The donation was the largest donation from an international organization to a Chinese industrial project. Construction of the project will soon begin.

The HFC-134a project, which is based in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, is designed to have an annual output of 10,000 tons of freon substitute. For the first phase, the annual production capacity will be 5,000 tons.

The project developer, Xi'an Modern Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.,was jointly set up by Jinzhu Co. Ltd. of Tibet and the Xi'an Modern Chemistry Institute. The company has developed the technology to synthesize HFC-134a and the catalyzer, enabling China to become the only developing country in the world with the technology.

HFC-134a is widely used in home air-conditioners, refrigerators,auto air-conditioning and aerosol production businesses in foreign countries to replace freon.

The annual production capacity of such freon substitutes in European countries and Japan exceeds 100,000 tons. China still has to rely on imports as currently the country does not have any equipment for industrial mass production.

Representatives from the secretariat for the MPMF Executive Committee, the World Bank and U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) and China's State Environmental Protection Administration attended Sunday's specially arranged signing ceremony for the donation.

While addressing the function, Wang Zhijia, a senior official with China's State Environmental Protection Bureau, said that China has eliminated 90,000 tons of ozone depleting substances (ODS) in recent years, the most of any developing country.

According to the official, China has taken a range of measures to protect the ozone layer since the country joined the Vienna Convention on Protection of the Ozone Layer and Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. China has also drafted and published more than 40 policies and regulations regarding control of ODS production, consumption, and administration of imports and exports.

(21dnn 01/15/2001)