US Ambassador: Bright Future for Sino-US Business

The success of an increasing number of co-operative projects by US-owned companies in China is pointing towards a bright future in Sino-US business co-operation after China entering the World Trade Organization (WTO), US Ambassador Joseph W. Prueher said on Wednesday.

The newly appointed ambassador said his experience in China where he has been for four months and the signing of a major business contract on Wednesday had strengthened his belief that the US Congress should grant China permanent normal trade relations status in a crucial congressional vote expected late in May.

"With co-operation like this, with deals like this, certainly China should be in the WTO," Prueher said at the signing ceremony of a contract, through which the US engine maker Cummins International sold 500 compressed natural gas (CNG) engines to the Beijing Public Transportation Corporation (BPTC).

The contract, besides impressing the ambassador, made Beijing's public transit operator the world's second largest fleet powered by clean fuel, following closely behind its counterpart in Los Angeles.

The purchase of the engines was followed by the purchase of 300 Cummins CNG engines last year in Beijing, bringing the total number of the CNG-powered buses in the Chinese capital to 800.

Zheng Shusen, general manager of BPTC, said his company will probably buy another 500 CNG engines from Cummins this year if the implementation of the current purchase went smoothly, as part of the efforts to improve air quality in the heavily polluted city.

Zheng said bilateral co-operation has been successful and the 300 natural gas buses that are now operating on downtown Chang'an Avenue and Second Ring Road, "greatly improve air quality and are winning wide claim from the public."

Cummins' alternative fuel engines have catered to the needs of a government grappling with worsening air quality. Wang Guangtao, vice-mayor of Beijing, said automobiles powered by diesel, widely seen as not clean, will not be used in downtown Beijing.

"I think this can show our determination to clean the air in the capital," he said at the signing ceremony.

Also, he said he expected to increase the total number of transit buses to 10,000 by 2002, from 7,200 at present, in an effort to improve the capital's widely criticized traffic conditions.

On the other side of the coin, the Columbus-based engine maker, with 280,000 engines sold in China, also benefited from the bilateral co-operative projects.

"You can imagine how many jobs have been created back in the US (by the huge orders from China)," an insider said.



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