Within the framework of the SWITCH-Asia project, the first Policy Tour to Europe for Chinese governmental officials working in the fields of resource efficiency and waste management was organized during the period from 6th to 12th May 2010 in Germany and Belgium. The key objective of this activity was to provide Chinese policy makers with practical experience and understanding of European policy and implementation state-of-play on the subject of sustainable production and development.

The delegation gathered Chinese officials from the MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), MEP (Ministry of Environmental Protection) and a representative from CIE (Chinese Institute of Electronics). The agenda consisted in a series of meetings and visits to a selection of European governmental bodies, institutes and businesses in Germany and Belgium, including the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety as well as the European Commission headquarters in Brussels (Directorate General Environment, EuropeAid Co-operation Office), Deutsche Telekom international headquarters, the German Council for Sustainable Development, the Wuppertal Institute as well as the Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP) and the SWITCH-Asia Network Facility. Headed by Mrs. Jutta Ludwig, the project management team from AHKB accompanied the Chinese delegates in order to ensure coordination and visibility of the Tour.

The agenda of meetings typically comprised an overview of the SWITCH-Asia project, its objectives and preliminary achievements, delivered by Mr. Igor Darbo, followed by presentations by the host organizations and free discussion sessions. Mr. Huang Jianzhong from the Department of Energy Saving and Resource Utilization in MIIT introduced the policy and legal framework for the development of sustainable development patterns in the People’s Republic of China and had open exchanges of views with the European host organizations on themes such as new policy trends in the field of e-waste treatment, the potential institutional uptake of the project Conformity Model and Chinese RoHS and WEEE regulations.

The Policy Tour raised awareness of European best practices and regulatory framework in the fields of eco-efficiency, OHS and CSR among Chinese policy makers and contributed to the on-going dialogue between EU and China on issues pertaining to sustainable growth. Follow-up activities will include exchanges of technical documents between Chinese policy makers and their European counterparts as well as regular consultation of the tour’s delegates by the project team at each key stage of implementation.

Below is an overview of the visited European organizations (with links to their respective website):

EuropeAid DG Environment