Not long ago following the Sino-Japan Journalists Study Team organized by Japanese Embassy in China reporters of the People's Daily traveled to Sichuan Province and Chongqing municipality in southwest China for news gathering. During this trip, our reporters witnessed how Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) to China used for the development of China's west has brought substantial benefit to both China and Japan.

More injection in talents training and environmental protection

Japan's ODA framework consists of three parts: loans in terms of yen, aid given gratis and technical cooperation with Yen loans accounting for 90 percent in this package. Along with the development of Chinese economy, recent years have witnessed more yen loans gradually shifted from infrastructure construction in coastal areas to inland and poverty-hit areas in China. More capital from the aid has been pumped into the environment protection and talents training.

Talent training plays a very important role in carrying out the strategy of "Development of China's West". In 2001, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation extended 6.31 billion yen credit for talents education in Sichuan Province to improve the condition in colleges in China's western regions which needed more investment in their higher education.

The Chengdu University of Technology was one of the eight benefited from this program. On the campus, a large piece of empty land left after demolition was seen encircled by white wall. Mr. Wang Yingchuan, vice president of the university told the visitors that this would be the site reserved for the construction of a modernized teaching and research building with a floor space of 35,000 square meters covering a land area of 5000 square meters in two years time. Half of the investment for the building, 815 million yen, came from the ODA loans and would be used to civil engineering, equipment purchasing and training of personnel concerned. Now they are preparing for bid invitation.

As the largest industrial city in southwest China, mountainous Chongqing municipality carries great weight in the development of China's west. But the serious air pollution has hampered its sustainable development. Fortunately it was included in the project of Sino-Japan Demonstration Cities for Environmental Protection after the Sino-Japan summit proposed this project. Since then, Chongqing has used 7.7 billion-yen loans to transform its smoke and gas emission facilities.

Construction of facilities of gas emission and desulfurization began at the Chongqing Jiulong Power Plant in January 2003 to alleviate air pollution. This project bought desulfurization equipment with 23.5 million yen loans from Mitsubishi, Japan. When the new facilities are put into operation after the completion of the project by the end of this year, emission of sulfur dioxide will be reduced by more than 35, 000 tons a year, accounting for 5 percent of the total sulfur emission of the whole city. Personnel responsible for the project said the benefit of Japan's aid in this field would be due to effect in future development in Chongqing.

Another example is the Light Rail Transit System in Chongqing which is jointly funded by Chinese and Japanese governments. New idea of urban environmental protection has been employed in this cooperation. The 19.15 kilometer-long light rail line has got 27.1 billion yen in loans and introduced three key technologies of single rail from Japan. The construction was started at the end of 2000 and will be open to traffic in September 2005.

When traveling in an engineering vehicle on this line, the visiting reporters saw the viaduct. This design makes the greening along the line possible as it does not affect illumination or occupy land on the ground. Low noise and no waste gas emission will also make it a rail line really environmental friendly.

A bridge for mutual understanding and friendship

In Japan's ODA to China, aid given gratis and technical aid mean much less than the yen in loans, but the projects done with it are closely related to the life of the people.

At Xiexing Town of Guang'an city of Sichuan, the hometown of Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect for China's reform and opening-up strategy, a piece of green land is seen here as the result of a one-year project called "Demonstration Forest for Sino-Japan Friendly Technical Cooperation". It was completed in last March. This forestation project covering 18.2 hectares is a crystal of Japan's cooperation with China in tech field.

The result of another similar Sino-Japan technical cooperation, the forestation project in Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture has gathered up experience for the treatment of water and soil erosion in the An'ning River Basin within the upper reach of the Yangtze River.

Traveling between Liangshan and Guang'an, Japanese experts participating in the project are working very hard to give instructions to local forestation workers and collect effective data for the forestation. Simply dressed, the Japanese experts to whom the reporters talked were all very kind. They have happy cooperation with their Chinese colleagues and ordinary forestation workers.

The Attached Children's Hospital to Chongqing Medical University again tells a story about how Japan's free aid has built a bridge of friendship. Japan offered 240 million worth of medical equipment for the hospital in March 2003. There are 87 pieces of equipment in 36 varieties in this aid, such as electronic laparoscope for children, microscope for cerebral surgery operations, apparatus for blood analysis in ICU, etc. These apparatuses have greatly improved the diagnosis and treatment of difficult and serious diseases for children patients.

Short as the trip was, the reporters were impressed by the special role that Japan's economic aid was playing in promoting the friendship between the two peoples of China and Japan.

As Chihiro Atsumi, minister for economic affairs at Japanese embassy in China said in an interview, for years Japan's economic aid to China with the yen in loans as the major form benefited both Japan and China.

Although there is a different voice on this issue in Japan, cooperation between China and Japan will continue in this field. Because it will not only help push the trade and economic development between the two countries forward, but also strike root of the common wishes of the two peoples deep into their hearts for an everlasting friendship.

By People's Daily Online