China-U.S.Cooperative Program On Work Safety

China is one of the largest coal producing countries in the world, and coalmine safety has always been a top priority of work safety in the country. Attaching utmost importance to mine safety, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council upgraded the State Administration of Work Safety from the deputy-ministerial level to the ministerial level in early 2005 along with greater efforts in safety enforcement, and have repeatedly laid emphasis on being highly responsible to the people to further enhance mine safety and prevent accidents. Overall, mine safety has been constantly improved, but the safety conditions of coalmines in China are still grave and faced with many challenges.

To better learn advanced experiences from abroad, the former State Administration of Work Safety signed an agreement in 2003 with the US Department of Labor (DOL) on cooperation in improving mine safety in China . This program is a major initiative in collaboration between the governments of China and the US in the field of work safety. Guided and coordinated by the Department of International Cooperation of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) and the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) of the US Department of Labor, the four-year program is implemented by the National Center for International Exchange & Cooperation in Work Safety(NCICS) of SAWS and the US National Safety Council (NSC). The program includes five tasks, namely, improving the mine rescue system; improving government capability of enforcement and inspection; improving legislation pertaining to mine safety; enhancing safety awareness of mine managers and miners and improving safety management and techniques; and developing a model mine – the Xinjing Mine of the Yangquan Mine Group. Both SAWS and USDOL believe training is an important way to enhance the safety awareness and skills of miners and improve the safety conditions of coalmines in China , and make training an important component of the program, which will deliver training of miners, mine managers, mine rescuers and government inspectors.

Under the SAWS leadership, NCICS, centering on the key tasks of SAWS, has been working effectively on the program by inputting the backbone of personnel with painstaking scheming and organization. The program has progressed in an all-round manner, achieving remarkable results for the past two years, during which time two groups of mine rescuers and government inspectors were sent to the US for training and technical visits and experienced experts from the US were invited to deliver miner and mine manager training in China . The training, especially the three sessions of mine manager training at the Yangquan Mine Group, was spoken highly of and favorably received. Mr Wang Tixuan, Chairman of the Yangquan Mine Group, recognized that the training delivered by the American experts had brought the Group a brand-new philosophy of safety management and provided valuable experiences that the Yangquan Group would learn to address its problems and improve its mine safety management. The program has achieved the results expected for the stage, which will strongly promote the improvement of mine safety in China .

With the support of the SAWS Department of International Cooperation and the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety (SACMS), NCICS held a meeting at the Yangquan Mine Group in November 2005 to review the progress of the program. Mr Zhao Tiechui, the SACMS Administrator, had his representative address the meeting, congratulating on the achievements made through China-US cooperation, highly evaluating the role of the program in promoting the development of the mine rescue system as well as in raising the level of mine safety training, inspection and enforcement in China, and speaking favorably of the NCIEC of its innovative work to ensure the operation of the program. And hopes were placed on future work, focusing on

· 　-adapting foreign advanced experiences to the actual conditions and needs of China ;

· 　-applying the advanced safety philosophy and experiences learned to actual work; and

·　-developing the Yangquan Mine Group into a model of mine safety and promoting it nationwide, so as to contribute to the constant 　　improvement of mine safety in China

The achievements of the program so far were highly valued by the SAWS and SACMS, as well as by the USDOL and NSC, based on which the USDOL will cooperate with China in a wider range of work safety and NSC has proposed to work more closely with NCICS to play a positive role in enhancing mine safety in China.