OREANDA-NEWS. August 09, 2011. Chairman and chief executive of coal bed methane specialists Green Dragon Gas (LON:GDG) - Randeep Grewal - has been appointed vice chairman of a provincial government board in China, where the firm has operations.

He is the only non-Chinese member of this board based in Shanxi, mainland China.

The organisation is known as the 'Shanxi Association for Instituting Reformation and Creation' and is the provincial government's vehicle for overseeing the area's standard of living, business interests and social responsibility.

Grewal said today: "I am honoured and delighted to be chosen as the only non-Chinese participant in the association.

He added that he would work hard to promote and encourage local enterprise to work alongside the Shanxi provincial government in order to promote harmonious economic development.

"Green Dragon has, for some time, been focused on finding a way to safely and economically extract CBM gas in China that would not represent a potential risk to the environment.

"It has taken a number of years  to get it right, but now that we have, we can and will accelerate our investment in the region.

"As a foreign investor, it is the association's hope that Green Dragon might become an example for others."

The association was established in 2007 - part of China's central government's 'Harmony' initiative outlined in its twelfth five year plan, which strived to devolve responsibility for differing economic growth and social development between the large coastal cities with that of the inland provinces.

China's geology, whilst rich in coal bed methane, has complex subsurface faults and anthracite coals, which pose technological extraction challenges.