Chinese Auto Giant Set to Meet State Pollution Control TargetsChina First Automobile Group Corp, one of the country's three major auto manufacturers, has invested nearly 100 million yuan (US$12 million) in air and water pollution control projects over the past year.Song Xuezhi, director of the Security and Environmental Protection Department of the company, said the investment, a sum rarely seen before, aims to enable the auto giant to meet the pollutant discharge standards set by the central government. The central government vowed four years ago to close down all the polluting industrial firms that fail to meet industrial pollution discharge standards by the end of this year to curb growing industrial pollution following 18 years of high economic growth. Located in Changchun, capital of northeastern China's Jilin Province, the company has recently allocated 76 million yuan (US$9.1 million) for centralized disposal of the sewage of a disposal plant being built in western suburb of the city. The company also earmarked 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) last year for air pollution control projects. Song said he is confident that his company will meet the State standards by the end of the year. The company, with 150,000 workers, reported a sale volume of 30 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion) last year and the waste water it produced each day topped 74,000 tons. |
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