SEPA to Evaluate Environmental Impact of Development    

As part of its bid to improve China's threatened environment, the State Environmental Protection Agency or SEPA has set to evaluate the environmental impact of development plans. The agency says it will assess five regions and five heavily polluted industries, as pilot projects for national practice.
   The regions include the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River where energy projects are densely located, the west coast economic zone of the Taiwan Straits, the economic zone along Beibu Gulf in South China, the Bohai Ring economic area in North China and Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone in Southwest China. The involved industries are steel, petrochemicals, power, paper making, and the coal chemical industry.
   Such pilot projects have already been carried out in ten regions and three industries in China, and industry insiders emphasize there's an urgent need to adopt environmental impact evaluations on regional and industrial development plans.