Renewable energy
 
China will invest 1.5 trillion yuan (US$189 billion) to increase the ratio of renewable energy consumption, says Wu Guihui, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Energy under the National Development and Reform Commission.

Currently, 7.5 per cent of China's energy comes from renewable sources. The country's goal is to make it 10 per cent by 2010 and 16 per cent by 2020, revised from its initial goal of 20 per cent.

"Within 10 years, we will see a population of 30 million, in all the remote rural areas, have access to electricity, mainly from renewable energy-powered projects," Wu says.

Non-performing loans

China's commercial banks reported lower rates of non-performing loans in the first nine months of the year, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said last week.

The CBRC statistics showed that non-performing loans for the country's major commercial banks stood at 1.2 trillion yuan (US$152 billion) by the end of September, 46.9 billion yuan (US$5.9 billion) lower than at the end of 2005.

The bad-loan ratio was 7.6 per cent, 1.3 percentage points lower than the end of last year.

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