By 2010, the German government will have completed a 25-year, 178 million euro (US$209 million) grant to China, to help reinvigorate the country's forestry sector.

Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Forestry Administration, said the grant makes Germany the largest donor country in Sino-foreign forestry cooperation.

Of the total, about 138 million euros (US$162 million) will be invested in Sino-German Afforestation Projects, which were actually initiated in 1993, according to Guo Yufu, an official with the Center for International Cooperation Projects under the State Forestry Administration.

The rest will go into technical cooperation in the forestry sector, for which about 30 million euros (US$35 million) have been donated by Germany so far, Guo said.

Documents from the center show afforestation projects, now totaling 20, cover more than 90 counties in 14 provinces where residents are poor and local ecosystems are deteriorating.

Guo said, to date, about 55.9 million euros (US$65 million) have been donated by the German side.

According to the documents, the Chinese government also plans to invest 839 million yuan (US$101 million) in afforestation projects and 480 million yuan (US$58 million) of the planned investment has already been used. By June this year more than 380,000 hectares of forest had been planted, benefiting 950,000 farmers.

Zhou said yesterday foreign governments are welcome to take part in the development of China's forestry sector.

(China Daily November 27, 2003)