Germany has agreed to a low-interest loan to China of a billion Deutschmarks (US$450 million) to support the nation's environmental protection industry.

China and Germany were deciding on priorities for future co-operation in environmental protection at the China-Germany 2000 Conference held in Beijing, which ended Wednesday.

Priorities are to be given to the development of clean energy resources, energy saving, water saving, ecosystem administration, air and water pollution prevention and control, solid waste treatment, marine environment protection and planting trees in urban areas.

The information was released in a joint declaration at the closing ceremony of the conference.

The Chinese and German governments will hold an environmental protection forum and organize companies to hold technological exchanges, said the declaration.

It also called for stronger links in environmental protection law and regulations between China and Germany.

China will learn from Germany's well-established environmental protection measures, such as its water pricing system, sewage treatment and transport control.

China will introduce advanced technology from foreign countries to develop its environmental protection industry, according to Xie Zhenhua, minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration.

Foreign capital is also encouraged to enter the Chinese market, said Xie.

The German Government will encourage more entrepreneurs to co-operate with Chinese businesses in environmental protection, according to the announcement.

During the two-day conference, which was attended by 1,050 people from the two countries, trade talks on bilateral environmental protection technology co-operation were held and attracted more than 800 people.

Among them include representatives from 330 Chinese companies and 53 German firms.

More than 800 business-to-business talks have been held and nearly a third of them have agreed to further trade talks and co-operation on imports and exports, technology transfer and trade.

Forty-five technology reports have been given.

(China Daily 12/14/2000)