BEIJING, CHINA (August 26, 2004) – Earlier today, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded a $348,185 grant to China’s Ministry of Water Resources to partially fund a technical assistance program to demonstrate a system for managing the nation’s recurring cycle of floods and droughts.  The demonstration project will evaluate flood and drought forecasting in the Huaihe River Basin below the Zhengyangguan Monitoring Station.  The grant illustrates USTDA’s ongoing commitment to assist China in enhancing its health and environmental protections.

The grant was conferred in a signing ceremony held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Water Resources in Beijing.  Mr. Craig Allen, Minister Counselor for the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service in Beijing, signed the grant agreement on behalf of the U.S. Government.  Ms. Liu Yaming, Director General of the Hydrology Bureau at the Ministry of Water Resources, signed on behalf of the Grantee.

In order to decrease human and economic losses caused by annual floods and droughts, particularly in the Huaihe River region, the Chinese Government is seeking to implement a national flood control and drought relief command system.  The project will require the installation of a national flood management system, consisting of 5 subsystems:  data collection, communications, computer network, decision-support, and new-generation weather radar application.  When completed, the system will enable Chinese authorities to monitor meteorological and flood zone conditions, provide adequate advanced warning to threatened populations, and coordinate local, regional and central authority response.

The USTDA-funded technical assistance will support a pilot program that will demonstrate state-of-the-art flood and drought forecasting using computer simulations.  It will also evaluate the technical, financial and environmental impacts of implementation of the project on China.  In addition to the USTDA grant, the Hewlett-Packard Company of Palo Alto, California, which has been selected as the prime contractor for the demonstration project, will contribute additional resources toward the technical assistance program. 

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency advances economic development and U.S. commercial interests in developing and middle-income countries.  The agency funds various forms of technical assistance, feasibility studies, training, orientation visits and business workshops that support the development of a modern infrastructure and a fair and open trading environment.  USTDA’s strategic use of foreign assistance funds to support sound investment policy and decision-making in host countries creates an enabling environment for trade, investment and sustainable economic development.  In carrying out its mission, USTDA gives emphasis to economic sectors that may benefit from U.S. exports of goods and services.