Sichuan capital to boost pollution controls, attract foreign workersChengdu will continue to strive to ensure good air quality, the mayor of the southwestern metropolis, Luo Qiang, has pledged.The city recorded 235 goodair days last year, 21 days more than that in 2016, according to data shared by Luo on the sidelines of the ongoing National People's Congress. He is a deputy to the top legislature.Data also show that the annual average concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 - tiny pollutant particles that damage the lungs - also fell in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, by 13.7 percent and 10.2 percent respectively year-on-year in 2017.Over the past year, we focused on air pollution and improving air quality, and worked hard to safeguard the city's blue skies, Luo said.To this end, he pointed out that 889 coal-fired boilers and 23,900 outdated high-emissions vehicles were decommissioned in the city over the past year. Meanwhile, almost 4,000 restaurants have switched from coal to gas or electricity.The city has been implementing a four-year action plan to control air pollution since 2014.As of December, the annual average concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 had decreased by 41.3 and 42.3 percent respectively compared with the 2013 levels.By the end of last year, 281 companies on the Global Fortune 500 list had bases in Chengdu, including 199 overseas enterprises.The city has also attracted 51 investment projects from the world's top 500 companies, with total investment reaching 104.05 billion yuan ($16.5 billion) by the end of 2017, according to local media reports.Data from the Chengdu public security bureau also show the city had 17,411 permanent foreign residents as of February.Chengdu will cut overcapacity, promote the transformation and upgrading of industries, and resolutely reject the method to develop the economy by sacrificing the environment and wasting resources, Luo said.Luo said the local government will further implement its innovation-driven development strategy and promote mass innovation and entrepreneurship.Chengdu released a 12-point New Deal for Talents last year aimed at attracting more high-skilled people from home and abroad.The plan includes preferential policies such as supporting startups, solving housing issues and simplifying the procedures for skilled workers from overseas to stay in the city.The city has established 16 overseas offshore talent innovation and entrepreneurship centers worldwide to help attract highly skilled [email protected]silicone bandsevent wristbandsembossed-wristbandprinted-wristbandrubber band braceletsfuck cancer bracelet
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (left) and Finance Minister Taro Aso attend an upper house budget committee session in Tokyo on Wednesday. [Photo/Agencies] PM couple and finance minister under pressure over cover-up TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday remained steadfast that he and his wife were not involved in a discount land-sale deal that has seen the opposition call for the resignation of his key ally, Finance Minister Taro Aso. Abe and Aso have come under fresh pressure over the ministry's admission this week that it had altered documents related to the sale of state-owned land at a steep discount to a school operator with ties to Abe's wife, Akie. Suspicion of a cover-up could slash Abe's ratings and dash his hopes for a third term as leader of his Liberal Democratic Party. Victory in the LDP September leadership vote would put him on track to become Japan's longest-serving premier. Copies of documents released by the Finance Ministry on Monday showed that references to Abe, his wife and Aso were removed from the ministry's records of the sale to school operator Moritomo Gakuen. When you look at the documents even before they were altered, it is clear that my wife and I were not involved, Abe told an upper house budget committee on Wednesday, a statement echoed by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Abe has said he would resign if evidence were found that they had. According to the ministry documents, a comment from Moritomo Gakuen citing Akie Abe as telling him - This is good land so please proceed - was removed. Yasunori Kagoike, former head of Moritomo Gakuen, and his wife remain in custody after being arrested in July over the deal. Asked about the reference on Wednesday, Abe said: I checked with my wife and she says she said no such thing. My wife was neither the person in charge of establishing the school nor Mr Kagoike's boss, so naturally she would not have made such a remark. Abe and Aso told parliament they had never instructed officials at the finance ministry to alter the documents. The scandal has caused a stalemate in parliament, with opposition parties boycotting debate on the next fiscal year's budget, potentially delaying reforms to boost long-term economic growth. On Wednesday, an LDP politician told opposition counterpart Kiyomi Tsujimoto that the LDP would call former National Tax Agency chief Nobuhisa Sagawa to testify, a move previously opposed in return for the opposition returning to the budget debate, an opposition party official said. Sagawa headed the ministry division that submitted the documents before he became tax agency chief in July, an appointment critics saw as a reward for his efforts to diffuse the issue with his statements to parliament last year. Tsujimoto, who belongs to the Constitutional Democratic Party, countered by asking that Abe's wife appear as well, the opposition party official said. She did not receive a reply. Reuters