More than 1,000 people from China's toy-making industry attended government-sponsored training sessions on the quality and safety of export toys from Oct. 11 to 12. This is the Chinese government's latest effort to ensure sound quality of export toys.

During the two-day training sessions held in Guangdong, government officials and executives of transnational firms gave lectures on toy certificate systems and export test regulations and standards in China, the United States and Europe.

Toy makers, many from Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian and Hong Kong, were also taught on how to deal with lead levels and design flaws in their products.

China has come under the spotlight amid a spate of export toy recalls. The most recent recalls involved the US toy maker Mattel. This summer the American company staged three separate recalls of Chinese-made toys. Among the recalled toys, 87 percent were found to have loose magnets -- a design defect by Mattel itself -- and 13 percent contained excessive lead.

During the training, officials with the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, who co-sponsored the training, urged toy producers to tighten quality controls and develop their own brand names.

China is the world's largest toy manufacturer. The country exported 22 billion toys last year, about 60 percent of the world's total.

To improve product safety, China's quality watchdog has introduced national recall systems for unsafe food products and toys as of late August this year.

Meanwhile, the government has also launched a four-month nationwide campaign to improve the quality of goods and food safety, targeting farm produce, processed foods, the catering sector, pharmaceutical drugs, pork, imported and exported goods and other products closely linked to human safety and health.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2007)