IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Transport

Train ticket prices to rise: expert

Traveling by train could become more expensive than flying after the reform of China's railways authorities, a top engineer said.

Wang Mengshu, deputy chief engineer of the China Railway Tunnel Group, predicted that debts built up by the now-defunct railways ministry would lead to a rise in prices. Railway freight costs have not increased for 30 years, but that will end after the establishment of China Railway Corp, Wang said. He also expressed concern that the corporation is likely to construct the most profitable railways rather than the most needed.

During a recent restructuring, the Ministry of Railways was dismantled. China Railway Corp has taken over its commercial functions, while the Ministry of Transport is doing the administrative functions.

Internet

Call for joint effort in cyber fight

Greater international cooperation to thwart cyber attacks, boosting online security and putting an end to false accusations were some of the recommendations of a key report on Internet security.

Online attacks originating from IP addresses and servers in other countries and regions have grown sharply, said a report by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team published on March 19. The government is working with 91 foreign organizations, covering 51 countries, and has signed 12 international agreements on cyber protection, one of the report's authors said.

The team is part of a regional network sharing information and issuing alerts to combat cyber security threats among Asian countries. The team also cracked down on a botnet, a collection of Internet connected programs generating spam or malicious software, in working with Microsoft in 2012.

Defense

Navy begins patrol-training mission

The Chinese navy on March 20 started a large-scale, far-reaching patrol-training mission to the South China Sea and Western Pacific Ocean.

The mission will be mainly conducted by four battleships from the South Sea Fleet of the People's Liberation Army navy - amphibian landing craft Jinggangshan, missile destroyer Lanzhou, missile frigates Yulin and Hengshui, and a number of aircraft, according to naval officials.

The fleet will be divided into three battle groups during several phases of the training and perform drills around waters in the South China Sea and the western Pacific Ocean.

The mission aims to improve the Chinese navy's combat capabilities, protection of marine interests, high seas escort and emergency response fields.

Policy

Simpler approvals for projects

The State Council has vowed to remove administrative approval procedures for investment projects, and decided to delegate approval powers for some projects to lower-level government departments.

The council will also take steps to reduce the approval time for projects, it said in a statement. Also on the cards are plans to reform eight other procedures, including those involving projects related to production and social affairs. The council has also asked government departments to work out a timetable for the plan.

The plan to remove administrative approval items will be a major breakthrough for the State Council's institutional reform. It released 72 specific tasks in its reform plan, which gave details of the departments and deadlines involved.

Science

Jumbo cargo plane takes shape

The country's first jumbo air-freighter has moved closer to an official take-off, its chief designer said weeks after its successful maiden test flight.

When fitted with Chinese-designed and manufactured engines, the Yun-20, or Transport-20, will have a greater take-off weight, longer fuselage and carry more cargo, said Tang Changhong, who has led the design team of the jumbo aircraft since 2007.

The aircraft is currently powered by four Russian-made engines, but will ultimately use Chinese engines. It will be in service probably within five years, depending on tests, Tang said. The 15-meter-high aircraft underwent a successful test flight on Jan 26. It has a load-carrying capacity of 66 metric tons.

Finance

Bank to give Africa more support

China Development Bank will continue to enhance financial cooperation with African countries, Yuan Li, vice-president of CDB, said on March 18.

Addressing a forum on Chinese businesses in Africa, Yuan said that as China's biggest foreign investment and financing bank, CDB had provided various forms of financial support to more than 30 African countries as of February this year, with a credit balance of $16 billion.

The bank's direct investment in Africa via the China-Africa Development Fund has reached $2 billion, he said. According to Yuan, the bank's investment and financing cooperation with Africa is in a variety of fields, including agriculture and electric power.

These loans generated at least 20,000 job opportunities in Africa and benefited 400,000 local farmers.

China Daily

(China Daily 03/22/2013 page2)