The "2008 Building a Harmonious Society and Corporate Social Responsibility Forum", sponsored by the Chinese Association of Productivity Science, has urged Chinese corporations to create safe working environments for their staffs and maintain an honest corporate image. The two-day Shanghai forum which recently ended was held to promote and improve the concept of corporate social responsibility across the country.

The forum also concluded that Shanghai should take a leading role in promoting corporate responsibility and urged that it should be undertaken in accordance with local development standards.

Wetlands promotion

To better promote local tourism, the first China Panjin Wetlands International Tourism Week will be launched in Panjin, Liaoning province in September.

Hailed as "one of the internationally important wetlands" and "the most beautiful wetlands in China", Shuangtaihekou Nature Reserve, of 128,000 hectares, is one of the world's most well-preserved ecosystem of the wetlands.

Panjin tourism revenue in 2008 is expected to reach 7.75 billion, accounting for 12 percent of the city's GDP.

As an official "national ecological model city", Panjin is famous domestically and internationally for its wetlands. Wetlands in Panjin are 3,150 sq km, accounting for 80 percent of the city's total area.

New mega-port in Wuhan

Wuhan in Hubei province will invest 1.5 billion yuan to establish a 100 million ton-berth port during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) period, China Economic Times reported.

It said the Wuhan port will be completed in 2025, and its total throughput will reach 163.6 million tons.

In the next two years Wuhan will also invest 3 billion yuan in building eight wharfs. Among them are five projects which will start this year with a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan.

Taiyuan coal expo

The second China International Coal and Energy New Industry Expo, organized by the Shanxi provincial government and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, will open in September in Taiyuan, the provincial capital.

The expo will display new coal products, technologies and energy resources such as mining equipment, transportation equipment and preparation equipment.

It will also present investment and trade opportunities.

The expo will hold forums on "The Harmonious Development of Coal, Energy and the Environment in the 21st Century", "Innovative Clean Energy", and "New Industry and Capitalization of Coal".

Development bases

To better promote local scientific development, eight State-level development bases have been established in the Guangzhou Development Zone, Guangdong province. Among them are bases for biological development and services outsourcing, the Southern Daily reports.

Located in the development zone, Guangzhou Scientific City also features electronic information, software services outsourcing, financial services, logistics, biomedicine, environmental protection, new materials, industrial design, animation and other hi-tech industries.

To date about 90 companies have signed contracts to settle in the zone.

(China Daily 07/14/2008 page10)