　　The Information Center of the Third Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress held a press conference at the Multifunctional Hall of the Median Center at 15:30 on Saturday, 7 March. Chen Jining, Minister of Environmental Protection, was invited to answer questions from Chinese and foreign journalists on "comprehensively strengthening environmental protection".

　　At present, the pressure of economic downturn is indeed increasing, and the task of ecological environment protection is also very arduous. To solve and balance the contradictions between them is indeed facing great challenges. I think, here, challenges are opportunities. We should deal with today's crisis in order to avoid the greater crisis of tomorrow. We should seize today's opportunity in order to create better development opportunities for tomorrow. Therefore, first of all, we can not go back to the old road of extensive development. The downward pressure of the economy is great, and environmental protection can not be relaxed.

　　Second, under the global competitive economic system, an enterprise should become bigger and stronger, especially stronger, not by protecting backwardness, but by improving production efficiency and relying on technological innovation. And its important push is to improve environmental protection requirements. Good economic policies are always conducive to environmental protection. Violation of natural law will ultimately violate economic law and be punished by economic law. On the other hand, I think we should see that environmental protection itself is also an important driving force for economic growth at present and in the future. Some representatives have put forward corresponding suggestions. In the next few years, China's investment in environmental protection will be in great demand, at the level of 8-10 trillion yuan. Moreover, this investment has not been duplicated and will benefit for a long time. It is a good driving force for economic growth. Our country's investment in environmental protection has gradually increased in recent years. You may notice that in the past three years, the whole society's investment in environmental protection has increased by about 100 billion yuan annually. What is the problem? The problem is that we mainly rely on government investment to solve the problem. The proportion of government investment is between 30% and 40%. This market has not been fully opened and social capital has not been brought into this market to drive our economic development.

Action Plan for Water Pollution Prevention and Control