China-Burma high-speed rail on agenda
CONSTRUCTION of a high-speed rail link between Yunnan Province and neighboring Burma, part of a project to upgrade transport connections with Southeast Asian nations, would start in about two months, a top rail expert said.
The line, from Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, to Rangoon, Burma s largest city, would be 1,920 kilometers long, said Wang Mengshu, an academic of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Trains would run at about 170-200 km/h upon completion, he said.
Airlines to face huge carbon bills from EU
CHINA S civil aviation industry might have to pay 800 million yuan (US$120 million) in carbon credits to the European Union (EU) in 2012 for carbon emissions, the Economic Information Daily reported Friday, quoting officials.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2012, the EU would allocate the carbon emission quota to airline companies operating flights departing from or arriving in the EU. A company had to buy extra emission credits after surpassing the quota, the newspaper reported, quoting an anonymous official in charge of energy saving and pollution reduction policies at the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Nuclear corp. starts building new reactor
CHINA National Nuclear Corp., the country s biggest operator of nuclear power plants, started construction of a 650-megawatt reactor in the southern island province of Hainan.
The No. 2 reactor, one of two to be built in the first phase, would start commercial operations in 2015, China National Nuclear said yesterday. Investment in the initial phase of the Changjiang plant would exceed 20 billion yuan, the Beijing-based company said.
Diabetes-drug market to reach US$2b
THE country s market for diabetes-related drugs would almost triple over the next decade, spurred by increased prevalence of the disease, Datamonitor Group said.
The London-based research company estimates that the value of the overall diabetes pharmaceutical market in China will increase to US$2 billion in 2019 from US$0.7 billion last year, according to an e-mailed statement yesterday.
