The World Bank's private sector arm said Friday it has invested US$10 million to expand a Chinese water and wastewater treatment plant.

The International Finance Corp. (IFC) said it will also assist Epure, a Singaporean holding company that owns 75 percent of China's Beijing Sound, in its proposed initial public offering on Singapore's stock exchange.

China is one of the world's 13 lowest-ranked countries in per capita water resources, the United Nations says, and these resources are expected to drop as the population grows.

(Shenzhen Daily August 29, 2006)