The first half of the year has been the best period for air quality in Beijing in recent years, thanks to efforts on prevention and treatment of air pollution by authorities, according to director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection Shi Hanmin.

Over 60 percent of the days in the first six months of this year registered good air quality, 27 days more than the same period last year, Shi reported to the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress (BMPC) yesterday.

As such, the goal set earlier this year by the local government has been achieved.

As a result of the better air quality, Beijing did not witness sandstorms in the spring. And there were only two days when city residents suffered from serious air pollution, he said.

"The achievements come from various measures to control air pollution," the director announced at yesterday's conference.

The annual investment on environmental protection exceeded 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion), over 4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the same period.

The investment, which was fixed by the municipal implementing method of the Air Pollution Control Act, topped all of the municipalities, provinces and autonomous regions around China, according to Shi.

Meanwhile, these achievements in fighting pollution were also attributed to strict control of coal burning, automobile emissions, and gas waste pollution.

However, Zhang Yi, director of the urban construction and environmental protection working committee under the BMPC pointed out yesterday that more work needs to be done.

"The concentration level of total suspended particles is 373 micrograms per cubic meters, which is 80 percent higher than the national standard," Zhang said.

The heavy industry factories, high coal consumption and dust pollution caused by construction sites in Beijing are the most direct reasons for the high level of suspended particles, which have become the main pollutants in the capital.

As for problems put forward by top legislators, Shi vowed to continue to reduce the pollution caused by those factors.

(China Daily July 17, 2003)