“According to the regulation on environmental impact assessment (EIA) Waiver List (pilot) of on-going project issued by Yichang Free Trade Area (FTA) of China (Hubei) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the microbes reagent program proposed by your company is entitled to enjoying exemption rights of EIA examination and approval as well as environmental protection acceptance check...” On May 23th, Yichang FTA had exempted the construction project EIA examination and approval for the first time, issuing Hubei’s first EIA waiver to Hubei Jingrui Tianheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd.

　　Taking FTA industry orientation, environmental capacity and environmental constraints into consideration, Yichang FTA Administrative Committee and Yichang Environmental Protection Bureau launched the construction project EIA negative list and waiver list in March this year according to the relevant laws and regulations as well as policies. Any project included in the negative list will not be granted environmental examination and approval while those included in the waiver list don’t need that.

　　Among the “waiver list” are mainly infrastructure construction, social services, electronic assembly and food, simple assembly in biomedicine and compound. These projects are generally characterized by small environmental impact, controllable environmental risks and mature environmental protection measures. While the construction projects included in the negative list will be under the implementation of “one-vote negation system”. Investment sectors can’t invite EIA in principle and other functional departments are not allowed to handle examination and approval.

　　“It is very convenient! It has quickened production progress by saving at least a month for our enterprise. Now we are more confident in our investment in Yichang.” Qin Xiaoyuan, assistant to general manager, could hardly hold back his excitement after receiving the notice. It is reported that it will be much easier for the follow-up enterprises to enter FTA as the system is further optimized.

　　No need to get examination and approval is not equal to noregulation. “As for the projects included in the waiver management, we will strengthen in-process and post regulation.” Hu Xueli, Chief of branch regulation section of Yichang Environmental Protection Bureau in High-tech Zone (FTA) said that “Once we discover illegal acts such as incomplete pollution control facilities and excess emissions, we will severely punish them by the law. If the enterprise is involved in serious environmental pollution events, it will be transferred to Public Security Organs.

　　Wu Hao, deputy director of Yichang FTA Administrative Committee, said: “Through these measures, we have transformed our mode from examination-focused type to supervision-focused one.” This has not only effectively promoted enterprises to actively undertake environmental responsibility, but also significantly reduced enterprises examination and approval time and institutional transaction costs, which has greatly enhanced the sense of gains of market entities.” (Reporter Gao Wei, Zhang Silu, correspondent Zhou Tingting)