A senior Chinese official has said China's coal industry is suffering from a lack of expertise.

Sun Huashan, deputy head of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), called for efforts to step up the training of special personnel in order to maintain a sustained and healthy development of the industry.

During a meeting on Thursday with the presidents of China's coal-mining universities and colleges, Sun said the lack of know-how and the low skills of the industry personnel are among the major causes of the frequent coal mine accidents over the past few years.

Poor infrastructure, inadequate management and insufficient input are also the reasons, he said.

The industry is facing severe shortages of professionals, Sun said. A survey on state-owned key coal mines showed engineering technicians account for only 3 percent of the total workforce, which stands at 5.52 million.

Low salary, harsh work and living conditions and poor safe production records are the main reasons why college graduate students who majored in coal mining shun away from the profession.

For example, only 17.2 percent of the graduates majoring in coal mining in China Mining University chose to work in coal mines in 2005, and this ratio is relatively high compared with other mining universities and colleges.

In Central China's Henan Province, one of the main coal producers, the coal mining industry has not been able to enroll a university graduate majored in coal mining since 1998.

Meanwhile, the province's industry lost 2,200 engineering technicians.

Many Chinese colleges have stopped offering mining-related majors due to a decreasing number of students choosing to study the subject.

A survey by China Coal Education Association showed China's coal industry needs about 120,000 talents by 2010. However, the country's current personnel supply can only meet less than 40 percent of the demand.

Source: Xinhua