Highlighting industrial companies' responsibilities

The 12th China Mining Congress and Expo （CMCE）, held in Tianjin on Tuesday, allowed senior government representatives, industry leaders, and economists to meet and voice their opinion on global mining companies and their responsibilities.

In a keynote speech on Tuesday, China's Vice-Minister of Land and Resources Wang Min urged both large multinational mining companies and small and medium-sized ones to develop a partnership with local governments and communities and work together for sustainable development in the region.

"Mining companies should take certain responsibilities when they make a profit from the area's resources," Wang told the CMCE gathering.

"The mining industry should help developing countries rid themselves of poverty."

Zhou Zixue, the Ministry of Information Industry's chief economist, said the mining industry has "a good opportunity to develop" along with the global economy and the integration of world markets.

In the midst of these fruitful achievements in production, technology, trade and international cooperation, Zhou said, the exploitation and utilization of mining resources has failed to meet environmental protection needs.

"We have to develop the idea of resource preservation and protection, as well as a responsibility in using mineral resources in a rational way."

People around the world are paying more attention to energy preservation, emissions reduction, and climate change, so China is making a greater effort to develop circular economy sectors, and is encouraging enterprises to sort and recycle their industrial waste in a "zero emissions" way, he said.

"The nation's economy is industrializing and marching toward a global market. We have to keep our responsibilities in mind and establish an eco-friendly, low-carbon developmental model."

Lu Xinyuan, the Ministry of Environmental Protection's chief engineer, also emphasized the ecological responsibilities of enterprises in another keynote speech.

"The balance between industrial development and ecological protection is regarded as one of the key missions in the national guidelines and mining controls," said Lu. "A series of policies have been developed to deal with resources abuse."

Technological innovation was another area of responsibility that was addressed.

"Advanced technologies cannot all be bought by companies," said Zhang Jing'an, a Ministry of Science and Technology official. "The solution is independent innovation. Through independent innovation we can change the 'made in China' model to a 'created by China' one."

In addition, Zhang said, "we can map out ways to solve the bottleneck problems in our economic growth."

Source:China Daily