The Tsinghua-BP Clean Energy Research and Education Center was
inaugurated in Beijing Tuesday.
The establishment of this center signifies China's sustainable
and responsible attitude towards economic development, said
visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the opening
ceremony.
It is significant for Tsinghua University and
BP (British Petroleum) to
cooperate in clean energy research, he said.
The global economy faces the challenges of clean energy research
and production. The Tsinghua-BP center will help China to establish
a stable research mechanism, which is important not only to the
world economy, but to the whole planet, he said.
China, as a country of 1.3 billion people, faces almost all of
the economic issues commonly faced by developing countries. In this
sense, how China develops its economy influences the world economy,
he said.
Gu Binglin, president of Tsinghua University, said the
establishment of the center is an important milestone for
cooperation between Tsinghua and large British companies. In recent
years, Tsinghua has built sound cooperative relations with British
academic and industrial circles and has initiated a number of
cooperative projects.
During Blair's last visit in 1998, Tsinghua University and
Britain's Surrey University signed an agreement for research on the
"Tsinghua-1" micro-satellite. The satellite has been launched and
is currently in orbit.
Prior to the ceremony, Blair discussed a number of issues
relating to clean energy, such as coal, coal gasification and
natural gas exploitation with Tsinghua students.
(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2003)