On April 2, SEPA Minister Zhou Shengxian met in Beijing with Eng. Magid George, the visiting Egyptian Minister of State for Environmental Affairs. Both sides exchanged views on environmental matters like drinking water safety, protection of biodiversity, emissions reduction and climate change.

First of all, Minister Zhou introduced the latest development of the country's environmental protection work. He said that with the economic growth and social advances, the government adjusts its guideline for domestic environmental issues in a new era and proposes three historical transformations, that is, first, to transform from emphasizing economic growth and neglecting environmental protection to paying equal attention to both; second, to transform from the fact that environmental protection lags behind economic development to making the former keep pace with the latter; third, to transform from protecting the environment mainly by administrative approaches to solving environmental problems through a combination of legal, economic, technical and necessary administrative means. According to this guideline, the government defined the working thoughts of "making progress in all sectors and laying focus on the priorities"for the moment and in the future, identifying the pollution control as the first priority and drinking water safety as the top task. Accordingly, the government proposes a strategic goal in its 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development to reduce the energy consumption of per unit GDP by 20%, and the total amount of pollutant discharge down by 10%. All this is needed for environmental protection efforts at home and for the country to fulfill its commitment as a party to the Kyoto Protocol. It also reflects the country's image as a responsible big nation.

Mr. Zhou said for the great undertaking to treat the pollution and protect the environment, we need not only to combine the efforts of all sectors in the country, but also to undertake extensive international cooperation and learn from the overseas experience and practices. As a big agricultural nation with over a thousand years of civilization, Egypt enjoys a long history in environmental protection and pollution treatment and possesses abundant experience. The two countries has had a good beginning in the cooperation in the environment field, and Mr. Zhou hoped that both sides could work together to enable the cooperation more practical and far-reaching.

Mr. George appreciated the Administration's close concerns with bilateral cooperation in the environment field. He said that Egypt might well learn from China's strategy to optimize the economic growth by protecting the environment, and hoped that both sides could communicate and cooperate on protection of drinking water, new energy, use of stalks, and so on, in order to promote the development of environment cause in the two countries.

At last, Mr. Zhang Lijun hoped the visit of friends from news circle of Russia would promote the bilateral environmental cooperation and benefit people of both countries. He announced that China would cooperate with Russia in this sector with amicable, cooperative, and responsible attitudes, so as to contribute to protecting the environment upon which mankind lives.

Finally, Mr. Pan hoped both sides could tighten the cooperation, carry out studies and pilot projects on environment and economics at the macro-policy level, and apply the theoretical findings and successful experience in a wider scope.

On behalf of the delegation, Li Jing, the visiting Managing Director of the US-based Bank expressed their appreciation for the Administration's attention to the cooperation in economic sector, and announced that the Bank would continue to pay close attention to the country's environment protection, hoping that both sides would undertake even far-reaching cooperation in the environment sector.