On July 17, SEPA, together with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), held a news release for the Report on China's Environmental Performance Assessment in Beijing. Mr. Amano, Deputy Secretary General of the Organization and Zhou Jian, Vice Minister of SEPA presented the conference and delivered remarks.

OECD Program on China's Environmental Performance Assessment was concluded with a complete success, and both sides would expand the areas of cooperation later.

"The conclusion of OECD Report on China's Environmental Performance Assessment and its publication in Chinese, English and French languages marked the success of the program which was started in 2005. I'd like to express our gratitude on behalf of our Administration for all what Environment Directorate has done for the country's environmental performance assessment," said Mr. Zhou.

"The Organization's program has reviewed all the achievements made by China on air, water and waste management, nature and biodiversity, environmental and economic integration, environment and society and the international cooperation since 1990, and evaluated how well the country has met its international environmental targets and fulfilled its international commitments," said Mr. Zhou, "in view of the existing problems and deficiencies in the country's environment field, the report has put forward relevant and effective proposals, which will not only help improve the country's environmental performance and speed up the establishing of an integrated system for environmental economics assessment, but also help promote energy saving and emissions reduction, accelerate the historical transformations and facilitate the efforts to build a resource-saving and environment-friendly society."

Mr. Zhou said the Administration would extend the cooperation with OECD in terms of environmental forecast, watershed management, environmental statistics, national planning for environmental strategies, environmental supervision and enforcement, paid use of environmental resources, eco-compensation, protection of the ozone layer and the responses and adaptation to climate change. He hoped both sides would continue the negotiations and integrate the next cooperation with China's ongoing efforts to save energy and reduce emissions, speed up the economic restructuring, improve the energy efficiency, reduce the total amount of pollutant emissions, and improve the environmental quality.

The report gave 51 proposals regarding the country's deficiency in implementing environmental policies.

Mr. Amano highly commented on bilateral cooperation in his address, arguing that being initiated in 2005 the program has been concluded with the close cooperation of OECD and SEPA as well as the supports given by Chinese Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Communications, State Oceanic Administration, National Bureau of Statistics and other ministries. In the future, the Organization and SEPA would continue to cooperate on environmental performance assessment, expand the cooperation channels and extend the areas of cooperation.

Mr. Amano and Mr. Zhou also answered the questions raised by Chinese and overseas journalists.

Report on China's Environmental Performance Assessment pointed out that since 1978 the country's reform and opening-up policy had resulted in rapid economic growth and dramatic improvement of people's living standards. However, the economic boom, industrialization and urbanization were also followed by immense pressure on the environment. Chinese Government had been deeply aware of the existing environmental problems and developed comprehensive and modern environmental systems, policies and legal regimes, built up the environmental agencies, and placed environmental and natural resources management on the strategic status of top priority. Policies like the scientific concept on development and building a socialist harmonious society, which were proposed by the country in recent years, had promoted the balanced development of the economy, the society and the environment. The above-mentioned efforts enabled the country to achieve remarkable results in air environment quality, water resources management, water pollution control, disposal and recycling of solid wastes and nature protection. In terms of international cooperation in this field, China had been more and more involved in this aspect and played an increasingly important role in the international arena of environmental cooperation.

The report also argued that the country had been poor in implementing environmental policies, and the economic efficiency remained very low. Environmental issues would be incorporated through market-oriented mechanisms when the country developed policies related to the growth of energy, transportation, industrial sectors as well as urban development. Energy, water and other resources were undervalued. In addition, the country still needed to intensify international cooperation on the basis of win-win between itself and the international community. In light of the current state, features, advantages and disadvantages of the country's environment, the report put forward 51 proposals. Before this news release, the report's conclusions and proposals had been made public through domestic and overseas media on November 9, 2006.