Brake time: Beijing bans 70pc of government cars to ease smog during Apec meeting
Restriction on what may amount to thousands of official vehicles designed to cut smog and ease traffic
Beijing has vowed to keep 70 per cent of its government cars off the roads for 16 days from tomorrow, to cut smog and ease traffic during high-level meetings ahead of the Apec summit.
The municipal government will impose the restriction on what may amount to thousands of official vehicles from August 6 to 21 as world leaders gather in the Chinese capital for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation’s third senior officials’ meeting.
"To make sure the air quality is good and the traffic is flowing during the meetings, [Beijing’s] municipal government decided that 70 per cent of cars from every level of the party and governmental offices and municipal state-run enterprises would stop running,” an official government notice said.
The notice also urged Beijing residents to take public transport, cycle or walk instead of taking cars. More than a million cars take to the city's streets each day.
Beijing, the country’s seat of power, had an estimated 62,026 official cars for its municipal departments and state-owned enterprises, as of the latest official figure from 2011, according to the Beijing Finance Bureau.
Apec is the biggest economic forum in Asia-Pacific region. The third senior officials’ meeting is the last comprehensive meeting in the run-up to the summit in November.
Beijing’s measures for this latest meeting would be a test for the efficacy of its preparations ahead of the prestigious summit, the notice added.
