Xie Zhenhua, minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration, yesterday urged environmental protection departments at all levels to make their administration more open to the general public.

The central government regards greater transparency in government affairs as an important measure to make all levels of governments in the country more efficient, Xie said at a national teleconference on the opening of government administration related to environmental protection.

"Environmental protection is closely linked to the basic interests of the general public and requires the attention, support, participation and supervision of the public," he explained, speaking in Beijing.

He said greater and greater transparency in environmental management and information can push forward environmental protection in China.

In 2000, Xie's administration selected five county-level environmental protection bureaux - in North China's Tianjin, East China's Jiangsu Province, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Central China's Hubei Province and Northeast China's Liaoning Province - to make more transparent the collection of fines levied against polluters.

The transparency measures included publicity on the circumstances in which fines would be levied, the amount of the fines and how the money collected would be used.

So far, 13 provinces, 252 cities and more than 1,400 counties across the country have made public their systems of fines for pollution and their criteria for approving construction projects.

Xie said more government affairs would be opened up to the public, including local plans for environmental protection, information about environmental quality, and policies for environmental protection.

(China Daily October 11, 2002)