China to further mining, agricultural co-op with Tajikistan
China will expand cooperation with Tajikistan in such fields as mining and agriculture in a bid to further bilateral ties, visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao said here Wednesday . Sino-Tajik economic and trade cooperation is progressing in an all-round way and relevant government institutions on both sides have played important roles in directing such work, said President Hu, who is on his first state visit to the Central Asian country. During his meeting with Tajik Prime Minis ...

ASEAN, China make substantive progress on investment pact
The Southeast Asian bloc and China announced here Wednesday that they made substantive progress in the negotiations on the bilateral investment pact which is expected to be signed at the Bangkok Summit in December this year. On the Day Two of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Ministers' Meeting, ministers from 10 member states held consultations with their dialogue partner China's Vice Commerce Minister Chen Jian, discussing bilateral economic and trade cooperat ...

President: Mongolia to maintain stable, good-neighborly, cooperative ties with China
Mongolia is committed to maintaining stable, good-neighborly and cooperative relations with China, Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar said here Wednesday. Enkhbayar made the remarks during a meeting with Chen Xiaogong, assistant chief of the General Staff of China's People's Liberation Army. The good-neighborly partnership of mutual trust between China and Mongolia has been developing smoothly and achievements have been made in bilateral military cooperation, he said. ...

China, Tajikistan to boost economic ties
China and Tajikistan are to strengthen cooperation in the economic, trade and several other fields, according to a joint statement issued here Wednesday. Earlier, visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon held a meeting in which both agreed that economic and trade cooperation bears special significance for the all-round development of bilateral ties. They agreed to intensify the work of the inter-governmental trade commissions, improve the inv ...

China, Tajikistan pledge to continue cooperation in combating terrorism, drug-related crime
China and Tajikistan agreed on Wednesday to continue cooperation in combating terrorism and drug-related crime, the two sides said in a joint statement following a meeting between the presidents of both countries. In the statement, both sides agreed that cracking down on the East Turkistan terrorists is a significant part of the international struggle against terrorism. China and Tajikistan have signed the multilateral Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Ex ...



Moroccan king congratulates Hu on successful Olympics
Moroccan King Mohammed VI sent a congratulation message to Chinese President Hu Jintao on the success of the 29th Olympic Games held in Beijing on Aug. 8-24, local MAP news agency reported on Wednesday. "In my name and in the name of the Moroccan people, to express to you my warmest congratulations," the monarch said, adding that "your great country has given the best example in terms of organization." The sovereign said he has followed with great interest and admiration the diff ...

China, Tajikistan agree to enhance good-neighborly, cooperative relations
Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon have agreed to enhance the good-neighborly and cooperative relations between the two neighbors, said a joint statement issued in Dushanbe Wednesday. &$ &$ According to the statement, the two sides agreed that the Chinese-Tajik Good-Neighborly and Friendly Cooperation Treaty signed last year bears historic and realistic significance by forging a solid legal basis for the development of bilateral ties. ...

China, Tajikistan reach broad consensus on furthering bilateral cooperation
China and Tajikistan have reached broad consensus on deepening bilateral cooperation in politics, economy, trade and their efforts to combat terrorism, according to a joint statement issued in Dushanbe Wednesday following a meeting between the presidents of both countries. &$&$TO ENHANCE NEIGHBORLY COOPERATION&$&$ According to the statement, the two sides agreed that the Chinese-Tajik Good-Neighborly and Friendly Cooperation Treaty signed last year fo ...

Turkish parliamentary speaker praises success of Beijing Olympic Games
Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Koksal Toptan on Wednesday praised the success of the just-ended Beijing Olympic Games. During his meeting with the outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Turkey Sun Guoxiang, Toptan said that with their flawless organization and arrangement, the Chinese people proved to their whole world their ability to host the world's greatest sports event, dispelling the doubts raised by some Western media before the games which he himself witnessed during his visit to China in ...

China becomes Israel's second largest exporter in 2007
Chinese exports to Israel surpassed Germany's in 2007, making China Israel's second largest importing country, Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. Imports from China grew to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2007 from 3.2 billion dollars in 2006, the bureau said. In 2006, Germany was the second largest exporter of goods to Israel excluding diamonds. Its exports to the Jewish country rose to 3.3 billion dollars in 2007 from 3.1 billion dollars in 2006. Analy ...



Beijing promises integrated subway service for disabled
Beijing subway staff and volunteers will provide an integrated help service for the disabled during the Paralympics, said the Beijing Subway Operation Co. Ltd. on Wednesday. The company said disabled travelers would be able to call the subway service center with information on their routes, times of travel and transfer stations. The center would then inform stations, which would arrange staff and volunteers to help the traveler all the way from buying tickets to getting out of th ...

Eleven dead, 31 injured after bus plunges off bridge in E China
Eleven people died and 31 were injured when a tire blowout forced a bus to plunge off a highway bridge in east China's Jiangsu Province on Tuesday. When the right front tire burst, the driver lost control and the bus veered off the Mangdaohe River bridge at midday in Yangzhou City, the press office of the Jiangsu provincial government said on Wednesday. The injured are receiving treatment in four hospitals. Police and traffic safety authorities are still investigating the ...

Economy to face challenges in second half
The country's economy has maintained steady and rapid growth in the first half but faces increasing uncertainty for the rest of the year, a senior government official said yesterday. "Negative impact on the economy will continue," said Zhu Zhixin, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, in a press conference. The economy expanded 10.4 percent year-on-year in the first half, NDRC figures showed. The growth rate was 1.8 percentage ...

Fiscal revenue rises 30% in first 7 months
Rapidly growing fiscal revenue helped the country reduce its central fiscal deficit last year, despite heavy investment in rural and western regions, Finance Minister Xie Xuren yesterday. In the first seven months, China's fiscal revenue reached 4.09 trillion yuan ($598 billion), up 30.5 percent year-on-year, Xie said. Despite slowing momentum in July, when annualized fiscal revenue growth was only 16.5 percent, revenue in the January-July period reached almost 70 percent of the national b ...

Nationwide tourism plan discussed
The central government said yesterday it is considering a series of fiscal measures to promote tourism, particularly in the less developed interior regions. The National Development and Reform Commission, in a joint statement with the National Tourism Administration, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China, said a series of measures will be taken to upgrade the nation's tourism industry, with special focus on th ...



4 population zones planned
China has rolled out a new program for the development of four functional population zones. Its purpose is rational demographic distribution and migration, the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) said. "This is the first time China has drawn up a system of crucial measures to comprehensively address the nation's population issue," Li Bin, minister of the NPFPC, said on Saturday at the annual meeting of the China Population Association. Classifications are based on th ...

HK shares rebound 1.94%, led by China Mobile
Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 1.94 percent Wednesday, led by heavyweight blue-chip China Mobile following its strong first-half earnings report. The blue-chip Hang Seng Index recouped 408.06 points, or 1.94 percent, to close at its intraday high of 21,464.72 on Wednesday. Turnover rose to 60.99 billion HK dollars (7.82 billion U.S. dollars) from Tuesday's 47.96 billion HK dollars (6.15 billion U.S. dollars). Hong Kong market outperformed the benchmark Shanghai index' ...

PetroChina to acquire 51.89% stake in CNPC (Hong Kong)
PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina) is to buy a 51.89-percent stake in CNPC (Hong Kong) Limited from its parent company, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), in a bid to further expand its gas business. The stake would cost 972 million U.S. dollars in cash, said the company in its half-year report on Wednesday. PetroChina said it would cooperate with CNPC (Hong Kong) to develop gas ventures in end-user markets. The Beijing-based oil producer said the deal, whi ...

Priority traffic lanes open from today in Beijing
Seven of 23 Paralympic traffic lanes will open today on Beijing's roads. One of which is the highway linking Beijing Capital International Airport to Dongzhimen in the city center, Wang Li, deputy director of the Beijing traffic management bureau, told a briefing yesterday. All other 16 lanes will open by Sept 5, a day before the Games open, she said The surface marking on the Paralympic lanes - the five Olympic rings - will be the same as that used for the Olympic lanes, only the traff ...

Jilin expo expected to boost growth
The fourth China Jilin Northeast Asia Investment and Trade Expo will be held from September 2 to 6 as increasing numbers of investors and companies join in the revitalization of the northeastern province's industries. Chen Weigen, director of the executive committee of the expo and Jilin vice-governor, said the trade fair aims to promote economic cooperation between China and other Northeast Asian countries. The expo aims at promoting renewal of the province's aging industries in northeast ...