Wang Dexue, vice director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), said the government had reinforced its emergency rescue teams in all industries, improving their ability to handle accidents and disasters considerably.

At a seminar on emergency work safety administration here on Thursday, Wang ordered major enterprises in high-risk industries to establish their own professional emergency rescue teams.

Statistics from the SAWS show that over the past 16 months, emergency teams rescued 27,967 people at sea. In 2006 fire fighters rescued or evacuated 30,140 people from dangerous situations, while fishing administrative departments saved 3,932 fishermen.

Wang said the SAWS would join with large enterprises to push forward the construction of state-level emergency rescue bases, and equip rescue teams with state-of-the-art equipment, including salvage ships, rescue aircraft and fire-fighting vehicles.

Wang also called for the establishment of emergency rescue centers in all provinces in the next two years, saying only 11 provinces had such rescue centers at present.

The centers could coordinate rescue efforts by mobilizing staff and material resources.

The SAWS earlier set a goal to establish more than 70 percent of provincial emergency rescue centers within the year.

Eleven provinces had already included the establishment of emergency rescue centers in this year's government plan.

Wang instructed other provinces, including Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Zhejiang and Anhui, which did not have plans, to draft them before the end of July.