Region launches energy program

Inner Mongolia is working on a number of pilot energy projects in an effort to take greater advantage of locally produced natural resources, the region's Party secretary said on Friday.

"Boasting strategic importance and adopting global technologies, the coal-to-liquid project of Shenhua will come on stream and become profitable this year," Party Secretary Chu Bo told reporters.

"We are also working on an indirect coal-to-liquid project, with a designed capacity of 180,000 tons," he said.