IN BRIEF (Page 10)

Agricultural logistics center

The construction of an international logistics center for agricultural products has started in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

With a total investment of 1.84 billion yuan, the center will trade in fruit, vegetables, frozen food, dried goods, tea and hotel supplies. It also includes a processing and distribution center for certified agricultural products, a deep processing center for fruit and vegetables, a further processing center for meat and fish, as well as a foreign trade center. With a floor area of 820,000 sq m, the center will be completed in 2011.

Ecological protection projects

Twenty billion yuan will be spent to protect the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau's ecological system before 2030.

Fourteen conservation projects will be launched, covering natural grassland and wildlife protection, the establishment of nature reserves, control of desertification and soil erosion, and geological disaster prevention, according to Zhang Yongze, director of the Tibet autonomous regional department of environment protection.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau boasts a unique eco-system due to its climate and geography. Tibet, with its biological diversity, is a major gene bank ensuring global biodiversity.

Affordable housing planned

Shanghai will build 4 million sq m of affordable and low-rent housing next year, according to the Shanghai municipal administration of housing, land and resource.

The project aims to alleviate housing difficulties of low- and medium-income families. Roughly 20,000 households will benefit from the project, says the official.

Tianjin-Europe air cargo route

Tianjin, the largest port city in North China, launched its first air cargo route to Europe recently. The service will help Binhai International Airport in Tianjin become North China's cargo hub.

The service will fly to Amsterdam three times a week and to Manchester via Amsterdam twice a week, said Chen Kaiping, president of Great Wall Airlines, the joint venture cargo airline that is operating the route.

Transportation investment

Shandong province will invest 37.2 billion yuan to boost its transportation system this year.

Among the total, 27.4 billion yuan will be allocated in road construction to build 4,000 km of freeways. By the end of the year, the province is expected to have 2.16 million km of freeways, among which 4,207 km are expressways.

Another 6.8 billion yuan will go for construction of 23 new berths, with an increasing of port handling capacity at 40 million tons. And a further investment of 2.9 billion yuan will be spent in the construction of 21 transportation pivots.

Rural sector budget boost

The Tibet autonomous region will increase its financial budget in the rural sector by 29.5 percent this year.

The spending amounts to about 2 billion yuan, an increase of 300 million yuan year-on-year, according to the regional department of commerce.

Tibet will continue building houses for farmers and herdsmen in a bid to improve their living conditions, with an investment of 700 million yuan.

A special fund of 20 million yuan will be used to tackle poverty problems and support industrial development.

(China Daily 04/07/2008 page10)