A new joint-venture taxi company, with an investment exceeding 250 million yuan (about US$30.1 million), will be launched in Beijing within the year, the "Beijing Morning Post" reports.

An agreement to set up North China Bus-Kowloon, which would be the biggest taxi company in China's capital, was to be signed on Tuesday among five bus companies, including Kowloon Bus from Hong Kong and the North China Bus Group, the newspaper said. It will bethe second such Beijing company to involve overseas investment.

And the first fleet of high-grade taxis, equipped with global positioning systems (GPS), general information systems (GIS) and dual fuel systems operated by the North China Bus-Kowloon will hitthe streets within a year.

A spokesperson for the North China Bus Group said that the new company aimed to improve the technology and environmentally-friendly standards of Beijing taxis using overseas capital. It also aimed to enlarge the city's taxi market by standardizing services and capitalizing on Beijing hosting the Olympic Games in 2008.

The new company would expand the market using North China Bus Group's current fleet of 4,000 taxis as a base, remodelling them into well-equipped vehicles within the next three years, the spokesperson said.

( Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2002 )