China Gets US$13.44m Loan to Check Air PollutionThe United States and China signed a US$13.44 million subsidized-loan agreement for air-quality monitoring to help China improve urban air quality.The loan will be used to buy advanced air-quality monitoring equipment from the California-based Dasibi Environmental Corporation. Officials from China's State Environmental Protection Administration said the loan will help set up automated monitoring systems in 33 seriously polluted big cities. This move, they say, is necessary to report and forecast daily air quality. The contract is the second and biggest Sino-US environmental programme to date. China and the United States signed the first air-monitoring agreement in 1998,when US President Bill Clinton visited China. That year the United States loaned US$5.12 million and donated another US$145,000 to set up air-quality monitoring systems. Zhu Guangyao, vice-minister of China's State Environmental Protection Administration, said at a signing ceremony in Beijing that promoting environmental co-operation between the two nations is in the interest of both and will significantly help the planet's environment. He said he hopes the two countries further expand economic and technological co-operation and thereby improve overall friendship. |
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