A poverty-relief project has been launched in China's
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a program funded by joint
investment from China and Germany.
The project was initiated on Sunday in Kashi Region and Kirgiz
Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilsu to the southern area of
Xinjiang.
The German government will provide 8 million euros (US$9.6
million) for the project to help reduce poverty in the Kaxgar River
area.
The project aims to assist 30,000 poor villagers living in the
area by helping them adopt new water-saving technologies to water
over 4,000 hectares of fruit trees.
The German government has already offered Xinjiang about US$5
million of free economic aid for building solar power plants in
Hami region and Mongolia Autonomous Prefecture of Bayingolin,
enabling 16,000 villagers and herdsmen to use electricity for the
first time in their life.
The Sino-German financial cooperation project first started up
in 1985, and by 2005, the German government had provided China with
over US$1.6 billion of project funds in various fields, such as
infrastructure improvement, environmental protection, tree planting
and reforestation, as well as construction of industrial
projects.
(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2006)