China has called on mining and manufacturing companies to dramatically raise spending on workplace safety measures to cut industrial accidents that kill more than 16 000 people annually, state media said yesterday.

China?s top safety watchdog outlined its goal of spending 467 billion yuan ($59 billion) over the next five years, with about three-quarters to be paid by companies and the rest from the government, Xinhua news agency said.

In their race to make profits and feed demand in China?s booming economy, mines and factories have often given little attention to workplace safety.

China?s coal industry, which supplies 70 percent of the country?s energy needs, reports fatal accidents nearly every day,and has the distinction of being the world?s most dangerous, with about 6 000 lives lost in 2005.

In its first ever five-year plan (2006-2010) on work safety, the State administration of work safety has pledged to reverse the situation by safety upgrading, training and monitoring.

?Some local governments and enterprises failed to balance between work safety and economic development,? according to the plan, posted on the watchdog?s Web site (www.chinasafety.gov.cn). ?They tend to be obsessed with growth while overlooking safety.?

It aimed to reduce the deaths from industrial accidents by 35 percent by 2010 for every 100 million yuan of gross domestic product, Xinhua said. In coal mines, the government target is to reduce fatalities by 25 percent for every million tons of output.

The plan did not set specific spending targets for individual sectors or companies even as it recognized the enormity of the challenge.

?Rapid economic growth will further strain the supplies of coal, electricity, oil and transportation, posing fresh and even bigger work safety challenges,? the plan said.

The plan also noted that more than 25 million Chinese workers, mostly migrants from the large pool of surplus labour in the countryside, were exposed to occupational hazards such as dust, poisonous materials and noise. ($1=7.968 Yuan)