Shandong delimits chemical investment projects 'hard bar'

At present, all chemical parks and specialized chemical parks in Shandong Province have been identified and announced, and chemical investment projects have a carrier to undertake. The General Office of the Shandong Provincial Government recently officially issued the Regulations on the Management of Chemical Investment Projects in Shandong Province (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations). It is clear that the investment projects of chemical fixed assets such as new construction, expansion, renovation and technological renovation in Shandong Province in the future should strictly abide by the three principles of advanced nature, safety, environmental protection and intensiveness, and in principle. They should be implemented in the chemical industry parks, specialized chemical industry parks and key monitoring points identified by the provincial government. According to the requirements of the national industrial policy, Shandong Province supports the development of incentive projects, strictly controls restrictive projects and strictly prohibits the elimination of projects. It is proposed in the Regulations that environmental impact assessment and safety production evaluation should be carried out in chemical investment projects to ensure that safety and environmental protection facilities in investment projects are designed, constructed and put into operation at the same time as the main projects. All parts of the province also need to strictly comply with the requirements of intensive gathering, actively promote chemical enterprises into the park, encourage upstream and downstream collaboration between enterprises, build a chain to strengthen the chain, restructure and enhance capacity integration.

The Regulations clearly stipulate that chemical investment projects should be implemented in the chemical industry parks, specialized chemical industry parks and key monitoring points identified by the provincial government in principle, and conform to relevant planning such as territorial spatial planning and industrial development planning. The investment in fixed assets of newly built chemical projects for the production of hazardous chemicals is not less than 300 million yuan in principle (excluding land costs). In order to encourage high-end development, projects listed in the Catalogue of Guidance for Industrial Structure Adjustment and Catalogue of Guidance for Foreign Investment Industries that are encouraged and relocated to the park may not be subject to the above-mentioned investment limits.

Insisting on adapting measures to local conditions and projects, Shandong Province does not engage in "one-size-fits-all" policy. It stipulates three types of situations that can be implemented or not entered into the park in situ, namely, environmental pollution control projects, hidden safety hazards control projects, bromine extraction from seawater or brine, new large-scale metallurgical projects supporting coking and gas-making projects, chlorine-alkali enterprises'chlorine and hydrogen consumption projects. Organic fertilizer and microbial fertilizer manufacturing, cosmetics manufacturing, rubber products industry except tire manufacturing, and chemical investment projects in the category of EIA in the List of Classified Management of Environmental Impact Assessment of Construction Projects are reported forms and registration forms.

Shandong Province has imposed strict restrictions on newly-built projects of highly toxic chemicals to ensure that only a reduction in production of highly toxic chemicals will be achieved without an increase in production enterprises.

According to the special action plan of transformation and upgrading of safety production in chemical industry for five years, in December 2017, the provincial government promulgated the Provisional Regulations on the Management of Chemical Investment Projects in Shandong Province, which is valid until the end of this year. "Compared with the Interim Provisions, the Provisions implement the requirements of the reform of"putting in custody"and actively decentralize the authority of examination and approval." Relevant leaders of the Provincial Special Action Office for Chemical Industry pointed out that the approval and filing organs at all levels implement the graded management of chemical projects according to their respective responsibilities. New chemical projects involving "two key points and one major" will no longer be jointly audited at different levels, thus effectively speeding up the implementation of the project.