The Vice Minister of Environmental Protection, Mr. Li Ganjie met with UNEP-GEF Director of the Division of Coordination, Ms. Maryam Niamir-Fuller on July 1, and the two exchanged views on strengthening cooperation in the field of environmental protection.

Vice Minister Li first extended his welcome to Ms. Fuller on behalf of MEP and expressed his appreciation for the condolence and help offered by UNEP after severe earthquake hit Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province. He noted that the earthquake has not only caused serious human casualty and damage to people's property, but also brought about huge impact to the local eco-environment. With the unremitting efforts of environmental protection department at all levels, the environmental emergency response work has gained positive progress in the quake-hit areas, and the environmental quality there remained stable on the whole. However, we are still faced with arduous tasks for post-quake environmental protection and ecological restoration. He hoped to carry out international exchange jointly with the UNEP so as to provide more useful experience and policy recommendations to China regarding post-quake environmental reconstruction.

Minister Li added that the environmental problems China has faced are complicated and acute during the rapid economic and social development progress. The Chinese government has paid great attention to this issue and has actively adjust the working considerations on environmental protection by putting forward the concept of historic transformation on environmental protection, of which one major component is to make comprehensive utilization of legal, economic, technological and necessary administrative means to deal with environmental problems. In recent years, the MEP has continuously increased efforts in the exploration of environmental and economic policies with relevant departments by releasing a set of policies on green credit, green insurance and green securities. In addition, it has also put more emphasis on the pilot work in eco-compensation and pollution discharge permit trading. We believe that environmental and economic policies will surely play an ever greater role in future environmental management, during which not only our own efforts but also international exchange and the introduction of advanced experience from other countries are needed. China is willing to actively participate in the activities conducted by the UNEP in these fields and hopes to further heighten cooperation in the future so as to make more contribution to the resolution of environmental problems of both China and the world at large by making use of the platform of GEF.

Ms. Fuller expressed her admiration to the efforts of China in building environmental management capacity and earnestly improving environmental quality. She hoped that the two sides can further cooperation in the future to jointly promote the progress of environmental protection undertaking.