IN BRIEF (Page 8)

Ringing in a 3G Olympics

China Mobile, China's top wireless operator, and South Korean cell phone producer Samsung presented 15,000 3G handsets, plus data cards and nearly 3 million yuan of calling fees, to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 29th Olympic Games recently.

Donation of the two Beijing 2008 Olympic Games sponsors implies the third-generation (3G) mobile phone service is ready for use in the upcoming event.

With the phones, work staff and volunteers of the Games will have high-speed data transmissions, which allow them to watch televised games, play videos, and surf the Internet on cell phones.

HK-mainland youth forum

To strengthen communications and understanding between the young generations in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, a forum on "Future Responsibility" was conducted by the China Young Leaders Foundation (CYLF) last month in Beijing.

It's the first forum initiated by the CYLF, a Hong Kong-based non-profit organization established last year aiming to build a mutual platform for mainland and Hong Kong youth and committed to providing opportunities as well as financial support for them to meet future challenges.

Swiss insurance donation

Zurich Financial donated $3.5 million yuan early this month to set up a China Center for Insurance & Risk Management at Tsinghua University, the largest research project Zurich has ever made in China.

The center is going to provide an all-round training on insurance and risk management for enterprises, government departments and universities. Besides the cooperation with Tsinghua, Zurich Financial also joined hands with Tianjin Nankai University in April on developing micro-insurance products to better protect low-income families.

Free newspaper subscriptions

Suzhou Jincheng Economic Development Co recently made a donation of 500 annual subscriptions of China Daily to Suzhou University, one of the leading universities in East China's Jiangsu province.

Beginning this month, students at the university's foreign studies school will receive a free copy of China Daily, the nation's only national English language daily newspaper.

China Daily is regarded by the overseas Chinese business community as the only authoritative English-language voice from the motherland," says Lin Shaojun, general manager of Suzhou Jincheng.

(China Daily 05/19/2008 page8)