China will cut all connections between environment impact assessment¹ (EIA) agencies and governments by the end of the year to ensure independent and fair project reviews, the Ministry² of Environmental Protection said Wednesday.

 

国家环保部周三表示，中国将在今年年底之前切断环境影响评估机构与政府之间的联系，以确保独立公正的工程项目审查。

 

A total of 337 EIA agencies once affiliated³ with local governments have disconnected themselves and set up independent companies or canceling qualifications while the remaining 13 agencies will have their qualifications canceled by the end of December, according to Huang Runqiu, deputy head with the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

 

In early 2015 all government-affiliated EIA agencies were ordered to terminate all official connections by the end of 2016 to avoid corruption⁴ and conflict of interest.

 

Eight EIA agencies disconnected their government affiliations⁵ in 2015.

 

China is now home to 984 EIA agencies and 19,700 EIA engineers, up 90 percent compared with 2010.

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