China's prestigious Tsinghua University and world-known Liberty Mutual Insurance Group announced in Beijing Sunday to launch a joint research program on occupational safety in China.

The program will be dedicated to researching the human aspects of occupational safety in China and reducing occupational injuries. The result of the research will be published worldwide.

World-renowned experts on occupational safety will be involved in the program, which both Tsinghua and Liberty Mutual believe will contribute significantly to preventing financial and social burdens associated with occupational injuries in China.

"Occupational safety has become an issue which arouses great public concern in China. Liberty Mutual hopes to bring its 90 years of experience to China to accelerate the development of workplace safety research and consulting in China," said Tom Leaman, vice-president and director of the Liberty Mutual Research Center for Safety and Health.

The joint program will place Tsinghua University at the leading edge of global occupational safety development, said Guo Zengyuan, director of the Mechanical Engineering School of the university.

John Kimber, managing director of China Development at Liberty Mutual, said China will become the center of world economic growth, and carrying out a safety research in China will also benefit many other countries and regions.

Liberty Mutual Group is a diversified international group of insurance companies, which now becomes the largest workers compensation insurer in the world.

Since opening the first representative office in Chongqing, southwest China, in 1998, Liberty Mutual has carried out a number of cooperative activities in the area of occupational safety and health with other cities of the country. It has applied for an insurance license in China.

(Xinhua News Agency October 13, 2002)