China witnessed a decline in both the number of industrial accidents nationwide and the accident death toll in the first 10 months of this year thanks to intensified efforts in improving work safety, the government said Monday.

From January to October, 419,000 accidents were recorded, down 22.1 percent from the same period last year, and the related death toll amounted to 79,000 people, down 13.9 percent, said the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).

Coal mines accounted for 1,920 accidents, down 20.2 percent, with 3,069 deaths involved, down 19 percent.

"The overall situation of work safety remained stable and tended to improve," said Li Yizhong, head of the administration.

Meanwhile, over the past five months, 4.32 million safety risks were identified by government inspectors, of which 3.95 million were properly addressed.

In May, the administration launched a campaign to identify safety risks in 2.51 million major enterprises in the most dangerous sectors.

In a signed article released on Monday to mark the five-year anniversary of the Law of Safety Production, Li noted that China has scored substantial progress in industrial safety. "An atmosphere of taking care of lives and paying attention to safety is building up across the country," he wrote.

He said the leadership of the Communist Party of China has blended safe production into the scientific outlook on development and the goal of building harmonious Socialist society.

Twelve regulations have been promulgated to coordinate the supervision by central and local governments and amidst various industries. These measures, Li said, have helped get at the root of the chronic problem of industrial accidents.

SAWS figures showed that China's annual death toll from accidents has been declining faster over the past five years, from 1.7 percent year-on-year in 2001 to 11.2 percent last year.

The mortality rate for per 100-million-yuan GDP dropped from 1.33 in 2002 to 0.56 in 2006 while that for one-million-ton coal output fell from 4.94 to 2.04.

But Li maintained that the situations on industrial safety remained severe as the amount of accidents were still phenomenal. "Severe accidents still happened from time to time as some local departments were soft-handed when dealing with malpractice and closing down illegal production," said Li. "Deep-rooted and historical problems that constrained the improvement of industrial safety are yet to be resolved."

He urged relevant departments to keep sober-minded and make persistent efforts and rise to the arduous task ahead. The director said that China must uphold the rule of laws and strictly implement laws to rectify production orders. The public's awareness of safety production and social responsibility should also be enhanced.

When it comes to severe accidents, work safety supervising departments should team up with disciplinary and judicial organs to act in more coordinated manner to crack down on cover-up, lies and malpractice such as dereliction of duty, power-for-money deals and the collusion between officials and illegal trade, Li said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2007)