The establishment of this center signifies China's sustainable and responsible attitude towards economic development, said visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the opening ceremony.

It is significant for Tsinghua University and BP (British Petroleum) to cooperate in clean energy research, he said.

The global economy faces the challenges of clean energy research and production. The Tsinghua-BP center will help China to establish a stable research mechanism, which is important not only to the world economy, but to the whole planet, he said.

China, as a country of 1.3 billion people, faces almost all of the economic issues commonly faced by developing countries. In this sense, how China develops its economy influences the world economy, he said.

Gu Binglin, president of Tsinghua University, said the establishment of the center is an important milestone for cooperation between Tsinghua and large British companies. In recent years, Tsinghua has built sound cooperative relations with British academic and industrial circles and has initiated a number of cooperative projects.

During Blair's last visit in 1998, Tsinghua University and Britain's Surrey University signed an agreement for research on the "Tsinghua-1" micro-satellite. The satellite has been launched and is currently in orbit.

Prior to the ceremony, Blair discussed a number of issues relating to clean energy, such as coal, coal gasification and natural gas exploitation with Tsinghua students.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2003)