During the program, Chinese researchers and government officials were trained on leading SCP policies and approaches with the objective of supporting broad implementation within China’s ‘Circular Economy’ initiative. The project Policy Reinforcement fOr Environmentally Sound and Socially Responsible Economic Development in China – PRODEV – is financed by the EU under its Asia Pro Eco Programme and is designed to build capacity for implementing integrated decision-making to foster environmentally and socially responsible economic development in China.

This phase of the project was a follow-up to a previous training program for municipal officials from Guiyang City, a large industrial centre of 3.3 million residents where SCP policies and measures are being piloted for broad application in China. As a ‘train-the-trainer’ program, this phase of the PRODEV project was designed to equip Chinese policy experts and government officials with knowledge of leading SCP policies and measures as well as the key lessons learned from the Guiyang pilot to support dissemination across China. Twenty officials and policy experts undertook the training.

An EU-Asia Mayors conference is also planned for March 2007 where the outputs of the PRODEV project and experience of Guiyang Municipality in implementing SCP policies in an Asian context will be communicated.

The project 'Policy Reinforcement for Environmentally Sound and Socially Responsible Economic Development in China (PRODEV)’ is sponsored by the Commission of European Communities within the Asia Pro Eco Programme.