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China Sets Goal of Reducing Coal Mine Deaths By 3.5 Per Cent in 2006

Posted on: Sunday, 5 February 2006, 12:00 CST

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Beijing, 5 February: China has set a goal of reducing coal mine fatalities by 3.5 per cent year-on-year in 2006, announced the head of the state work safety watchdog here on Sunday [5 February].

The country will also reduce the number of accidents by 7 per cent this year, said Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).

"Given the grave situation, we did not set an ambitious goal," said Li, adding "even this will take a great effort to realize."

Chinese coal mines are considered to be the deadliest in the world. China reported over 3,300 accidents which killed nearly 6,000 miners in 2005.

Li said China will strengthen the work safety management in all kinds of coal mines this year, especially in the large state-owned coal mines. More efforts will be made in preventing underground coal mine flooding and gas explosion, he stressed.

According to SAWS, China will take declining of the death rates in coal mines, traffic accidents and other production accidents as an important measure in examining the work of local authorities in 2006.

Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile

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