The Chinese Government will inject more capital into the country's mining sector to promote safety and increase coal mines' comprehensive anti-disaster capacity, according to a source from the National Coal Mining Safety Supervision Bureau on Wednesday.
The safety situation of China's coal mining sector has now turned for the better, but its overall anti-disaster capacity went downward due to inadequate input, said Zhang Baoming, director of the National Coal Mining Safety Supervision Bureau.
Enterprises in the coal mining industry must allocate a certain percentage of capital for safety technical renovation in accordance with related rules and regulations, and must not lower the appropriation and input level with any excuse, Zhang said.
During the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05), the government will invest 768 million yuan (US$92.53 million) to help coal mines carry out 149 projects of safety technical renovation, he said.
Of this total, 559 million yuan (US$67.35 million) will come from the national treasury bonds or be fund subsidy from the central government's fiscal budget. And, the rest will be raised by mining enterprises themselves.
Next year, priority will be given to projects of ventilation, gas monitoring and rescue equipment in 63 national key mines in 19 provinces and regions, including Heilongjiang and Shanxi provinces.
(chinadaily.com.cn 12/21/2000)
