The Ministry of Ecology and Environment ("MEE") has recently drafted the Opinions on Effectively Guiding Enterprises Towards Environmental Compliance (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") to seek public comments by April 30, 2019.
The Draft for Comment states that environmental compliance training in various forms shall be conducted at least once a year among major pollutant discharge entities and the small- and medium-sized enterprises in distinctive industries, within the local administrative region, adding that compliance education shall be offered among the principals of enterprises and designed to give full play to deterrent effects of typical cases involving violations. Also, the Draft for Comment requires that category-based guidance and technical services for pollution prevention and cleanup will be provided to enterprises at different technical levels, according to their actual needs. In addition, enterprises are encouraged to entrust third-party specialized agencies with cleaning up pollution, and small- and medium-sized enterprises are supported in upgrading and transforming their production equipment and facilities, production techniques and technologies, and pollution cleanup technologies. Furthermore, the Draft for Comment emphasizes that guidance will be provided to the industry association on establishing the industry self-regulation and restraint mechanism, formulating and organizing the enforcement of "industry rules and provisions" concerning eco-environmental protection, and urging enterprises to fulfill their subjects' responsibilities. According to the pollutant discharge permits granted to enterprises, strong efforts will be made to promote the "one-permit-based" regulation.