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China will Bring Yangtze River and
Huanghe River under Control
Mr. Zeng Peiyan, Minister of State Development Planning said on September 23, 1998 that China's unprecedented floods experienced this year shall be attributed to the damaged ecological environment in addition to climatic reasons. Reconstruction after the catastrophes, construction of hydraulic projects and improvement of ecological environment are the fundamentals to work on in next few months for enhancing flood control capability.
It was briefed that China will see large scale tree and grass growing activities in the middle and upper reaches of Yangtze River and Huanghe River so as to improve the ecological environment along the river sides. It will fully suspend felling of natural forests in the river valleys and vigorously advocate for afforestation. Its future 20 or 30 year afforestation efforts will make the forest coverage in the valleys doubled. It will also expand and reconstruct ground vegetations and practice integrated management in limited areas. High standard artificial pastureland will be created so as to keep 60% of soil erosion and desertification under control in a ten year period. Strengthen the remolding efforts to change slopes of 25 degree or less into terraced fields. De-afforestation will not be allowed to any extent and the slopes of 25 degrees or above be gradually restored to forested ones.
Trunk and tributary projects will be constructed so as to extend flood divergence capacity in middle and lower reaches of the rivers. Flood prevention shall be managed in the spirit of taking due consideration to both flood diversion and water storage with the former as the mainstream target. Rationalize the planning and construction of trunk and tributary control projects. No new lands shall be created through river filling. Excessively reclaimed land shall, when conditions permit, gradually be flattened for flood diversion or become part of the river again. Flood diversion and storage zoning plan for the lower and middle reaches of Yangtze River shall be revised.
In the future, China will construct high standard flood control dams and make vigorous efforts to clean rivers and lakes with the priorities on major rivers systems such as Yangtze River and Huanghe River. In the meantime, more attention should be paid to the construction of flood control dams for secondary rivers and lakes. Dam construction quality shall be ensured. Large scale mud cleaning efforts shall be made in major rivers and lakes along with dam constructions so as to remarkably enhance flood control capacity and safeguard people's life and properties along the river sides .
Three Major Objectives for
Ministry of Information Industry
Recently Mr. Wu Jichuan, Minister of Information Industry has defined three major missions for the development of China's information industry as follows:
1. Establish a complete, unified and advanced national public information network. On the basis of existing telecommunication trunks, establish an information application system integrated with different information application businesses through collaboration, joint venture and joint transformation. In the meanwhile , China will take full advantage of this network to promote the prosperity and development of telecommunication and information market through competitive mechanism and in the framework of relevant laws and regulations.
2. Establish a technical and production system capable of supporting information development so as to make research and development of China's information technology and infrastructure construction established on the basis of domestic made equipment with its own patent technology. The current urgent task is to establish a competent and powerful national team through strategic industrial restructuring.
3. Accelerate the development of information service industry. Vigorously develop information applications and take advantage of its catalyst role. Establish information application systems for major economic and marco management sectors. Vigorously promote the development of electronic commerce and establish MPP computer system and different public information databases so as to merge static and independent information sources into network information resources. Strengthen in-depth information processing.
Fast Growth of China's Comfort Residential Areas
Thanks to the fast growth of comfort residential areas in the country, a group of demonstration areas and products and components have been granted with the trade mark of “Comfort”.
Project of "2000 Comfort Urban Residence S&T Industry" is an important national S&T priority listed in the 9th Five-Year Plan. Since it was kicked off with the approval of former State Science and Technology Commission on March 1995, there have been 78 demonstration areas approved with their planning and designing schemes and 35 under construction with a total construction area for 2.38 million m2 and completed area 1.4 million m2. These demonstration areas have attracted a fine market response with 708 components granted with technical recommendation; in the field of scientific and technological development, 25 key technologies in 6 fields have seen breakthroughs.
To ensure the smooth implementation of comfort project, Ministry of Construction has registered Comfort Residence and Comfort Residence Products as trade marks at State Bureau of Industry and Commerce in 1997 according to trade mark law. There are 16 comfort residential areas and 64 manufacturers granted with the use right of "Comfort"rade marks.
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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION |
China Absorbing Foreign Capital for Afforestation
Facing the declining water level of floods, Dongtinghu Lake will witness a large scale afforestation to keep its soil and dams from erosion and floods. The afforestation project with 60% of its financial support coming from Germany will realize 30,000 hectare afforestation in 5 years.
The Second Meeting of China-Germany Cooperation on Ecological Environment Transformation in Dongting Lake Area has made the decision to kick off the full implementation of the project. Hunan Provincial authorities in charge of forestry told that this is only an example showing China's intensified efforts to introduce foreign capital to accelerate its forestry development. China's forestry industry has just started its foreign capital absorption process.
In 1992, German Government promised the Chinese Government for an annual donation of DM 60 million to protect China's environment with 40% of which being used for tree planting especially for the socalled three north wind breaks (northeast, north and northwest) and tree belts along the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Up to date, the funds have been used for tree planting in ten provinces or autonomous regions such as Shaanxi, Hunan and Ningxia.
According to incomplete statistics, China has promoted its active bilateral cooperations with many countries such as Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Finland, Netherlands and etc with a total investment of about US＄ 400 million in China's forestry and associated industries.
In the meanwhile, World Bank has also provided about US＄ 800 million afforestation loans to China. With the help of this loan, China has completed "China National Afforestation"and ongoing project "Forest Resources Development and Protection"that will grow 620,000 hectares fast growing trees in 16 provinces or autonomous regions and create 280,000 hectares of forest wind breaks along the middle reaches of Yangtze River.
New Space Technology Cooperation
between China and France
With the support of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and French Space Agency, Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station of CAS and France based SPOT and IMAGE jointly established Beijing Shibao Satellite Image Co. on September 23, 1998. The joint venture will take advantage of France's satellite technology and China's ground system and be responsible for distributing and marketing SPOT satellite data received by Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station to Chinese users.
French SPOT satellite is so far one of two mainstream resources satellites with extensive applications in the world. One of its applaudable features is high ground resolution (full color wavelength may reach 10 m), capable of viewing tiny things that cannot detected by other satellite systems such as small streets and rivers. Its another feature is rational wavelength selections that make its applications for mapping, urban planning, floods and forest fire monitoring, agriculture, forestry, military and other areas possible.
The establishment of the joint venture will facilitate Chinese users to access to SPOT products at reasonable prices.
Chinese and Foreign Experts on Biological
Protection and Management in Lhasa
International Symposium on Biodiversity Protection and its Management in Tibet co-sponsored by Forestry Department of Tibetan Autonomous Region and World Wildlife Funds was held on September 20, 1998 in Lhasa with the presence of 80 and more participants from both home and abroad and some international organizations.
Unique topography and terrains of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its complicated ecological system have made Tibet possess rich biodiversities in which international experts believed that most integrated wildlife resources have been kept. Its rich natural resources have not only nurtured Tibetan people but also provided guarantee for the survival of peoples living in southwest China and southeast Asian countries for it is the origin of many renowned rivers in the region such as Hu anghe River, Yangtze River and Meigong River. In this context, biodiversity protection in Tibet is of special global importance.
Participants discussed protection priorities in Tibet and associated actions. The priority areas so far proposed are Qiangtang Nature Reservation, Zhumulangma Peak Nature Reservation, Yaluzangbu River and its adjacent areas and three river valleys.
Domestic Made GIS Software Verification
Ministry of Science and Technology revealed the result of GIS software verification on September 21,1998 in Beijing. The institutions who have been supported by national programs on attacking difficult S&T issues during the 9th Five-Year Plan period have made the average annual growth rate of GIS output up nearly 300% . Random investigations have shown that domestic GIS software installed in computers have accounted 25% of the total, becoming a weighted force in the market.
As shown by the verification, Chinese made GIS software have demonstrated a competitive application perspective, especially those made by China Geology University (basic and mapping software MA- PCARD), Shenzhen Yadu Graphic Software Co. Ltd. (GROW), Founder Group (Founder Intelligent Mapping) and Wuhan Surveying and Mapping University (GEOSAN).
Eight Software Industrial
Bases in China
It is reported that China's Torch Program has achieved fast growth for the construction of its software industrial bases. China has seen eight software industrial bases being created in the country one after another. They are Dongda Software Park, Qilu Software Part, West Software Park, Chuangzhi Software Park and software development bases in Beijing, Tianjin, Hubei and Hangzhou respectively. There are about 45 major enterprises and numerous small ones working for these bases with a total output value amounting to 4 billion yuan last year with a per capita record for 320,000 yuan/year.
National Copyright Protection
Center Established
China opened its national copyright protection center on September 22, 1998 to protect itself from copyright infringement.
It is reported that the Center will take over some of the functions of former State Copyright Administration. Its major business scopes are copyright agent and facilitate legitimate copyright trading activities both at home and abroad. It will also provide services for copyright consultation, dispute mediation and lawsuit filing.
So far there are 30,000 writers who have registered in the Center for the protection of their legitimate rights.
Yu Youxian, Director of State Copyright Administration said that since China became a signatory country of international convention on copyright protection and published its own copyright laws, people in the country have become increasingly aware of copyright protection and legal and administrative system on copyright protection have been further improved. This is a major progress in China's efforts curbing copyright infringement.
It is reported that China Copyright Agent General Corporation, China Software Registration Center and China Copyright Use and Loyalty Center will be placed under the Center's jurisdiction.
Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:Mr. Dong Jianlong, Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road Beijing 100862, PR China Tel: (8610)68512650 Fax: (8610) 68512594, or Mr. Wang Jianping, Editor,NEWSLETTER, 15 Fuxing Road Beijing 100038, PR China, Tel:(8610) 68515544 Ext. 2921 |
