Dr. Alex Westlake

 Administrator Wang Xianzheng, Deputy Administrator Zhao Tiechui, SAWS, Mr Fan Weitang, Chairman of CNCA, distinguished guests and friends

Thank you for inviting me here today to speak at the inauguration ceremony for the National Institute for Occupational Safety. I am delighted to be able to attend. 

Occupational Health and Safety is a very important topic for the development of society and is also high on the agenda of boardrooms and key stakeholders like government. So I think it is very timely for the National Institute for Occupational Safety to be established. Indeed I strongly believe it is essential and makes good commercial sense to introduce a strong safety culture all the way from top management to the shop floor. 

In the UK, there has been a steady and ever increasing focus on occupational health and safety in the past decades. Today the latest statistics from the Health and Safety Executive for 2002-3 show that the fatal workplace accident rate is down to 0.79 per 100, 000 workers or 226 in total. For 2000, the last year that EU-wide data is available, the UK ranked second safest in Europe so it is clear that the UK has a lot to offer in terms of how to manage risks and develop a safety culture in the workplace. Indeed when Premier Wen Jiabao visited the UK last month, enhanced bilateral cooperation was announced through the formation of UK-China Taskforces. I was involved in the formation of the energy taskforce proposal and one of the key priority areas was safety so I hope to build upon this with you in the coming months and years.

IT Power has worked closely with the China Coal Information Institute since the opening of our Representative Office here last year. We have supported the excellent conferences it organises and also we are currently working on a project to develop a Clean Development Mechanism methodology for the utilisation of Coal Mine Methane. CMM Utilisation schemes can lead to both climate change benefits and also safety improvements as coal mine methane, which can lead to explosions, is better managed and used as a resource. The Project is supported by the Cleaner Coal Technology Transfer Program of the UK Government's Department of Trade and Industry and is seen by them as a good example of cooperation between UK and China. CCII has demonstrated its excellent capacity to undertake such international cooperation projects and I hope that this cooperation can continue going forwards, including in its new role in occupational safety.

Distinguished guests, it has been my pleasure to speak here today at this event. I would like to wish the National Institute for Occupational Safety every success and I look forward to supporting you in the future. Thank-you.