Dual efforts to tackle the scourge of environmental damage are to be maintained by China and Germany as urbanization gathers pace.

The efforts will focus on technology that can limit the effects of mass migration and urban sprawl on the fragile environment.

That was the message from the 10th Sino-German Symposium on Environmental Protection held yesterday in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province.

Around 150 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from both countries attended the symposium. Over the past few years, China's growing urban population has posed a severe test to those leading environmental protection efforts, drawing widespread concern from national and local authorities.

"Governments at all levels have done a lot to tackle the problem by raising people's awareness and devising laws and regulations," said Lu Yingfang, director of the department of urban environment management division under the Ministry of Construction.

The Ninth Five Year Plan (1996-2000) period saw central and local governments investing 60.27 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion) in the disposal of urban wastewater - 2.8 times more than that of the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1991-95) period.

And the money put into the disposal of urban waste in that period also increased greatly, reaching 19.16 billion yuan (US$2.3 billion).

Lu said the government would allocate more money to safeguard the environment in the future by building more wastewater and waste disposal facilities. At the same time, more forms of fund-raising for environmental protection will be devised.

In the past 20 years, Jiangsu Province and North Rhine-Westphalia - the two regions that are most developed economically in China and Germany, have co-operated well in environmental protection.

Dozens of companies and enterprises from North Rhine-Westphalia have invested in Jiangsu and other parts of China, manufacturing environmental protection equipment and providing technologies needed for the purpose.

"We built the joint venture with a Chinese enterprise in 1997, developing and manufacturing wastewater treatment facilities, and our products have been well received and helped environmental protection in some areas," said Klaus Feilke, chairman of CONTEC Environmental Protection Equipment Co Ltd in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province.

He added that his company is planning to expand its business to Northwest China as the "go-west" campaign gathers pace and before the area is still not seriously polluted.

A number of German entrepreneurs flew to attend the symposium and spoke of their experience and methods of environmental protection.

At the symposium, entrepreneurs from both countries exchanged information and discussed possible projects for co-operation in the fields of technology, funds, equipment and personnel training.

This annual symposium has been held in Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu and Cologne alternatively since 1993 and has become a major channel of co-operation in environmental protection between the two countries.

(China Daily October 10, 2002)