SHIJIAZHUANG, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — Qinhuangdao, a port city in north China’s Hebei Province, is going all out to help ensure blue skies as a co-host of this summer’s Olympic Games, the local environmental protection bureau said on Friday.

    Qinhuangdao, 280 kilometers east of Beijing, has invested 20 billion yuan (about 2.78 billion U.S. dollars) in a major environmental protection drive with aim to improve air quality for the August Olympiad.

    The drive included 2,00 projects featuring air pollution control, industrial sewage recycling, city garbage treatment, development of environmentally-friendly tourism, water sources protection and afforestation, according to the bureau.

    The government ordered all desulfurization projects at major coal-fired power plants to be completed before July 1.

    Local chemical plants and iron mines are now required to cut pollutants that might darken the Olympic skies and water. In addition, the city has set up an air-quality monitoring network focused on heavily-polluting businesses.

    Hebei, the province that surrounds Beijing and Tianjin, has also pledged to spend about 21 billion yuan on anti-pollution projects and environmental monitoring stations, said Ji Zhenhai, the provincial environmental protection bureau director.

    Businesses in heavily-polluting industries — power, iron and steel, chemicals and concrete — will have to cut production or even close if they fail to meet the emission standard during the Games.

    The projects could reduce Hebei’s annual emissions of about 550,000 tons of sulphur dioxide, he said.

   ¡¡BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — Beijing experienced 26 “blue sky” days, or days with fairly good air quality, in February, the best run of clear days since 2000.

    Beijing had 11 more blue sky days this month than a year ago, and 10 days more than the eight-year average after it experienced a record 22 such days in January, the Beijing Environment Protection Administration said on Friday.

    Beijing recorded 29 consecutive blue sky days from Jan. 21 to Feb. 18, the longest period of consecutive days with fairly good air quality in history, according to the bureau.

    Experts attributed the desulfurization project applied in the heating season, between Nov. 15 to March. 15, as the major factor that kept the air clear. Sulphur dioxide, the major pollutant in the city, overran the standard for 106 days in the heating season in 1998, while in 2006 it dropped to 27 days.

    Another factor was the further closure of heavily-polluting industrial facilities in or near the capital. Ten major polluting facilities were closed.

    Beijing had 246 blue sky days in 2007. It aimed to have 70 percent of the days up to standard this year, which meant there should be at least 256 blue sky days.

    The capital launched the blue sky drive in 1998.

   ¡¡By Xinhua writer Wu Qi

    BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — Hu Zaichun, a middle-aged farmer from Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, was beside himself.

    After half a year of running a poultry yard with two other farmers in Huzui Village, Yilong County, they had made a net profit of 60,000 yuan, which is roughly 8,500 U.S. dollars — and about 15 times the average annual income of rural Chinese residents in 2007.

    Over the years, Hu, despite his diligence, regretted having missed too many chances to make money in this picturesque mountainous hinterland, the hometown of Marshal Zhu De, one of the founders of the People’s Republic of China.

    Hu was chronically short of funds to expand beyond his small farm.

    Two years ago, Hu applied for a loan of 20,000 yuan with a financial institution in the county seat to raise pigs. He paid countless visits to the bank’s business hall over the course of a month and was always told to “wait” as he did not have any collateral.

    In 2007, Hu saw the chance for a better life. On March 1 that year, a community bank, known as Huimin Village Bank, started up in Yilong, a county under Nanchong City, Sichuan Province.

    Huimin Village Bank was actually the first community bank to open after the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the industry supervisor, acted to facilitate banks’ expansion into rural markets in 2007.

    Hu and two fellow farmers in Huzui Village, Luo Sanjun and Liu Xiuping, decided to visit the new bank, although they weren’t too optimistic. But they got a loan in two days: 160,000 yuan for a poultry yard.

    They’re now raising 14,500 chickens. In half a year, they sold 10,000 chickens, getting especially good prices as Lunar New Year approached. And Hu and his partners weren’t the only lucky ones.

    Half a month after it opened, the village bank learned that the county government wanted to boost the otter-raising business in Fuxing Town, one of the larger towns in the county. The bank did a meticulous market survey and found that the business was fairly promising and would allow farmers to repay loans in five to six months. The bank quickly lent 1 million yuan to about 1,000 households in the town.

    ”We aim to serve all local farmers, lending them normally no more than 20,000 yuan each time,” said Cai Xiaodong, vice-president of the bank. “Farmers would find it simpler to get loans with us, as we require no warranty or mortgage,” said Cai. “We consult village officials and rural businessmen concerning the applicants’ credit standing and repayment capacity.”

    SHANGHAI, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — China and the United States officially signed here on Friday an agreement on setting up a military hotline between the two defense departments, the Chinese Defense Ministry said.

    The agreement was signed at the conclusion of a working meeting between the two defense departments which began on Thursday.

    The Ministry said the two sides also signed an agreement on launching military archives cooperation in order to find U.S. military personnel missing in the Korean War, but did not disclose the details of both agreements.

    The hotline is aimed at providing instant contact between Chinese and U.S. defense and military leaders on major issues of common concern, especially in emergencies, according to officials with the Defense Ministry.

    Since Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush agreed to advance bilateral military relations during their meeting in April 2006, discussions have been going on setting up a military hotline.

    The two sides reached consensus to set up the hotline during U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ visit to China in November 2007.

    SHANGHAI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) — The number of fund management companies in China’s mainland hit 60 with the recent approval of the ABC-CA Fund Management Co., Ltd by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

    Three companies are sharing the stock of the new fund company registered in Shanghai. The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) holds 51.67 percent of the shares while Banque Indosuez, an agricultural lender based in France, and the Aluminum Corporation of China Limited Company holds 33.33 percent and 15 percent respectively.

    ABC vice president Yang Kun assumes the post of board chairman, while Xu Hongbo is general manager. Its investment director is award-winning fund manager Luan Jie.

    The new company is seen as an important step in financial management for ABC, the result of longtime cooperation between the two agricultural banks of China and France, Yang said.

    The company is currently preparing its first fund.

    After the founding of ABC-CA Fund Management Co., Ltd, the four state-run commercial banks have now all have accomplished establishing joint venture fund companies.

    ABC, one of the four state-run commercial banks, owns the largest business network in China. Banque Indosuez, founded in 1875, is the biggest bank in France, second largest in Europe and fourth globally. The lender has 25 years of asset management experience in Asia.

    The third shareholder, Aluminum Corporation of China Limited Company, is the country’s largest alumina and aluminium producer. It is also the world’s second biggest alumina producer.

    BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — Top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo met with visiting Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua here on Friday, pledging to advance bilateral strategic partnership.

    Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), said the two countries witnessed smooth development of bilateral relations since establishing diplomatic ties, with fruitful cooperation in various fields and frequent high-level visits.

    China and Nigeria have increased the bilateral cooperation in agriculture, industry, infrastructure, electric power, telecom and manufacture fields. Wu said this injected vitality into China-Nigeria relations.

    Wu said China attached great importance to relations with Nigeria, and was ready to work with Nigeria to further advance the bilateral strategic partnership.

    As to the parliamentary cooperation between the two nations, Wu said the NPC valued the relations with Nigerian parliament, and would keep the momentum of close exchanges, in an effort to push for the China-Nigeria strategic partnership in an all-round manner.

    Yar’Adua said Nigeria and China witnessed sound growth of bilateral strategic partnership. Nigeria cherished the relations with China, and expected to become an important cooperative partner of China in Africa.

    Yar’Adua hoped that the cooperation between the two nations would set a good example for Africa-China cooperation.

    Nigeria was willing to further increase cooperation with China in electric power, energy, infrastructure and other fields, he said, noting that Nigeria would also enhance party-to-party exchanges and parliamentary cooperation with China, so as to promote the all-round growth of Nigeria-China strategic partnership.

    Yar’Adua is on a four-day official visit to China, which is also his first tour to the country.