China to invest in 60 clean-tech demonstration projects

Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) is arranging more than 60 demonstration projects on energy saving and emission reduction, according to Liu Jiugui, deputy director of MST's department of high and new technology.

Speaking at the 2009 China International Clean-Tech and New Energy Investment Forum recently, Liu said these demonstration projects, involving investment between 10 billion and 20 billion yuan, are being selected from 1,200 candidate projects.

So far, three projects are under implementation while the rest awaiting final approval.

These projects are involved in petrochemical, iron and steel, light industry, building material, non-ferrous metals, textile, equipment manufacturing, automobile, shipbuilding, power generation and biomass energy industries.

When all the projects go into full operation, they are expected to save eight million tons of coal and 290 million tons of water, cut the discharge by 36 million tons of carbon dioxide and 370,000 tons of toxic gases, and gain economic benefits of 113 billion yuan.

Liu said that, after these projects are popularized across the country, China is able to save 170 million tons of coal and 2.3 billion tons of water, reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and toxic gases by more than 600 million tons and 20 million tons, respectively.