. The amount of SO2 reduced in two years in the acid rain and SO2 controlling zones is 1. 86 million tons. Further work has been conducted in the environmental protection in key cities and enterprises. A series of cities with coordinated development of environment and economy have been awarded with the titles of national model cities of environmental protection. So me cities have increased the use of cleaner energy and improved the energy struc t ure. Cleaner production and ISO 14000 certification have been further promoted. T he input of environmental protection has increased in a stable way. In the ninth Five-Year Plan period, the input of ecological construction and environmental protection will hit 380 billion yuan, being 0. 97% of the GDP in the same period and 0. 24% over that in the eighth Five-Year Plan period. The environmental legislation and policies have been strengthened and improved continuously. The Air Pollution Prevention Law amended this year has made great breakthroughs in the total pollutant discharge and pollution discharge permit. The taxation policies beneficial to the environmental protection have been set up and the role of economy has been strengthened gradually.
Important progress has been made in ecological environmental protection and construction. The preliminary statistics show that during the ninth Five-Year Plan period, the forest areas completed in the entire country is 25 million hectares and the forest coverage hits 16. 55%;the artificial grassland constructed is 7. 3 million hectares and 6. 7 million hectares of grassland have been treated;the area of soil erosion treatment is 230000 hectares;there are 1146 natural reserves of various kinds have been set up, the area being 88.128 million hectares, accounting for 8. 8% of the national territory;212 national ecological demonstration sites have been set up in the entire country;over 2000 eco-farming demonstration sites have been set up at county, town and village levels. Some provinces have put forth strategic schemes of ecological provinces have been put forth.
With the strenuous efforts for many years, the degrading trend of environmental pollution in China has begun to slow down. However, we should keep it clearly in our minds that the environmental pollution in China remains at high level;the percentage of domestic pollution has been increasing continuously;the non-point agriculture source pollution is becoming more and more serious;the degrading trend of ecology has not yet been controlled effectively;the environmental pollution and ecological damages in some areas are still rather serious and the environmental situation remains rather tough.
During the tenth Five-Year Plan period, the population will continue to grow;the industrialization and urbanization is speeding up;the total economic amount keeps increasing;and there are lots of difficulties in controlling and reducing the t otal pollutant discharge. In the meantime, with the strategic targets of the third phase achieved on full scale, the requirements of the public on environmental quality are becoming higher and higher and the pressure of environmental protection is growing. It is a key topic for the environment and development in the tenth Five-Year Plan period to strengthen the environmental protection while developing the economy rapidly.
Great Western Development is of great significance to all China. It is also a key component of the Tenth Five-Year Plan of the Chinese Government. It is very timely and important for this meeting to discuss issues related to western development as the main theme. Now that the Great Western Development Strategy has been put forward, it becomes an important agenda for governments at all levels to achieve environmental and economic "leapfrog" in the western regions. Over the past years, a number of recommendations made by the China Council have been adopted an implemented, and have become and important basis for decision-making of the Chinese Government and its relevant departments. We have reason to believe that, the outcome of this meeting will have important impact on China's Great Western Develop ment.
Given the fragility of its ecological environment and the importance of its strategic location, the western regions much follow the principle of "Putting Prevention and Conservation as Priority" in the development process. Chinese top-level decision-makers should regard ecological construction and environmental protection as the foundation and starting point of Great Western Development, and adopt the sustainable development strategy as the guiding principle. It is of vital importance to implement the system of integrated decision-making of environment and development and carry out environmental impact assessment for key plans of economic development and resources development, so as to prevent big mistakes in decision making. At the same time, strict implementation of environmental impact assessment could also help avoid environmental pollution and environmental degradation . China is currently conducting surveys on the ecological environment of the west ern regions. Based on these surveys, environmental planning and regional planning will be made, so as to provide macroscopic guide for the distribution and industrial selection of new projects. Practical ecological protection measures will also be formulated to strengthen ecological environment.
China is a developing country, and is still faced with the challenging discrepancy between the lack of environmental funding and great environmental demand. In the next 5-10 years, China's modernization construction will continue to face the severe challenge of environmental degradation. The Great Western Development is a complex systematic program, and will have strong impact on the entire country. Therefore, we should be well prepared for the challenges, so that the Program could be implemented more smoothly. More in-depth research needs to be carried out on how to achieve "leapfrog" development. I believe that Council members and experts will fully express their ideas at the meeting, and contribute their wisdom to China's environment and development.
It has been 9 years since the establishment of CCICED in 1992. From last year, at the request of CIDA, the Secretariat conducted a self-assessment for the "China Council Project", Many Council Members and WG Co-Chairs participated in the self -assessment exercise. The Self-Assessment Report has been distributed to Council Members and WG Co-Chairs. From the SA Report, it can be seen that, there is still much room for the Council to improve in the future. But the general consensus in the report is that, the China Council is a unique model of cooperation between China and the international community, is a unique forum for promoting China's environ ment and development, and is the common pride of us all. During the 8 years of its existence, the China Council has grown up and is now bearing fruits. Just as Vice Chair Dr. Len Good said a few minutes ago, we will continue into the 3rd Phase. As to how we should change for the 3rd Phase, we still have one year to think over and discuss. We welcome Council members to provide us with valuable suggestions on this issue and continue to support the work of the China Council in the future.
Lastly, I wish the meeting a complete success.
