From November 29 to December 1, 2011 Asian Network Symposium for Preventing the Illegal Trans-boundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes supported by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) was held in Shenzhen. It was organized by the Basel Convention Coordinating Center for Asia and the Pacific and the Japanese Environmental Ministry. 37 representatives attended the symposium, including representatives from the Basel Convention contact point in 12 countries, regions and representatives from related international organizations, the Secretariat of Basel Convention and Basel Convention Center for Southeast Asia.
Inspector of MEP Division of Pollution Prevention Li Xinming, Yoshida from Division of Waste Management and Recycling of Japanese Ministry of Environment, Secretary of the Basel Convention Coordinating Center Prof. Li Jinhui attended the opening ceremony and made the opening speech. Participants discussed the issues covering the national laws and experience of progress in the performance of the Basel Convention, result of sharing of the 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, current situation of the recycling and disposal of hazardous and the environmental sound management in Asian countries, cooperation of Asian networks and other regional networks and so on.
The Asian network symposium to prevent the illegal transboundary movement of hazardous wastes is an informal information exchange platform hosted by the Japanese Ministry of Environment and funded by Japan. The secretariat was established and is now responsible for organizing activities. Since 2003, symposiums have been organized every year. Environmental authorities in Asian countries and relevant international organizations were invited to participate.