Asia Briefs: Chinese to audit $366b in special funds

Chinese to audit $366b in special funds

BEIJING • China's top economic planner is set to audit 1.8 trillion yuan (S$366 billion) in special construction funds that were part of a massive programme to help stabilise the economy.

The move by the National Development and Reform Commission comes as Beijing is ramping up fiscal spending and launching a flurry of infrastructure projects to support growth, which has cooled to 25-year lows.

REUTERS

Critically endangered primates sighted

HANOI • A new group of critically endangered primates has been spotted in Vietnam, raising hopes that they may not be wiped out in the next decade as scientists had feared.

The Delacour's langur is indigenous to Vietnam, but numbers have dwindled in recent years because of poaching and mining in the country's northern forests.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Taiwanese V-P to visit Vatican next month

TAIPEI • Taiwan's Vice-President will visit the Vatican, its sole diplomatic ally in Europe, next month.

Mr Chen Chien-jen will be the special envoy for President Tsai Ing-wen, whom the Vatican invited for a Sept 4 ceremony to declare Mother Teresa a saint.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 25, 2016, with the headline Asia Briefs: Chinese to audit $366b in special funds. Subscribe