In the year 2000 the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (IMELS) launched the Sino-Italian Cooperation Program for Environmental Protection together with the State Environmental Protection Administration of China (SEPA). The goal was to help China to improve her environment, support her sustainable development and promote the cooperation between enterprises of the two countries. In the following years, the Italian side has expanded the cooperation to other Chinese government bodies and acdemic institutions, Universities-- Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, the Shanghai and Tianjin Municipality, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China, the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) and the State Forestry Administration (SFA)..