Relic repair cash attracts alien firms

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 12, 2003

Relic repair cash attracts alien firms

Beijing's cultural relics are attracting more foreigners' eyes, not only for sightseeing but for business.

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Beijing's cultural relics are attracting more foreigners' eyes, not only for sightseeing but for business.

As the municipal government prepares to invest hundreds of millions to repair cultural relics, opportunities for foreign relic rehabilitation companies are plentiful.

Representatives of 10 Italian companies engaged in relic rehabilitation and renovation were in Beijing Thursday for a seminar on Sino-Italian co-operation on relic rehabilitation.

Kong Fanzhi, vice-director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, said that the 3,000-year-old Chinese capital has numerous cultural relics such as ancient buildings, gardens and various kinds of articles that need to be repaired or renovated.

"Italy is a nation with a long history and has advanced technology and rich experience in relic renovation. I'm glad to see that Italian companies are interested in working with the Chinese side to better protect ancient treasures," said Kong.

As a matter of fact, several Italian companies are already involved in some relic reparation projects in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province and a famous historical and cultural city in China, said Zhang Nanan, a trade analyst with the Italian Trade Commission Beijing Office.

Zhang said as far as he knows, some Italian companies are taking part in the ongoing renovation project of the Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911).

According to the Beijing cultural relics bureau, some Japanese companies have also participated in renovation projects of the Imperial Palace, which is the most extensive reparation in history with a cost of 1 billion yuan (US$121 million) and a six-year timeframe.

Nearly 20 Beijing companies qualified to repair relics also participated in yesterday's seminar.

Kong said the Beijing municipal government has planned to invest 600 million yuan (US$72.6 million) between 2003 and 2007 on relic protection and there are many opportunities for foreign companies and institutions in this field to work with the Chinese side.

"We will launch many renovation projects next year in the old city area, and the rehabilitation of traditional Chinese courtyards is an important one," said Kong.

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