BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) — More than 8,000 Chinese enterprises have been penalized for pollution offences in the first eight months of this year but the vice director of China’s environmental watchdog believes the results are “far below” the expectations of the public.

    Pan Yue, vice director of the State Environmental Protection Administration SEPA, said that four large-scale investigations into polluters had been carried out from 2005 and offenders had been penalized, including the closure of 12 major projects that “seriously violated” environmental protection regulations.

    ”But, frankly speaking, progress in environmental protection after these investigations are far below people’s expectations,” he admitted.

    Pan refused to be drawn on whether or not the government’s “green credit policy” could be classified as a success or a failure.

    The policy was introduced in July in which SEPA regularly handsover lists of heavy polluters to the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

    Based on the information, companies that fail to pass environmental assessments, or to implement China’s environmental protection regulations, are disqualified from getting loans from any bank or financial institution.

    ”It is too early to say whether the green credit loan policy is successful or not,” said Pan.

    ”China’s environmental issues are very complicated and cannot be solved by one or two policies,” he said.

    There has been a shift in the style of punishments doled out by SEPA to polluters in recent years. Long-term restrictions designed to affect the way businesses operate are now favored over one-off fines.

    ”We used to resort to the traditional mode of administrative penalty to curb pollution, but such an approach has its own limitations such as it relies too much on the personal feelings of the regulation enforcers,” he said.

    ”Now we have begun to use economic policies to protect environment and make them into a long-term system. Adopting economic polices to protect the environment is now the most effective approach to curbing environmental pollution in the international community and economic policies are easier to be institutionalized,” he said.

    ”After introducing the economic policies, we will continue to amend environment-related laws and have a long-term mechanism to protect our environment,” he said.

    Pan called on the Ministry of Commerce, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to cooperate in the formation of economic policies including, tax, insurance and security policies.

    ”With our joint efforts, we will try to work out several economic policies in one year, finish a pilot program of major economic polices in two years and primarily establish the economic policies mechanism to protect the environment in four years,” he said.

Hu’s tour boosts regional cooperation  

[China]  Premier Wen underlines education 

[World]  Iran: no intention to make atomic bomb

[Biz] AVIC I, GE to co-produce engines for regional jets

[Popular]  Ang Lee spy film surprise winner in Venice 

[Entertainment] Yao Ming leaves Taiwan after visit

    BEIJING, Sept.10 (Xinhua) — The roof of the new aircraft maintenance hangar in Beijing’s Capital Airport, recognized as the largest in Asia, was fitted on Saturday.

    The steel roof, weighing 10,500 tons, is as large as six football fields and took 20 hours to be installed, according to Yang Jing’ao, manager of the construction project with the Beijing Construction Engineering Group.

    In the 70,437-square meter hangar, six wide-body airplanes like the Airbus A380 will be able to undergo simultaneous repairs, which will provide maintenance services for more than 11,500 planes each year, said Yang.

    The hangar is expected to be put into operation before the Olympic Games next summer.

Hu’s tour boosts regional cooperation  

[China]  Premier Wen underlines education 

[World]  Iran: no intention to make atomic bomb

[Biz] AVIC I, GE to co-produce engines for regional jets

[Popular]  Ang Lee spy film surprise winner in Venice 

[Entertainment] Yao Ming leaves Taiwan after visit

    YINCHUAN, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) — A district government in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has claimed that complaints against corrupt village officials are down by half since supervisors were introduced into the area’s villages in November 2006 to monitor the work of the village heads.

    The Ningxia Commission for Discipline Inspection established the scheme last year following reports from some local CPC disciplinary committees that more than 70 percent of complaints and accusations they were receiving were targeting village officials.

    Supervisors have been appointed in 1,411 villages, 54 percent of the region’s total, to oversee budget allocation which local officials say cut corruption complaints in Jinfeng district in the regional capital of Yinchuan by half in the first six months of this year

    Before the advent of the “village supervisor” scheme, Ningxia had full-time supervision officials in all its towns. However, the town officials were unable to oversee every village official due to the large numbers of villages under the jurisdiction of one town and the remoteness of some of their locations, according to the regional disciplinary commission.

    However, it remains to be seen how effective the scheme, which has also been introduced to Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangxi, will be in the long-term.

    Eighty percent of the newly-appointed village supervisors in Ningxia are actually the deputy heads of the villages and receive no extra salary to perform the role of supervisor.

    Last week, China’s State Council, or the cabinet, appointed the Minister of Supervision as the head of the new National Corruption Prevention Bureau.

    Although few details were available about the establishment of the bureau, Professor Ren Jianmin from the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University said one of the most important tasks to prevent corruption is to reform the system by which officials are supervised and develop new anti-corruption policies.

    According to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of CPC, 97,260 officials were disciplined last year, more than 80 percent of whom had failed to carry out duties, taken bribes or violated the party’s financial rules.

    Several high-profile officials have caught in corruption scandals recently, including former director of China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) Zheng Xiaoyu and former party chief of China’s economic hub of Shanghai Chen Liangyu.

Hu’s tour boosts regional cooperation  

[China]  Premier Wen underlines education 

[World]  Iran: no intention to make atomic bomb

[Biz] AVIC I, GE to co-produce engines for regional jets

[Popular]  Ang Lee spy film surprise winner in Venice 

[Entertainment] Yao Ming leaves Taiwan after visit

    HONG KONG, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) — Henry Tang Ying-yen, acting chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, expressed profound sadness on Monday at the death of Tsui Sze Man, publisher of the Mirror.

    Tang said, “Mr Tsui served the country and Hong Kong with enthusiasm and strong dedication. As a patriotic overseas Chinese leader, he was a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and a delegate to the National People’s Congress (NPC).”

    ”He provided valuable opinions and counsel on the development of the country. Through his work as a member of the Preparatory Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and a Hong Kong Affairs Adviser, he also made significant contribution to Hong Kong’s smooth reunification with the motherland and the implementation of ‘One Country, Two Systems’,” he said.

    ”Mr Tsui was engaged in the cultural sector and was a political commentator. He will be remembered for his discerning mind and outspokenness. The Administration joins me in extending our deepest condolences to Mr Tsui’s family.” said Tang.

    Tsui Sze Man died in the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong Sunday night at age 93. He was former member of the Standing Committee of CPPCC and deputy of NPC. He was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 1997.

Hu’s tour boosts regional cooperation  

[China]  Premier Wen underlines education 

[World]  Iran: no intention to make atomic bomb

[Biz] AVIC I, GE to co-produce engines for regional jets

[Popular]  Ang Lee spy film surprise winner in Venice 

[Entertainment] Yao Ming leaves Taiwan after visit

    URUMQI, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) — A Russian mountaineer who fell from a cliff face in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is recuperating at a local hospital, government and hospital sources said on Monday.

    Sergey Bezditko, 48, was in a coma after high winds knocked him off Mount Kongur in western Xinjiang last Friday, said a spokesman with the local government in the Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilsu.

    He was descending the 7,719-meter tall mountain with five other Russian mountaineers.

    His teammates carried him to the foot of the mountain where they met a villager who also worked as a guide.

    The villager made a stretcher out of his donkey cart and carried the Bezditko to the nearest police station for first-aid, after which he was sent to the No. 1 People’s Hospital in Kashi Prefecture for an operation.

    Hospital sources said Bezditko had regained consciousness and was able to talk again on Sunday. He was still under observation on Monday.

    His five teammates left China for home on Sunday.

    In another development, around 1,100 people have been called up to join the search for six Russian tourists who were reported missing after they embarked on a canoeing trip in Xinjiang’s Hotan Prefecture late last month.

    The six Russians were identified as Vladimir Smetannikov, Sergey Chernik, Andrey Pautov, Dmitry Tishchenko, Ivan Chernik and Alexander Zverev, with the youngest aged 25 and the oldest 47.

Hu’s tour boosts regional cooperation  

[China]  Premier Wen underlines education 

[World]  Iran: no intention to make atomic bomb

[Biz] AVIC I, GE to co-produce engines for regional jets

[Popular]  Ang Lee spy film surprise winner in Venice 

[Entertainment] Yao Ming leaves Taiwan after visit

    BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) — Bank of Beijing, the third Chinese city-level commercial bank to go public, will be able to raise as much as 15 billion yuan (2 billion U.S. dollars) for its public offering in Shanghai, Monday’s Shanghai Securities News reports.

    Earlier reports said it hoped to raise about 13 billion yuan (1.7 billion dollars) on the domestic equity market.

    The local bank in Beijing said the price range for its initial public offering would be set between 11.5 yuan (1.5 dollars) and 12.5 yuan (1.7 dollars) for each share in a statement posted on Sunday to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

    The bank would sell 1.2 billion A shares on the Shanghai bourse, hich would account for 19.3 percent of its enlarged capital after he Shanghai listing.

    Analysts said most institutions would subscribe to the offering at the upper limit of 12.5 yuan (1.7 dollars) each, to make it the largest IPO ever for Chinese city-level commercial banks, of which there are a total of 114 in operation.

    Bank of Nanjing and Bank of Ningbo, the first two Chinese city-level commercial banks listed on the domestic equity market, raised a combined 11.1 billion yuan (1.46 billion dollars) in July.

    The share price of Bank of Nanjing leapfrogged to close at 22.08 yuan (2.9 dollars) each share last Friday, which more than doubled its IPO price of 11 yuan (1.5 dollars). Bank of Ningbo almost tripled its IPO price to close the previous trading day at 26.63 yuan (3.5 dollars) each.

    Bank of Beijing said the raised funds would be used to boost its capital adequacy ratio and its capabilities of risk control and profit making.

    Bank of Beijing reported a net profit of 550 million yuan (72.4 million dollars) in the first quarter this year with assets totaling 263.98 billion yuan (34.7 billion dollars).

    Its capital adequacy ratio stood at 13.23 percent at the end of March, with the non-performing loan ratio at 3.34 percent.

    The Dutch banking and insurance group ING is the largest shareholder of the bank with a 19.9 percent stake, while the International Financial Corporation holds five percent as the fourth largest shareholder.

Hu’s tour boosts regional cooperation  

[China]  Premier Wen underlines education 

[World]  Iran: no intention to make atomic bomb

[Biz] AVIC I, GE to co-produce engines for regional jets

[Popular]  Ang Lee spy film surprise winner in Venice 

[Entertainment] Yao Ming leaves Taiwan after visit