China reports fewer accidents and deaths in industrial
production in the first five months of this year.
In comparison with the same period last year, the country saw
decreases of 11.4 percent and 12.1 percent in the number of
accidents and death tolls from January to May this year, said Li
Yizhong, chief of the State Administration of Work Safety, at an
event in Beijing on Sunday to mark "safety work" month in June.
The number of cases in which the death toll was above 10 dropped
by seven while the number of major cases involving a death toll of
over 30 went down by four, said Li, who did not give an overall
figure as to the exact number of accidents or people killed in
industrial activities.
In light of an increased number of coal mine accidents during
May, Li called for greater efforts in executing work safety
responsibilities, improving the government department's role as a
supervisory organization and making work safety more
transparent.
In its 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), China set goals of
reducing fatalities by 35 percent for every 100 million yuan of
gross domestic product, and a reduction of 25 percent of fatalities
from production-related accidents for every 100,000 people working
in industrial factories and mines.
(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2006)
