China has granted 176 genetically modified organism (GMO) biosafety certificates to domestic and overseas GMO research units since 2002, the Ministry of Agriculture announced on Friday.

Fang Xiangdong, deputy chief of the ministry's Biosafety Office of Agricultural GMO, said China had beefed up GMO administration since the government issued the national regulation on administration of agricultural GMO biosafety in 2002.

China's GMO biosafety administration covered more than 100 genetically-modified products.

Proposals must undergo five phases for a research unit to qualify for a GMO biosafety certificate, including laboratory tests, controlled environmental tests and production tests, Fang added.

The ministry has taken into consideration biosafety evaluation applications from nearly 60 domestic or overseas GMO research units, with 333 projects already in laboratory tests, 157 projects in environmental tests, and 141 projects in production tests, said Fang.

Under ministry rules, all activities related to GMO in China, including research, experimentation, production and importing, have to receive a biosafety evaluation.

Fang said China had established a range of laws and regulations on GMO biosafety evaluation, and local governments had also tightened biosafety administration.

To date, 28,000 GMO biosafety officials had undergone training on biosafety supervision, and 8,300 of them had executive certificates, said Fang.

The Chinese government has set new species GMO cultivation as a vital middle and long term scientific goal, Fang said. The Ministry of Agriculture would raise the priority of GMO development, so as to expand the use of modern technology in agriculture.

Source: Xinhua