A senior Chinese official is urging local governments to fully take advantage of their own, unique situations to help speed up eco-environmental construction. 

Director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), Xie Zhenhua, says building eco-environmental model provinces is an important step to realizing sustainable development.

He urges the governments to find a smooth road leading to balanced growth within the economy, society and environment.

At present, south China's Hainan, east China's Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces have launched efforts to become environmental models.

(CRI October 14, 2003)