Even more importantly, it has put in place a national system, complete with trained Chinese experts, capable of implementing future cleaner production programmes on a major scale. Since 1993:

• China’s National Cleaner Production Centre (CNCPC) has been created;
• 600 people have attended cleaner production training sessions, with 150 professional staff now officially qualified in cleaner production auditing;
• a network of Chinese institutions has been established in cleaner production;
• 29 cleaner production audits have been carried out in 27 enterprises, resulting in: - annual economic benefits of US$2.9 million from the adoption of management or technology changes which required little or no investment; - pollution reductions averaging 30-40 per cent in the audited processes but reaching a maximum of 95 per cent; and - identification of technology changes requiring larger investments that could save more than US$215 million a year for an investment of US$200 million; ‘five policy studies have been completed that will help frame effective cleaner production policies in China; and
• the success of a major demonstration project carried out in partnership has had a substantial catalytic effect elsewhere in China.

The original project, called B-4 by the National Environmental Protection Agency of China (NEPA), was one of several included under a larger ‘umbrella’ environmental technical assistance project funded by the World Bank NEPA, the Industry and Environment Office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP IE) and the World Bank designed and developed the project, and NEPA implemented it. The World Bank loan of US$6.2 million to NEPA was provided to develop and test a systematic approach to cleaner production, to prove its potential in 25 to 30 companies, to develop cleaner production policies and to invest in the technology needed.Project B-4 is now acting as a springboard for additional bilateral and multilateral efforts to disseminate cleaner production more widely in China. The aim is to introduce the cleaner production approach to 3000 companies over the next five years-and the top 100 polluters in China will be the principal targets.