The Foreign Economic Cooperation Office of Ministry of Environmental Protection of China (hereinafter referred to as the FECO) held the 2012 TCG meeting under the SIRE project, which was co-organized and implemented by UNIDO, in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, on November 12, 2012. During the meeting, the progress of the Stockholm Convention implementation was summarized, the hotspot issues and difficult problems on convention implementation were discussed, and therefore the interaction between domestic and international parties was promoted, and the experience exchanges and cooperation of convention implementation were boosted. This meeting was the fifth TCG Meeting under the SIRE project, and Yu Lifeng, Deputy Director of the National Coordination Group for Stockholm Convention Implementation (hereinafter referred to as the NCG), deputy Director General of FECO, presented at the meeting and delivered a speech.

In his speech, Yu Lifeng systematically summarized the achievements and progress of China's Convention implementation in 2012 in five aspects including the improvement of policies and standards, establishment of long-term mechanism of convention implementation supervision and management, steady progress of demonstration projects, deepening and expanding of publicity and training, and active promotion of the approval process of convention amendments. Moreover, he pointed out the tremendous difficulties and challenges of the Convention Implementation and hoped participants could continue to pay attention to and support the national POPs Convention Implementation and pollution prevention and control, and put forward suggestions for China’s follow-up work of carrying out the convention implementation through the experience exchanges and cooperation during the meeting.

Attendees of the meeting exceeded 130 including delegates from the international organizations - UNIDO, UNDP, UNEP, World Bank, UNITAR; member agencies of the NCG – Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and State Electricity Regulatory Commission; relevant departments of Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, Environmental Protection Bureaus of Provinces, Autonomous Regions and Municipalities, Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR; research academies and institutes and associations. Also journalists from tens of news media attended the meeting.

Three workshops were held on November 13 in the meeting including “PCBs Management and Disposal Technologies Communication”, “POPs Monitoring” and “Dioxin Pollution Prevention and Control Policies and Technologies”.