Governor of China's coal-rich Shanxi Province, Yu Youjun, apologized on Monday for the major
coal mine accidents in 2007 and the province's failure to fulfill
its energy-saving target.
The governor said on average 80 people died in the production of
every 100 million tons of coal in Shanxi last year. This was down
from 98 in 2005 and also below the national level.
"However, major mine accidents are still happening," he said."
The accidents in July and November resulted in great loss of life
and property of people." Yu made the remarks while delivering a
report on the work of the government at the Shanxi provincial
people's congress.
In July 53 people were killed in a blast at the Linjiazhuang
Coal Mine of Lingshi County. In November 34 miners died in a fire
and 24 others lost their lives in a gas explosion.
The governor also apologized for the failure to fulfill the
energy-saving target. Shanxi had planned to reduce energy cost per
unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 5.6 percent in 2006. But
only a 2 percent decrease was achieved.
"As the leader of the provincial government I shall take the
responsibility for the failure and I feel restless to a great
extent," Yu said in a sincere tone. "We must take more effective
measures this year and achieve remarkable results," he said
firmly.
Participants to the congress applauded the apology from the
governor. It's not common for such a high-ranking official to say
sorry openly in China. Sources told Xinhua that Yu had proposed to
apologize for these issues while the province's top officials were
discussing the draft of the report.
Shanxi has been closing small and dangerous mines in the past
two years and is expected to have only 3,200 by June. There were
9,000 at one time.
In 2006 the Shanxi government fulfilled all their targets except
for energy-saving set at the provincial people's congress early
last year.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2007)