The move will release some two million square meters of land and reduce pollutants by 5,000 tons a year, said Yang Anjiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, at a workshop on relocating industrial enterprises.

The 40 enterprises to be relocated are mainly engaged in the chemical industry and the production of machine tools.

The relocation of polluting enterprises dates back to 1985. As of January this year, Beijing had approved 189 transfer contracts involving relocation of industrial enterprises, according to Yang.

As a result of the relocation, the ratio of land space occupiedby industrial enterprises in the downtown area within the Fourth Ring Road dropped to 7.26 percent from 8.74 percent before the relocation project started more than 10 years ago.

Beijing Municipal government attaches great importance to the improvement of the local environment and in recent years, it has intensified its efforts in tackling environmental pollution.

In 1999, the city government put into effect measures on relocating polluting enterprises and speeding up the readjustment of the local industrial structure.

According to plan, the city will move another 150-plus enterprises out of the urban area by the end of 2005, releasing 4.2 million square meters of land.

The relocation of polluting enterprises is only part of the city's efforts to tackle its environment problems.

With a population of over 12 million, Beijing encourages the use of natural gas to replace traditional fuels like coal, for the purpose of reducing air pollution.

The first pipeline carrying gas from the northwestern province of Shaanxi to Beijing was completed in 1997 and construction on the second gas pipeline, from northwestern China to Beijing, will begin soon. Experts predict that by 2005, Beijing will consume three billion cubic meters annually.

Artificially-made coal gas will cease to be used in Beijing three years after that.

Beijing has always dreamed of building itself into a green metropolis and it vowed to host a "green Olympics" in 2008.

According to plan, Beijing will have over 30 nature reserves, with the forest cover rate in mountainous areas reaching 70 percent and exceeding 25 percent in plain areas by 2005.

It is predicted that by 2007, more than 90 percent of local waste water will be treated.

Beijing spent nearly 30 billion yuan (3.6 billion U.S. dollars) on environmental protection from 1998 to 2001, according to statistics.

Authoritative sources said that pollutants discharged by more than 5,000 industrial enterprises in downtown Beijing had met the standards set by the government by the end of May, 2000.

The ratio of land space occupied by industrial enterprises is expected to be below 6.6 percent in downtown Beijing, with a total of nine million square meters of land freed up at the realization of all set targets regarding the relocation of enterprises.

(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2002)