Minister Zhou Shengxian of MEP met with visiting UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner in Beijing on August 7. They exchanged their views on further enhancing cooperation in the field of environmental protection.

Minister Zhou firstly warmly welcomed Mr. Achim Steiner and his delegation and expressed his thanks to the help of UNEP to the preparation of Beijing Olympic Games and its help to the Chinese Government and people after the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province. Minister Zhou said, historic changes of environmental protection work have taken place in China in the past few years. The First Meeting of the 11th NPC decided the establishment of MEP. This indicates that China attaches great importance to environmental protection and put it onto a more important strategic position. Compared with the former State Environmental Protection Administration, the newly established MEP enjoys enhanced functions. It has strengthened the macro regulation capacity, implementation capacity and supervision capacity of the environmental protection institution and enhanced the institutional structure and staffing, which provides a solid organizational guarantee for the promotion of the historic transformations of environmental protection.

Talking about the cooperation with UNEP, Minister Zhou said that UNEP has always kept good cooperation relations with MEP and hoped that the two sides further strengthen bilateral cooperation in the future and create a new situation of cooperation areas in an all round way.

On behalf of UNEP, Mr. Achim Steiner expressed his thanks to the long-term support of MEP to UNEP and his admiration for the efforts and progress of environmental protection work in China. He hoped that the two sides further enhance communications, exchange and cooperation in the future, share the experience in environmental protection and continuously promote the development of environmental protection cause.