Li Yong says member countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region have invested 5.3b dollars to launch nearly 120 cooperative projects.
Chinese Vice Finance Minister Li Yong says the six member countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region have invested 5.3 billion US dollars to launch nearly 120 cooperative projects.
Li Yong made the remarks on Sunday at the Greater Mekong Sub-region Business Forum, which leads up to the start of Monday‘s GMS Summit.
Li Yong says GMS economic cooperation has supported poverty alleviation and development, as well as playing an active role in promoting regional economic integration.
The economic cooperation, known as the Greater Mekong Sub-Region system was officially launched by Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China in 1992.
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Premier Visits Flood-stricken Guangxi
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday visited Wuzhou in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a city ravaged by the worst flooding in 100 years last month.
Wen first visited the soldiers who were working to reinforce a major dike and thanked them for their contribution to safeguarding the people‘s life and property.
He also asked them to take care of themselves working under the high temperature.
When he was among the local residents and farmers whose houses or crops were damaged by the flooding, the premier asked the local officials to ensure supply of enough food, clothing and clean water to them.
Before leaving the city for Kunming in neighboring Yunnan Province to attend the second summit of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Economic Cooperation Program, Wen urged local officials to do their best and rely on the people to ensure the safety of the dikes.
Big floods following heavy rains have hit 26 towns in the city since last month, victimizing more than 1.27 million people and causing economic losses valued at tens of millions of US dollars.
from: Xinhua News
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Japan-Taiwan fishing talks opposed
2005-07-01 15:25:16
China has expressed strong opposition to talks between Japan and Taiwan on fishing issues.
Foreign spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Beijing Thursday that the Chinese Government is responsible for the protection of the legal rights of fishermen from both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
There is already a fishing agreement between China and Japan, and Taiwan is part of China, so China and Japan should act in accordance with this agreement, Liu said
If there were talks between Japan and Taiwan, he said, "It would violate the one-China principle and would not be in accordance with the rules of Sino-Japanese fishing industry agreements."
Liu also expressed unhappiness with Japan, for forcing Chinese fishermen to leave the Diaoyu Islands, a territory belonging to China.
He urged the Japanese Government to pay attention to the concern raised by the Chinese side and deal with the issue in a proper way.
It is reported that Japan and Taiwan plan to hold talks on their maritime disputes on July 29.
Yesterday Liu also appealed to Tokyo to put aside disputes and work on the joint development of oil and gas resources in disputed waters in the East China Sea.
The statement was in response to a report that Japan may be about to approve drilling by a Japanese company in the area.
Liu said neither side should take unilateral action until the dispute over the boundary is resolved.
He noted that putting aside disputes and pursuing joint development would not only help maintain stability in the East China Sea but would also mutually benefit both sides.
US-DPRK relations improving
China is looking forward to better relations between Washington and Pyongyang, Liu said.
According to Liu, Pyongyang‘s presence at an academic conference in New York this week is another sign of a thaw between the two sides, improving prospects for the restarting of nuclear talks.
Liu said that both the United States and the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea (DPRK) have signalled their interest in restarting the Six-Party Talks, a move China supports.
"We would like to see the two sides continue to move forward to create more favourable conditions and atmosphere for the talks," he said.
According to Liu, officials from the Chinese Embassy in the United States will also be joining the conference.
On a less positive note, Liu complained about US interference in China‘s relations with Israel after reports that the Israeli Government had called off an arms deal with China after pressure from the Americans.
He said co-operation between China and other countries not only brought direct benefits to the sides involved, but also helped maintain regional stability.
Liu called for the United States not to interfere or make irresponsible remarks regarding China‘s international affairs and told the superpower to give up its Cold War mentality and to stop creating obstacles between China and other countries.
Liu added that he hoped the "relevant party" could continue independent co-operation with China.
Meanwhile reports said a senior US lawmaker introduced legislation on Wednesday to discourage the European Union from lifting its arms embargo on China.
Source: China Daily
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China has new customs forms for air travellers
As of today all airline passengers passing through Chinese customs will have to fill out declaration forms.
The forms replace the old system of red and green lanes, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said yesterday.
"The reform is to safeguard the security of passengers as well as prevent goods threatening China‘s political, economic and physical security from entering the country," a GAC source said.
"We have put newly designed channels into use in major airports in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen for passengers to fill in their declaration forms," said the source.
Tables with space for 1,700 passengers an hour to fill out their forms have been installed at Beijing Capital International Airport.
According to the source, the new form is simple to fill in and will be handed out on flights, at customs inspection stations and by travel agencies.
He was confident that the new declaration procedure would not prolong customs procedures.
Passengers bringing animals or plants into China will now declare them only to customs. They used to have to declare them to both customs and authorities in charge of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine.
So far, the new policy applies only to airline passengers. If the new system is successful it will be expanded to cover land and sea travellers.
Every year about 50 million people travel across China‘s borders by air, accounting for one-sixth of the total border crossings, according to the GAC.
China stopped asking most passengers to submit declaration forms in the 1990s.
But more recently, as international terrorist activities have become more frequent, some criminals have smuggled weapons and drugs into China through customs.
Today many developed countries, including the United States, as well as developing countries, such as Brazil, ask entry-exit passengers to submit declarations.
(Source: China Daily)
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China to build experi-mental fusion reactor
A leading Chinese plasma physicist said Thursday China might build its own thermonuclear experimental reactor, which would be expected to supply sustained electricity for the world‘s most populous country.
While building their own sophisticated devices in thermonuclear reaction, Chinese scientists have already participated in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a testing step between today‘s plasma physics studies and tomorrow‘s electricity-producing fusion power plants.
The scientist, who has access to the ITER, said to Xinhua on condition of anominity, "The ultimate goal of the Chinese scientists is to build thermonuclear experimental reactors with their own efforts."
"International cooperative endeavors like the ITER make us keepabreast of the world‘s most advanced technologies," He said. "We‘re entitled to share all top-notch know-how once we enter the global consortium."
Using deuterium, which is in seawater, as fuel for reactions, a hydrogen plasma torus operating at over 100 million Celsius degrees will produce 500 megawatts of fusion power. The ITER, which means "the way" in Latin, is based on the idea.
All the commercialized nuclear reactors in the world were designed for fission, a process contrary to the ITER‘s fusion, and have to consume irrecycled mineral resources such as uranium and plutonium. Waste of fission reactors is radioactive while a fusionreaction is rather environment-friendly.
Chinese scientists started to develop a fusion operation torus four decades ago in mountains southwest of inland Sichuan Province.
In the late 1980s, the United States and Japan launched the ITER, which was joined by China in 2003. Among the six partners ofthe 10 billion-euro ambitious plan, the European Union will cover 50 percent of the total budget. The remaining five, the US, Japan,Russia, the Republic of Korea and China, will pay 10 percent each.
Since 2003, the Chinese team has mandated a batch of important missions. The ITER international coordinator, Japanese physicist Yasuo Shimomura said, "The work done by the Chinese is the most impressive."
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Plasma Physics is developing an Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), one prototype of the ITER.
The EAST, which costs 200 million yuan (24 million US dollars) and is scheduled for completion late this year, could operate at over 100 million Celcius degrees and produce electricity in a consecutive 1,000 seconds, which will be a world record.
"The EAST is the only prototype nearest to the ITER and will be unbeatable in at least one decade," an official with the CAS Bureau of Basic Research said.
After fierce diplomatic manoeuvers, the six partners agreed Tuesday in Moscow to construct the first ITER at Cadarache, near Aix-en-Provence, France, overriding Japan‘s competition for hosting the innovative reactor.
It is ready to start ITER construction and the first plasma operation might be in 2016. But the most optimistic estimation on first commercialization of ITER said it needs at least half a century.
After the deal was clinched in Moscow, Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Xu Guanhua said, "As China is short of energy, global research endeavors for energy supply solutions meetour strategic interest."
(source:Xinhua News )
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