CRI听力： China to Strengthen Production Safety

China says it will try to nip any potential dangers in workplaces in the bud to ensure production safety. This is a message conveyed in a press conference on the country's workplace safety on Tuesday. CRI's Zheng Chenguang reports.

Reporter:

Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Workplace Safety, says the overall situation for China's workplace safety is turning for the better since 2003, as the country has strengthened inspection over production safety. In 2007, the number of workplace accidents has seen a reduction of almost 33%, compared with the same period in 2002, and in casualties, an over 27% decline. But Li Yizhong also says many problems still remain. He says investigations revealed that some production accidents last year were due to negligence of duty among local inspection departments and management disorder in some workplaces.

He says these factors have become potential threats that might lead to future production accidents and should become the NO.1 priority for his administration to deal with this year.

"The cause for major accidents is the biggest potential threat. Eliminating one threat means avoiding one accident. This year is the year of eliminating potential dangers in workplaces for us. We will make great efforts to prevent major accidents from happening."

Wang Wei, vice minister of the Ministry of Supervision, also says as many "human errors" have led to production accidents in the past, the ministry will enhance its supervision over production management and punish those responsible in the future.

"While the Ministry of Supervision is actively engaged in the investigation and handling of major accidents, it has also executed its duties and responsibilities to uncover a number of cases involving negligence of duty and bribery among officials. In the future, we will not only strengthen our work but also establish closer cooperation with law enforcement to uncover more of such cases."

Wang Wei says investigations show that bribery and corruption were behind some of the workplace accidents in recent years, but relevant regulations and laws are already in place to provide legal basis and bring those people to justice.

Zheng Chenguang, CRI news