YINCHUAN

Inland trip

During his three-day tour late last week of Yinchuan, capital of Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke brought high-tech solar energy to the underdeveloped city.

Hawke praised the city's environmental protection efforts while visiting its lakes and wetlands, noting that Australia and China could learn from each other on the subject.

WASHINGTON

WTO promises

The United States Chamber of Commerce said on Friday China has clearly begun a major transformation of its economic system and taken positive steps to meet its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments.

The chamber released a report on China's progress in meeting its WTO commitments at the weekend.

It reviewed obligations China agreed to meet in the areas of agriculture, distribution, information technology, intellectual property rights, services and transportation.

HANGZHOU

4 killed in fire

Four people were killed and two seriously injured in a fire that gutted a printing house in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province.

The fire started on the first floor of a four-story building where the printing house was located, at 2 pm on Friday, trapping six people inside the building, police said. The two injured people are still in hospital.

BEIJING

Japanese master gets award

Daisaku Ikeda, 74, President of Japan-based Soka Gakkai International, was awarded the "Understanding and Friendship" International Literary Award for the year 2002 by the Chinese Literature Foundation.

The prize comes with the approval of the Ministry of Culture in honour of the contribution he made in the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations 30 years ago and in the promotion of cultural exchanges between the two neighbouring countries.

To mark the event, a collection of poems by Daisaku Ikeda and another recording his speeches and essays have been published in Beijing. An art show entitled "Understanding, Friendship, Peace - Daisaku Ikeda's Poem, Painting and Calligraphy, Photograph Exhibition" is also being held.

XI'AN

EMBA to train talents for west

The Xi'an Jiaotong University in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province yesterday began recruiting students for its Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) programme, the only one in the vast Northwest region of China and among the first 30 experimental universities around China.

Sources from the universities said 60 students will be enrolled in the programme, which requires a tuition fee of 180,000 yuan (US$21,740).

The programme is mainly targeted at senior management staff in large-scale enterprises with at least a bachelor's degree and eight years' working experience.

A special form of MBA education, EMBA programme is a new attempt in China to practically train senior management personnel.