16 projects inked at investment promotion meeting in China's Ningxia

YINCHUAN, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Sixteen cooperation projects worth a total of 2.43 billion yuan (about 357 million U.S. dollars) were inked at an investment promotion meeting in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The deals, covering new energy, the petrochemical industry, sewage treatment, manufacturing and other areas, were made on Thursday in the regional capital, Yinchuan.

More than 60 representatives of 25 multinational companies, foreign chambers of commerce, and embassies and consulates in China attended the meeting.

Ningxia has a big energy industry but it needs to be tapped for further international cooperation, said Xu Zhonghua, national chair of the energy working group at the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

He praised Ningxia for its good performance in carbon emission control and environmental protection along the Yellow River.

As a major power supplier in China, Ningxia has been shifting from a coal-dominated energy structure to a more green, sustainable pattern, betting on its abundant solar and wind resources.

In the first half of the year, green energy, including hydrogen, solar and wind energy, made up 25.6 percent of all the 73.5 billion kWh of power supplied by Ningxia.

The installed capacity of green power in Ningxia increased from 850,000 kilowatts to 25.74 million kilowatts over the past decade, about 40 percent of the total installed capacity.