IN BRIEF (Page 10)

Fighting drought

A total of 150 million yuan has been invested in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to cope with the drought and save the agricultural harvest, Xinjiang Daily reported.

By far, the central government has earmarked 23 million yuan in the anti-drought campaign. The city and county governments allocated 32.62 million yuan, and local farmers invested 96.38 million yuan.

Around 3 million hectares of farmlands in the region have been stricken by drought. To help solve the problem, the region has built 194 new pump stations and supplied 351 water wagons, among other measures.

Biological industry base

Changsha, capital of Hunan province, plans to invest 40 billion yuan in the next five years to develop its biological industry base into a national-level one, local newspaper Sanxiang City Express reported.

Founded in 1999 and located in the city's outskirts, the biological industry base recorded 34.7 billion yuan worth of sales last year with a 30.5 percent year-on-year increase.

The base will emphasize biological energy, biological material, and biological manufacturing.

The base will also cooperate with neighboring universities and research institutions on scientific research.

Shanghai port trade up

Imports and exports continued to surge at Shanghai port, with the volume totaling $245.5 billion in the first five months, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Shanghai customs statistics showed the trade volume was 26.6 percent up year on year, 7.4 percentage points higher than the same period of last year.

Exports totaled $155.73 billion, up 28.2 percent, and imports were up $89.77 billion, a 23.9 percent increase over last year.

Foreign trade at the port peaked in May at $51.86 billion, up 35.6 percent from the same month a year ago.

The European Union remained the port's top trading partner, followed by the US, Japan, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Africa.

Zhejiang fair

The 10th Zhejiang Investment & Trade Symposium and the 7th China International Consumer Goods Fair, featuring foreign economic and trade exchanges, were staged in the coastal city of Ningbo, Zhejiang province in June.

Around 70,000 delegates attended the events, including 13,616 foreign merchants from 100 countries around the world. There were 201 projects signed at the symposium, with a total contractual investment of $3.58 billion, up 9.1 percent year-on-year.

Over the past nine sessions of the annual symposium since 1999, there were more than 2,798 projects signed, and the total contractual investment hit over $24.74 billion.

Int'l flights in Manzhouli

Manzhouli, China's leading inland port on the northern border near Russia, will start year-round international air transport services in late August, Xinhua News agency reported.

The initial target for cargo transport by Xijiao airport in Manzhouli, northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region, is 1 million tons, said Zhang Ke, chief of the Manzhouli port administration commission.

The airport handled 8,000 to 10,000 passengers and 2,000 to 3,000 tons of cargo during a temporary opening to international flights.

The Manzhouli port trade volume accounts for about 13 percent of the country's total border trade with its neighbors. It has 65 percent of the China-Russia land trade.

(China Daily 06/30/2008 page10)