Tsinghua-Veolia training program kicks off

The Tsinghua-Veolia Environment and Urban Management Advanced Program, a training program for Chinese officials, held the opening ceremony for its 2012 seminar at the Tsinghua University in Beijing on Sept 21.

Fourteen trainees from 10 municipalities and provinces, including Tianjin, Shandong, Guizhou and Henan, attended the ceremony. Most of the trainees are municipal officials in charge of environmental protection issues.

Launched in 2008, the five-year program comprises annual seminars, forums, training and on-the-spot investigations. The program is co-sponsored by the School of Environment of Tsinghua University and Veolia Environment Group China, which deals with areas ranging from wastewater to toxic waste.

"With the growing concern surrounding economic development and environmental issues, China is constantly enhancing its capacity for environmental protection to avoid repeating the mistakes that industrialized countries made, which was to apply remedies after the destruction. Faced with this challenge, China chooses to develop a circular economy and adopt a win-win pattern between environment and economy to achieve leapfrog development," Professor Du Pengfei, Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University said at the opening ceremony.

"To further boost the concept of environmental protection and sustainable development among senior urban management in China, the School of Environment at Tsinghua University and Veolia Environment China have launched and co-sponsored the EUMAP to help Chinese urban management officials learn environmental management techniques and advanced technology from developed countries," said Liu Shuming, assistant to the dean of the Tsinghua's School of Environment.

The organizers invited senior officials from Chinese ministries and commissions, experts from Tsinghua University, and other national academic institutions and prominent European environmental and municipal experts to deliver lectures in Beijing and in several other cities, including Paris and Lyon in France.

"A number of site visits have also been arranged to help enable the trainees to have a comprehensive understanding of how developed countries carry out environmental protection and urban management tasks to ensure sustainable development," said Zhang Hong, vice president of Veolia Environmental Services Asia Communication and Public Relations.

She said the participants in the training program will take part in seminars and symposiums during the training, in a bid to combine theoretical study and site tours with the actual environmental problems in China.

Tsinghua University and Veolia Environment founded in 2010 the Joint Research Center for Advanced Environmental Technology to further their cooperation on environment protection research.

Veolia has invested nearly $2 billion in China in the past 10 years and operates over 60 water disposal, water conservancy management and energy source projects in 41 cities in China.

As the leader of the global environment industry and global environmental protection services, Veolia Environment employs 300,000 people and has operations in 80 countries in five continents.