Southwest China's Guizhou Province will make further efforts to increase its forest coverage in the next few years, a top local government official said yesterday.
　　Thanks to the establishment of a series of ecological projects in recent years - including forest conservation, water and soil conservation, irrigation works development and plant protection projects - the province's ecological system and environment have been greatly improved, according to Shi Xiushi, governor of Guizhou Province.
He made the remarks yesterday at the opening ceremony of the Asia-Europe Meeting Symposium (ASEM) on Forest Conservation and Sustainable Development in Guiyang, the provincial capital.
　　The four-day symposium has attracted more than 200 participants from 22 countries in Asia and Europe. "The symposium provides　a golden
opportunity for Guizhou to learn from cutting-edge techniques on forest conservation and sustainable development and will promote science and technology co-operation among Asian-European countries," Shi said.
Premier Zhu Rongji sent a letter of congratulations to organizers of the symposium on Monday, offering his strong support for the aims of the meeting.
　　Under the theme "hand in hand to build a green new century," the symposium will press ahead with the task of environmental and resources protection, Zhu said in the letter.
　　The symposium was set up at Premier Zhu's suggestion. He proposed a series of activities to strengthen science and technology collaboration among ASEM members at the Third ASEM which was held in Seoul in October last year.
　　The proposal for Science and Technology Co-operation on Forest Conservation and Sustainable Development, jointly proposed with Finnish President Tarja Halonen, has been accepted and written in the Third ASEM framework agreement.