China will hold an international seminar on sea water desalination technologies, extending wide cooperation with foreign counterparts in this field.

Sponsored by International Desalination Association, the seminar will be held on April 11, in north China's Tianjin Municipality, according to the organizing committee.

Over 20 experts from home and abroad are invited to give speeches on the seminar, while around 200 scholars, entrepreneurs and government officials will discuss topics including the development trend of sea water desalination and its economic value and management.

Prof. Wang Shichang, an expert from Tianjin University, said that sea water resources, which could be sustainably harnessed, were of great importance to China today.

There was still a long way to go for the improvement and industrialization of China's sea water desalination, Wang said. If a complete industrial chain could be formed in China's coastal cities, the cost of desalination would be reduced to a large extent, and this would be of significance to economic and social development of these areas.

Coastal cities had invested in related research and construction in recent years, said the expert, and had built over 10 sea water desalination stations.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2004)