"We are now more confident about investing in Guizhou after seeing how well the Sino-Japanese environment protection projects are progressing here," said Sugiichiro Watari, president of the Japan-China Economic Association (JCEA), on Tuesday.
At the end of a three-day visit to southwest China's Guizhou Province, Watari made the comment at a meeting with Huang Yao, deputy secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
The Japanese official, who led a delegation to inspect the projects in the province, also expressed his admiration of the environmental construction drive in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province, which is being used as the Sino-Japan demonstration city for the development of environmental protection.
The Japanese association has provided 14 billion yen (nearly US$122 million) in loans for Guiyang to improve the city’s traditional methods of coal-use and thus reduce air pollution as well as to reduce the level of mercury in environment.
The joint Sino-Japanese effort towards environmental protection has played an active role in reducing Guiyang's air pollution, said Huang Yao, who also confirmed that the city will adopt comprehensive measures, including the grain-for-green project, to conserve the ecological balance. He also hopes more Japanese investors will participate in this.
(People's Daily March 6, 2002)
