Led by the state safety watchdog, 11 Chinese industry leaders in the energy and construction sectors have signed up to the World Safety Declaration.

PetroChina, Sinopec, China State Construction Engineering Corporation are among the companies to join 33 World Safety Declaration participants including General Electric, Unilever and Intel.

Liang Jiakang, deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety, said the commitment of the Chinese organizations demonstrated the desire across society for greater emphasis on work safety.

Signatories will adopt higher standards of work safety, draw experience from each other and report their challenges, progress and successes at the 18th World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in 2008.

The Declaration was initiated last year at the 17th World Congress on Safety and Health at Work by Dupont, a safety management consulting service provider operating in more than 70 countries and regions.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2006)