China to increase investment in Pakistan’s energy sector
From Javed Akhtar ( APP)

BEIJING—China is likely to increase its investment in Pakistan in the energy sector next year, as a part of ongoing efforts to develop comprehensive mutually beneficial economic partnership. “We are ready to help Pakistan in developing nuclear, hydropower and renewable resources to meet its energy requirements, said a senior Chinese official. The Chinese side has already expressed its intention to provide financial and technical support to Pakistan for developing important projects, like Chashma power plant, Neelum Jhelum Hydropower and Thar-coal.
Talking to APP, he said the two countries had made substantial cooperation in the past in the energy sector, especially developing hydropower resources including the Ghazi Brotha dam. There are other joint ventures like Jinnah Hydro-power Project (96 MW), Golan Gol Hydro-power Project (106 MW) and Muzaffargarh-Kati Grid and Transmission Line construction project. The two countries could also focus their attention on developing renewable energy resources in the coming years, the official said adding some Chinese companies have offered to provide technical assistance to Pakistan for developing cheap electricity through solar energy. An official of Jiangsu Solar Energy Resources Institute said the Chinese companies could help Pakistan in manufacturing solar collector tubes that could be used providing inexpensive electricity. A delegation of technical experts has already visited Pakistan for undertaking joint ventures to develop these tubes as well as other methods of producing thermal solar energy.
“We are also prepared for transfer of technology to Pakistan for the development of renewable energy under the Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed by the two countries last year,” he said adding, in China, plate solar energy collectors and full-glass vacuum tube solar-energy water heaters have already formed into a production industry. China is engaged in developing various new and renewable energy sources focusing on hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal and tidal sources, hoping to make up for the declining production of traditional energy sources.
According to the China Energy Research Society (CERS), China is rich in new and renewable energy sources. Statistics show that China has recoverable wind energy sources of 160 million kws, geothermal sources of 3.5 million kw and tidal energy sources of more than 20 million kw. Meanwhile, an international center for promotion and transfer of solar energy will be built in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China’s Gansu Province, with financial support from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The projected center will be established on the basis of the existing Natural Energy Institute of Gansu, and the UNIDO will pump up 300,000 U.S. dollars as a fund for startup, said Xi Wenhua,vice president of the Gansu Provincial Academy of Sciences and also head of the Natural Energy Institute. There are over 3,000 firms engaged in production of solar energy converters across China. By late 2004, the Chinese companies had produced 500,000-megawatt photovoltaic units.
                                                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                                       
China initiates work on first hydropower plant

BEIJING—China this week began construction of the first of four major hydropower plants on an strategically-important river, state media said Wednesday, in a controversial project that has raised environmental concerns.
The Xiluodu hydropower station on the Jinsha river, a tributary of the Yangtze between the southwestern provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan, will have an installed capacity of 12.6 million kilowatts, the China Daily reported.
The six-billion-dollar Xiluodu plant is slated for completion in 2015.
The Jinsha river project, including the construction of three other hydropower stations — Xiangjiaba, Wudongde and Baihetan — will have a combined installed capacity of 38.5 million kilowatts.
The energy output will be twice as large as the famous Three Gorges project on the Yangtze, which will be the world’s biggest dam.
The 24-billion-dollar Jinsha project is part of the country’s ambitious west-east electricity transmission plan, which aims to transfer power from the hydropower-rich southwest to the eastern provinces’ economic powerhouses.
The Jinsha river will be dammed in 2007 for the power project, the China Daily said.
Environmentalists have argued that damming the Jinsha would do much damage to the local environment, threaten the area’s distinct plants and animals and flood fertile land.
The new dams could also wipe out fish species whose migration routes to traditional breeding grounds will be blocked.
Nearly a year ago, the project’s builder tried to defy an order from the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) to halt construction of the dam.
The power project was among 30 large-scale projects ordered stopped by the government agency due to a lack of mandatory environmental impact assessments.
When contacted by AFP on Wednesday, SEPA declined to comment on whether the project had now passed environmental assessments.
Meanwhile, the China Daily reported that China Energy Conservation Investment Corporation, a flagship state company, will invest at least 20 billion yuan (2.5 billion dollars) over the next five years to build alternative energy projects across the country.
These projects will generate electricity using alternative energy sources such as wind, biomass — which stems from plant and animal matter — and waste treatment, the newspaper said.—APP

                                                                                                                                                                           
Mittal seeks 49% of China’s Baotou Steel

BEIJING—Top global steel maker Mittal is in talks to buy 49 percent of China’s Baotou Iron & Steel (Group) Co. Ltd., two sources close to the deal said on Wednesday, marking the latest in a flurry of potential deals by multinationals trying to tap the world’s biggest steel market. Analysts say the timing of the proposed deal is particularly good for Mittal Steel Co., as overcapacity racked up through years of frenzied investment has hammered domestic steel prices and could have made acquisition targets cheaper.
And it could apply pressure on smaller rival Arcelor S.A., which is locked in negotiations to try and buy a chunk of Laiwu Steel Corp. Ltd., a mid-sized mill in eastern China. “The move could also help speed up the Arcelor and Laiwu negotiations, as foreign giants are eager to get a head start,” said Liang Mingchao, an analyst with Tianxiang Investment Consulting.
Luxembourg-based Arcelor, the world’s number-two steel firm, is said to be close to a deal to buy into Laiwu, which is based in Shandong province. If it goes through, Mittal’s latest deal would be its second major investment in a Chinese mill. Baotou, a mid-sized mill based in the eponymous Inner Mongolian industrial city, has annual capacity for 7 million tonnes of steel and is targeting 8.5 million tonnes next year and 10 million tonnes by 2007. “Mittal wants 49 percent of Baotou, but we haven’t reached any agreement on that,” an executive with Baotou told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Mittal this year took 36.7 percent of Hunan Valin Steel Tube & Wire Co. Ltd., the listed arm of China’s eighth-largest mill, for about $310 million — a price that equated to the firm’s book value.
“It’s too early to put a price tag on the Baotou deal, as talks are still in the initial stages,” a source close to Mittal told Reuters.
Unlisted, state-owned Baotou had assets of 35.1 billion yuan ($4.35 billion) as of the end of 2004 and recorded sales of 21.5 billion yuan in 2004, according to its Web site (www.btsteel.com).

—The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item

Sino-Japan ties highly important: Koizumi
Says rising China no threat

TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday said the relations with China and South Korea are “important”. “China and South are both Japan’s important and friendly neighbors. The two countries’ development means opportunity to Japan,” Koizumi told a press conference on the last working day of 2005.
Referring to his annual visit to Yasukuni Shrine in the new year, Koizumi only said the working day for next year starts on Jan. 4. Local media interpreted his words as meaning not to visit the shrine at the first three days of next year. The Prime Minister is scheduled to visit the Middle East early January.
The shrine enshrines top Japanese World War II war criminals as well as the war dead. Koizumi’s visits to the shrine is the sticking point for the current strained relationship with the two countries that once suffered greatly from the Japanese militarism. Koizumi said given there are differences in their stances, he still is resolved to further the friendship with China and South Korea. Koizumi has said he will step down as premier when his leadership in the ruling party expires in September. Concluding the performance of his administration in 2005, Koizumi said it is a year he “can not forget,” noting the hard-fought campaign to get his postal privatization bill passed.
He said he regards a rising China not as a threat but an opportunity. “China’s development is an opportunity. As for China’s growing military capability, I’ve never said it is a threat,” the prime minister was quoted as saying at a dinner on Monday at a Tokyo restaurant with ruling bloc heavyweights.
His remarks came few days after Foreign Minister Taro Aso described China as a threat citing its huge population and increasing military spending. The Chinese government refuted Aso’s remarks as “extremely irresponsible,” and stressed that China’s development has made contributions to the world peace and stability, bringing East Asian countries, including Japan, great development opportunities.—Agencies
China Daily adds: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Wednesday he would strive to develop friendly ties with China in 2006, after a year in which relations with that country hit their lowest in decades. Long-chilly relations between Tokyo and Beijing have become fraught this year through disputes over issues mostly relating to Japan’s invasion and occupation of parts of China in the early 20th century.
Bilateral ties hit their worst level in decades in April, when thousands of Chinese took to the streets in sometimes violent anti-Japan protests. Ties with South Korea have also soured for similar reasons and Koizumi said he would like to mend that fence as well.
“For Japan, China and South Korea are important neighbors and friendly countries,” Koizumi told reporters, adding that the development of China and South Korea opens up opportunities for Japan. “From that standpoint, I don’t think there is any change on the point of trying to develop friendly relations even if there are various differences in our respective positions”.
Japan needs to take steps so China and South Korea would understand such thinking, Koizumi said, adding that he hoped those two countries would do the same. Koizumi’s comments came after an opinion survey published on Wednesday in which two-thirds of Japanese who replied said they didn’t trust China.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents to an opinion poll by the Nihon Keizai business daily said China couldn’t be trusted, far outnumbering the 14 percent who said it could be trusted. Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao met in Jakarta on the sidelines of the Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia in April, pulling relations between the two Asian powers back from the brink. But bilateral ties took another hit in October when Koizumi made his latest visit to Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, where some war criminals are honored along with Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, sparking angry protests from China and South Korea. Resentment lingers in South Korea over Japan’s harsh colonial rule of the Korean peninsula in 1910-1945.

Chinese postgraduate girl dances to save ill mother

BEIJING—Liu Ke, a second-year female postgraduate in Chongqing University, can often be found performing in different dance shows, raising money in an effort to save her seriously ill mother. In all, she does four part-time jobs in her spare time to pay for her mother’s medical expenses. Last October, after Liu’s mother diagnosed with lupus, she began to hunt for any part-time job when by chance she saw an Internet ad calling for dancers. According to the ad, those hired would receive professional training and give performances in public places on holidays. After deciding that this job would not clash with her studies and upon considering the high salary, Liu applied.
With a slim figure, beautiful looks, and basic dancing skills accumulated during her college life in Southwest Normal University, she successfully passed the interview and became a dancer of the “Wen Na Band”. Said one of her dancing mates: “After working together for a long time, we learned that Liu was a postgraduate. At first, we thought she was arrogant because every time the sponsor treated us after a performance, she would refuse to attend.” Afterward, the other dancers discovered that she had to take care of her seriously ill mother in the hospital. On Christmas Eve, Liu took part in a performance after a whole day of study and got a 250-yuan (US$30.95) performance fee, which she said was the highest fee so far. Then, she hurried to the hospital to enjoy Christmas with her mother.
“I feel very tired every day, but it is worth doing. My mother is my only hope. And I want to save Mom with my dancing steps,” Liu said. Zou Chenghui, Liu’s mother, divorced her husband in 1994. Although laid-off for 10 years, she still did some small business to save money. She said originally she planned to support her daughter in getting a doctorate degree, but sadly, because of her illness, now cannot help. Since Zou was hospitalized on December 6, the family has spent their entire savings. Meanwhile, Liu tries to earn as much money as she can to pay the huge medical bill.

—The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item