From April 7 to May 8, government delegations from 19 affluent provinces and cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Shenzhen, visited the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to discuss detailed plans to boost the region’s development.

Under a “pairing assistance” model revealed by the central government at a high-level meeting on March 29 and 30, the 19 provinces and cities are each required to help support the development of different areas in Xinjiang. Guangdong, for instance, is mainly to assist the Shufu and Jiashi counties in the Kashgar Prefecture.

The “roadmap” unveiled at the March meeting aims to narrow the gap between Xinjiang and other inland regions as much as possible over 10 years and guarantee that Xinjiang fulfills the goal of achieving a “moderately prosperous society in all aspects” by 2020.

Ten months after the riot in the regional capital, Urumqi, Internet services in Xinjiang had fully resumed, another sign the situation was returning to normal and the region was preparing for a fresh new start.

From April 7 to May 8, government delegations from 19 affluent provinces and cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Shenzhen, visited the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to discuss detailed plans to boost the region’s development.

Under a “pairing assistance” model revealed by the central government at a high-level meeting on March 29 and 30, the 19 provinces and cities are each required to help support the development of different areas in Xinjiang. Guangdong, for instance, is mainly to assist the Shufu and Jiashi counties in the Kashgar Prefecture.

The “roadmap” unveiled at the March meeting aims to narrow the gap between Xinjiang and other inland regions as much as possible over 10 years and guarantee that Xinjiang fulfills the goal of achieving a “moderately prosperous society in all aspects” by 2020.

Ten months after the riot in the regional capital, Urumqi, Internet services in Xinjiang had fully resumed, another sign the situation was returning to normal and the region was preparing for a fresh new start.

Source : Konaxis

The investment deal worth 5 billion yuan (730 million dollars) is with the Hong Kong-listed Mongolia Energy Corp for the development of the ski resort over 10 years.

The ski resort?s highest point is 2,600 meters, and its slopes extend downward between 600 and 800 meters. The resort is covered with snow from November to May every year. Other features of the resort will be an artificial lake, a golf course, hotels and villas, according to the news agency.

Construction is scheduled to start next year. The project will be completed in five phases over 10 years, according to the report.

According to Kang Jian, the director of the Kanas scenic area, the local tourism industry had rebounded since the July riots, with about 7,000 to 8,000 visitors daily to Kanas the last week of August.

‘The situation is stabilizing and tourism is recovering,’ he said, pointing to the holding of a trade fair in Urumqi this week. Started in 1992, the annual Urumqi Trade Fair has brought business contracts worth $31.7 billion in 17 years.

The tourism industry contributes 6 to 7 percent of Xinjiang’s gross domestic product (GDP) and is an important source of income for residents.

Thousands of domestic and overseas tourist groups canceled their tours after the riot.

Source : Konaxis

“The size has surpassed China’s total proven niobium reserve of 80,000 tonnes,” said Xu Haiming, a senior engineer with the Institute of Mineral Resources at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.

It also has a proven reserve of more than 10,000 tonnes of tantalum and rare earth metals, Xu said.

Niobium and tantalum are rare metal elements, which are widely used in the fields of electronics, aviation, atomic energy, and mechanical manufacturing.

Source : Konaxis

Net income rose to 758.3 million yuan, or 0.13 yuan a share, from a restated 568.8 million yuan, or 0.10 yuan, a year earlier, the Beijing-based company said Tuesday. Sales climbed 32 percent to 18.26 billion yuan.

China Communications won more orders from China?s major three telecom carrier after the trio were awarded licenses to start 3G services this year. The phone companies may spend about 200 billion yuan on the high-speed networks, according to government estimates.

Source : Konaxis

Gao Song, a researcher with the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, .arrived in Xinjiang on Monday ( May 11) to observe samples of the 2-cm thorny green caterpillar with black stripes at a laboratory of Xinjiang Agricultural University. He and his colleagues were expecting to identify them from the size, color, wings and genitalia of the moths.

“The mystery may remain unsolved for months if the caterpillars choose to estivate in the hot, arid summer and postpone their metamorphosis until the fall,” he said Thursday.

Su Hongtian, an expert with Ministry of Agriculture, has taken samples of the caterpillars to Beijing, where he hopes to use DNA technologies to identify their species.

“If their DNA data is not in the existing databank, we, too, need to wait until moths are produced,” said Su.

So far, the caterpillars have damaged 8,000 hectares of grassland in Usu and forced nearly 20,000 head of livestock and 50 herding families to leave. It was the worst plague of caterpillars in three decades in the city about 280km west of the regional capital of Urumqi.

Local farmers often use chickens and ducks to deal with pests, but it seems ineffective this time. Local herders and entomologists claimed they had never seen the caterpillars before. However, this time, the birds showed no interest in the thorny caterpillars in Usu.

The Usu municipal government announced a grazing ban on affected grassland on Saturday so that spray vehicles can proceed to fight the plague with pesticide.

“We expect all the caterpillars to be killed by this weekend,” said Mu Chen, an official with the Xinjiang regional headquarters of locust and rodent control.

Source : Konaxis