By Feng Zhaokui (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-21 15:56

Japan's Asahi Brewery established its first solely-owned pilot farm (100 hectares) in Laiyang of Shandong Province with state-of-the-art farming technology that incorporates the whole process from planting, production, processing to distribution and sales.

This form of investment should be encouraged.

Third, China and Japan should increase cooperation in the transformation of deserts and wastelands. For years non-government organizations in Japan have sent members to China to help carry out tree-planting and forestation campaigns. In fact, transforming and utilizing deserts and wastelands can also be profitable and an important area for Japanese enterprises to invest in as well.

To be more specific, Japanese investment is needed in such efforts as planting resilient trees that can survive desert conditions. A Japanese enterprise holds the patent for a technology that makes high-end building materials out of the poplar, spreading solar power generation in desert areas, reclaiming pastures devoured by deserts and turning wastelands into fields of crops.

Fourth, China is keen on obtaining Japanese technology and funds for sewage treatment and seawater desalination.

Fifth, we should also seek more Japanese capital and technology for the development of the vast western region, logistics networks and building railways, which are more suitable to China's national conditions than highways. The latter takes up more land and causes more pollution.

Raising a green Asia and protecting the eco-environment in East Asia is key to the common interest of China and Japan. For this we have reason to believe the two governments will support and encourage Japanese enterprises to invest in the above-listed areas.

The author is a researcher with the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

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