Japan has decided to provide 1.3 million yuan (some US$157,000) to build water purifying projects in two towns of southwest Guizhou Province, said Chihiro Arsumi, Japanese minister to China, at a signing ceremony of the aid contract in Guiyang Wednesday.  

The money will be used to produce drinking water for local people and livestock in Shidong town and Suojia township of Miao ethnic minority of the province.

The projects are sponsored by a special fund managed by the Japanese ambassador to China, which has aided 13 projects in Guizhou, involving about US$1 million.

By March 2003, the fund has launched 566 projects in China with an assistance of about US$38 million.

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2003)