On Aug. 30, SEPA Vice Minister Li Ganjie met with the visiting delegation from UNIDO led by Director General Dr. Kandeh Klloeh Yumkella. Minister Li welcomed the delegation. He noted that China was ready to work with UNIDO, further expand the areas of cooperation and make contributions to improving China's environmental quality, advancing the implementation of international conventions and protecting global environment.

Li said that over the past decade SEPA and UNIDO had developed desirable cooperation in many areas and achieved great results. UNIDO has provided strong support for China's environmental protection cause and played a vital role in helping developing countries including China to implement multilateral environmental agreements like the Montreal Protocol and the Stockholm Convention as well as to promote sustainable development. China's environmental protection work has entered a new stage in which environmental protection serves to drive economic growth. The Chinese government has put forward the important strategy of three transformations: a transformation from overstressing economic growth against environmental protection into paying equal attention to both economy and the environment; a transformation from environmental protection lagging behind economic development into synchronized advance of environmental protection and economic development; and a transformation from mainly relying on administrative instruments to protect environment into using legal, economic and technical means combined with mandatory administrative measures to address environmental problems. This marks a strategic and historic transformation leading the country to a correct direction.

Li Ganjie also highly appraised the cooperation in phasing out ODS and in the area of POPs and offered advice on furthering the cooperation. He expressed his wish for a mode of stable and long-term cooperation based on current cooperative efforts.

Dr. Kandeh Klloeh Yumkella first acknowledged the fruitful cooperation in the field of ODS and POPs and also wished to step up efforts to extend and expand cooperation with SEPA. Yumkella raised hope to have more extensive cooperation with China in the field of product quality, food safety and renewable energy.