IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Senior Party official meets Chad delegation

Zhao Leji, a senior official of the Communist Party of China, met a delegation from Chad's ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement on Oct 13.

Zhao, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the CPC Central Committee Organization Department, said China and Chad have had frequent high-level visits and strengthened political trust in recent years.

China is willing to deepen its relationship with Chad according to the principles of equality and mutual benefit, Zhao said.

The CPC stands ready for more collaboration with the Patriotic Salvation Movement to benefit the peoples of the two countries, Zhao said.

Ebola vaccine tested in West Africa

China's first homegrown vaccine against Ebola has entered the second phase of a clinical trial in Sierra Leone, marking a breakthrough in overseas testing of Chinese-developed vaccines.

Chen Wei, a researcher at the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, said on Oct 12 that dozens of volunteers recruited among local people had been given the shots to test the vaccine's safety and effectiveness.

Her team developed the vaccine against the deadly virus with partner Tianjin CanSino Biotechnology.

The trial in Africa followed the first phase of testing, conducted in China using Chinese and African volunteers, she said.

To bring the trial to Africa, the researchers went through rigorous reviews of intellectual property rights, technology and ethics, and were recently given approval by authorities in Sierra Leone to conduct the trial, Chen said.

Chinese firm trains Kenyan students on ICT

The Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei said 10 engineering students from Kenya are in China for further professional and practical training on information and communications technology.

A statement from the Kenya Information & Communication Technology Authority said a second group of students who left Nairobi on Oct 9 will go to Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen for two weeks for ICT training.

The program, dubbed Huawei Seeds for the Future, began last year with students drawn from local universities being taught by top IT specialists at Huawei University, the company said. Twenty-eight Kenyan engineering students have been trained.

The program is a global Huawei initiative launched in five other African countries after Kenya. It offers internships to top engineering students in their third, fourth and fifth years of study to equip them with industry skills. It aims to train 40 students by the end of this year and 100 in three years.

Scales of justice hangabove new home

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama spoke at the inauguration of a multimillion-dollar court complex for the judicial service in Accra on Oct 9.

Mahama said he would continue to work to strengthen the country's institutions, especially anti-corruption institutions. "They will be assisted to carry out their work without fear or favor," he said.

The $50 million facility replaces the dilapidated colonial Cocoa Affairs Court, which has in the past housed circuit and high courts in the metropolis.

The new 42-room facility was built by China State Hualong Construction Ghana Ltd.

Kenya foresees growth of tourism from China

The introduction of direct flights to Kenya and the increased marketing of Nairobi as a tourist destination across China are positive trends for the growth of Chinese tourism to the country, tourism officials said recently.

Kenya Tourist Board Managing Director Muriithi Ndegwa said Kenyan tour marketers based in China and local Chinese tour operators are receiving increased requests from Chinese tourists seeking to visit the world-famous Masaai Mara National Reserve and other attractions.

"We have a lot of goodwill from across the world," Ndegwa told Xinhua News Agency in an interview in Nairobi before a tourism exhibition in Diani, in Kenya's coastal region. The exhibition attracted 185 tourism marketers from around the world, including 10 Chinese tour operators.

The tourist board is counting on the launch of direct flights from China to Kenya by China Southern Airlines and the expansion of local and international hotel chains into Kenya as positive indicators.

China Southern Airlines started thrice-weekly flights to Kenya in August, raising hopes for a change in the business fortunes of Kenya, which has suffered from a tourism industry slump.

The nation held its fifth Magical Kenya Travel Expo on Oct 15-17 to showcase the variety of tourism products available to travelers.

Forum's role in healthyrelationship hailed

China and Africa have a bright future as they work more closely together, the Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said. He made the comments as he spoke to Independent News and Media South Africa in Johannesburg on Oct 9.

Since the inception of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation 15 years ago, he said, the partners have worked together fruitfully in many areas, and political trust between them has grown significantly.

The two sides understand and support each other on matters involving each other's core interests and major concerns, thus upholding the common interests of China, Africa and the developing world, Yang said.

Last year, trade between China and Africa exceeded $220 billion and China's investment in Africa surpassed $30 billion, an increase of 22 times and 60 times, respectively, over the figures in 2000 when forum had just been established. Moreover, the share of China-Africa trade within Africa's total foreign trade has increased from 3.82 percent to 20.5 percent.

Yang said the forum has proven to be an important platform for dialogue between China and African countries and an effective mechanism for practical collaboration.

New fighter jet set for export market

Aviation Industry Corp of China, the country's leading aircraft manufacturer, is on the verge of exporting its fifth-generation fighter jet, according to industry sources.

The company disclosed the technical specifications for the J-31 Gyrfalcon at the four-day Aviation Expo China 2015, a biennial event held in Beijing in mid-September, although the plane is still being tested, the sources said.

Specifications for Chinese military aircraft have previously been released only after they had entered mass production and were ready for export.

Forbidden City opens more areas

Four areas of Beijing's Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, were opened to the public for the first time on Oct 10.

The areas were Cining Palace, built mainly for emperors' mothers and concubines; Baoyun Building, a warehouse built in 1914 to store thousands of treasures; and wings of the Meridian Gate and East Prosperity Gate.

This move means 65 percent of the museum, founded 90 years ago, is now open to the public. Of the 1.8 million items contained within, less than 1 percent is on public display, said curator Shan Jixiang. He added: "We hope to open more areas to allow visitors to see more treasures."

Help offered to ease Syria crisis, says FM

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for greater efforts in tackling the humanitarian crisis in Syria and said China will continue to offer help.

He made the comment on Oct 12 after meeting with Bouthania Shaaban, political and media adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who explained his government's stance.

Wang said the flow of refugees in the Middle East has seriously endangered the stability of the region and its surrounding areas, which need more efforts from all parties, including China, to lessen the impact. He reiterated China's stance on solving the Syrian crisis via political settlement led by the United Nations, referring to it as the "fundamental way out".

VW told to update China on vehicle recall

China's environmental and quality watchdogs have called on Volkswagen to release timely updates on the recall of imported diesel vehicles in the wake of the emissions scandal.

The recall by Volkswagen applies to 1,946 imported Tiguan SUVs and four Passat B6 sedans, according to a company statement on Oct 12. Other vehicles sold by FAW-Volkswagen and Shanghai Volkswagen, as well as other imported vehicles, are not affected, it said.

Technical solutions have been developed to correct the engine software that the automaker admitted was designed to cheat emissions testing, but they have yet to be submitted to Chinese authorities for approval, the statement said.

Efforts promised to lift 70m out of poverty

China will work hard to lift about 70 million people in rural areas out of poverty by the end of 2020, according to Hong Tianyun, deputy director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

Although the task faces challenges from the economic slowdown and employment pressures, he said on Oct 12 that the government would take all necessary steps to achieve its goals, including lifting 10 million people out of poverty by the end of this year.

He said the government will continue to subsidize banks to provide loans to help families in poverty-stricken areas to start businesses. In addition, governments at all levels will improve the social security network, especially healthcare.

Capital to provide Wi-Fi in public toilets

Beijing Environment Sanitation Engineering Group has said the city will provide Wi-Fi, ATMs and e-vehicle charging facilities in 14,000 public toilets.

By the end of November, selected toilets in suburban Fangshan district will be renovated to include these services.

Users will be able to surf the Internet, buy train and flight tickets and even borrow books from a library.

Tech hub to shift focus to startups

Zhongguancun, a technology hub in Beijing, will transform its development model from an electronics-dominated to an innovation-oriented economy by focusing on serving startups amid a recession in the electronics trade, local authorities said.

According to an official statement Zhongguancun Haidian Park, the core area will bid farewell to traditional electronics stores, which currently cover about 150,000 square meters, and nurture innovation-based business and enterprise startups. The area will focus its efforts on utilizing limited space for innovation incubators, smart hardware, Internet-plus business and other new businesses, it said.

Nation nears affordable housing target

China has almost realized the annual target for its affordable housing program, data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development showed.

Construction of 6.85 million units of affordable housing has already begun this year, accounting for around 92 percent of the 7.4 million units planned for the whole year, the ministry said.

First draft of auto sector guidelines expected

The first draft of an antitrust guideline for the automobile sector could be completed at the end of October, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

In addition to policy guidelines on monopoly violations, the draft will also cover price-fixing violations by automakers selling online.

10,000 companiesset up every day

More than 10,000 companies are established in China every day amid government support for entrepreneurship, a vice-minister said on Oct 10. Most are small enterprises. Data was collected from March last year until the end of August this year, when about 6 million companies were registered, said Xin Guobin, vice-minister of Industry and Information Technology.

City has more than3 million volunteers

Beijing has more than 3 million registered volunteers, Teng Shengping, deputy director of the Beijing Volunteers' Association, said at an international volunteer conference on Oct 12. The number of volunteer organizations exceeds 50,000, and their members offer help to the disabled and elderly, and migrant workers, as well as services in environmental protection and poverty relief, she said.

Nanjing Massacredatabase to open

China will set up a special database and upgrade the protection of documents regarding the Nanjing Massacre after files relating to the atrocities were listed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

A number of domestic archives will jointly establish the database, which will be open to the public at home and abroad, a source with the Second Historical Archives of China, who asked not to be named, said on Oct 11.

The database can help people learn more about the historical calamity caused by the war, the source said.

On Oct 9, 11 sets of Nanjing Massacre files, including film, photographs and text created between 1937 and 1948, were listed in the UNESCO register, despite Japan's protests.

Work begins onwater pipeline

Construction of a water pipeline connecting the coastal mainland province of Fujian with Kinmen, a Taiwan islet, started on Oct 12 when excavators began operations at Longhu Reservoir on the Jinjiang River, the source for the water-diversion project.

Water will be stored at the reservoir before being pumped into the pipeline and sent to Kinmen, only a dozen kilometers away.

Tsai Chi-chao, director of the Kinmen water plant, said the water supply has been a constant headache for the 153-square-kilometer island, especially with the increasing number of tourists.

"Most of the rain during typhoon season flows into the sea, and the underground water is far from enough for our residents," he said.

China Daily - Xinhua

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/16/2015 page2)