Chemical industrial parks are facing restructuring; the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is formulating plans for the relocation of hazardous facilities

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Chemical enterprises are being shut down and chemical parks are being regulated, with orders being issued one after another in various regions. 　　Reporters learned from the 2016 China Chemical Parks and Industrial Development Forum that Chinese chemical parks are set to undergo a major reshuffle, with stricter regulations being implemented; the situation where a chemical park is established in every town will no longer occur. 　　Pan Aihua, deputy director of the Raw Materials Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, revealed that the ministry is currently leading the development of a \"Work Plan for Promoting the Relocation and Transformation of High-Risk Hazardous Production Enterprises in Urban Areas with High Population Densities.\" A consensus has been reached on this plan, and it is now being submitted to the State Council. 　　Higher approval requirements for chemical industrial parks The chemical industry generates high output values and substantial taxes, serving as a key driver of GDP and fiscal revenue in many regions; it has always been highly sought after by various areas. 　　Since the beginning of this year, many provinces have begun to take tough measures to regulate the chemical industry and related industrial parks. 　　Since April, regions along the Yangtze River such as Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangsu have successively announced lists of chemical enterprises to be shut down. Hubei announced that since 2015, it has closed 150 enterprises with severe pollution problems, including some well-established chemical companies. Several chemical enterprises in Hubei, Jiangxi and other regions that were involved in illegal activities had their responsible persons taken away. 　　At the beginning of May, Shandong Province released data showing that there were 9,069 chemical manufacturing enterprises in the province, of which 63% were of small scale; there were 199 chemical industrial parks, with a 32.8% occupancy rate by chemical enterprises. The Shandong Provincial Economic and Information Commission stated that 422 chemical enterprises, as well as villages and schools, need to be relocated due to issues such as non-compliance with safety and environmental standards; so far, 651 chemical production enterprises have been shut down, and 2,157 enterprises have been ordered to make corrections. 　　On May 12th and 13th, leaders of dozens of chemical industry parks across the country, along with hundreds of chemical enterprises from home and abroad, gathered in Wuhan to discuss the transformation and future directions of the chemical industry and its parks. 　　Business professionals believe that there is no need to fear the chemical industry; human life depends on it, and the key is to ensure orderly regulation. 　　Reporters from 21st Century Business Herald interviewed the managers of some industrial parks in Shandong and Jiangsu, who generally said that “shutting down chemical enterprises is only a matter of rare exceptions, and it has little impact on them.” 　　For them, the main focus is on raising the requirements for attracting investments. The approach of rushing to develop chemical parks as quickly as possible is now a thing of the past, and the approval criteria for local authorities to establish such parks have also become stricter. The head of a chemical park in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River said at the meeting that there were issues with the approval process for his chemical park. 　　Wu Hao, an expert from the Hazardous ** Technology and Safety Research Institute of the China Academy of Work Safety, said that many chemical industrial parks were established in a hurry, without proper evaluations in terms of environmental protection, planning, and legal aspects. 　　“An investment of hundreds of millions is required; once half of the construction is completed, it turns out that the project cannot proceed due to non-compliance. ”Wu Hao suggests that local authorities **thoroughly study and comply with relevant regulations, especially in the context of current comprehensive governance efforts; it may even be advisable to consult professional lawyers. 　　30 billion yuan allocated for supporting the relocation of hazardous facilities. Reporters from 21st Century Business Herald learned from the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation that by the end of 2015, there were 502 key chemical industrial parks across the country, with industries centered on petroleum and chemicals; of these, 47 were national-level chemical parks, 262 were provincial-level chemical parks, and 193 were municipal-level chemical parks. 　　Nationwide, there are 8 super-large industrial parks in the petroleum and chemical industry with an annual output value of over 100 billion yuan, 35 large-scale parks with an output value ranging from 5 million to 100 billion yuan, and many more small and medium-sized chemical parks. Currently, the province with the most chemical industrial parks in China is Jiangsu Province, with 63 such parks, followed by Shandong Province with 52, and Hubei Province with 46. 　　Pan Aihua, deputy director of the Raw Materials Industry Department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, conducted research in Shandong some time ago and found that there are nearly 200 industrial parks in that province. The total number of chemical industry parks across the country is likely to be over 1,000. However, most of these parks are merely geographical clusters of chemical enterprises; many of them lack even fire stations or public corridors. In some parks, chemical enterprises are located alongside towns and villages, which poses serious risks in the event of an accident. 　　Yang Ting, secretary-general of the Chemical Park Working Committee of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, said that the problem of an excessive and scattered distribution of chemical parks has not yet been resolved; for example, out of the 13 prefecture-level cities in the Bohai Sea region, 12 have proposed the idea of establishing world-class petrochemical parks. In some prefecture-level cities, there are over a dozen chemical parks within just one city; in one county alone, the number of chemical parks exceeds 10. 　　Yang Ting suggested that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the approval powers for chemical industrial parks should be further tightened and regulated. It is hoped that, building on the \"Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Standardized Development of Chemical Industrial Parks\" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology at the end of 2015, a clearer evaluation system for these parks can be developed. At the same time, local authorities should integrate industrial planning and ecological planning into a single framework. 　　Another issue of concern to the industry is the relocation and renovation of hazardous enterprises following the \"8·12\" accident in Tianjin last year. 　　Pan Aihua said that relocation and renovation involve many challenges such as funding guarantees, personnel placement, technical equipment, and land replacement, leaving companies often eager but lacking the necessary resources. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has included projects for the relocation and renovation of hazardous chemical production enterprises among the areas eligible for support from special construction funds; more than 30 billion yuan in dedicated funds have been allocated to assist with the relocation of such enterprises. 　　An expert from Beijing University of Chemical Technology told a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald that shutting down and relocating chemical enterprises is very difficult, as it involves local fiscal revenues and tax collection, as well as the employment of local workers. Against the backdrop of overcapacity and declining profits in parts of the chemical industry at present, the relocation of hazardous facilities also requires substantial funds; small enterprises will face difficult times, which will inevitably lead to the elimination of a number of them – it is a process of selection based on merit, a sort of purification through survival of the fittest.